Monday, January 7, 2013
Meal planning
Meal planning
Oh my. I didn't realize how hard meal planning can be. I looked up a lot of websites and now I'm turning to you.
Here is what I have so far:
I made three lists, quick, favorites and new. Then I tried to write down everything that I've cooked and put into those categories. But, now I look at those lists and my eyes are glazing over because I need to make a plan so that I use the list in a budget friendly way. Such as buying in bulk, portioning the items and freezing them, thus making the meals easier.
From my studies I think I should buy a freezer and a lot of ziplock bags. I know one of my sister in law buys large amounts of beef then cooks it with peppers and onions and freezes it for future dinners.
I feel over my head with meal planning...
What are the essentials you need in your house?
How do you make all of this budget friendly?
The successes of today are...I made the beds, cleaned up the front room, 1 load of laundry, dishes and washed the countertops. Sometimes I feel like after I do something homemaker like I did my wifely duty only to be reminded that the day isn't over and there is more to do. It sort of feels a little depressing.
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You've made a good start. :-) I'm not sure what the store situation is in your area, but when I needed to be really frugal I always checked the sales flyers each week. I'd choose our menu for the week based on what was on sale. If spaghetti is a meal my family likes and pasta sauce, noodles, and ground beef were on sale, I'd buy enough for 6 or so meals. I'd cook all the ground beef with garlic, onions, and (diced, canned) tomatoes and freeze it in quart-sized bags to reheat in jarred sauce or with taco seasoning as needed. We'd eat spaghetti once a week. (Sale cycles usually run around 6 weeks.) I planned 6 dinners with a leftovers night for the 7th one. I often eat leftovers for lunch and serve it to the kids, too. Matt would take some for lunch when he remembered to.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at sales and making my menu, I'd check my pantry and fridge and fill up the list with any additional, non-sale items we need for those dinner meals. For breakfast, lunch, and snacks, I'd make sure to add any sale items of foods we like for those. I only buy cereal when it's on sale. I buy a lot (6 weeks' worth) at a time.
A freezer is useful if you are cooking in bulk--especially if you are cooking full meals in bulk to freeze for later use. That's what I've been doing more lately because time is more of an issue than money, but my dietary needs mean I can't use most processed foods. Before I went shopping on Saturday, I made a list of paleo dinner meals we wanted to try this week. I made a list of things I needed to buy for them and added those items to the running list I keep of items we run out of between shopping trips. I've got the kids mostly trained to write down things on the list as they use them up.
Sometimes I use pre-planned menus and shopping lists like the ones you can buy at SavingDinner.com. She has various options, including frugal, paleo, weight loss, etc. I don't like the mailer ones because I find it annoying to have to remember to download and save the file each week. I do like the eBooks, though--especially the freezer ones. If you want to give freezer cooking a try, you might buy one of her 5-for-the-Freezer eBooks.
http://savingdinnershop.com/demo/menus/freezer-menus/five-for-the-freezer/
We like the recipes in Chicken Volume 3 and Ground Beef Volume 2.
Here are some more menu planning ideas:
http://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/5-simple-ways-to-menu-plan/
I totally hear you on the last paragraph. I was just contemplating how easy it is to feel mediocre at being a stay at home mom. So, meal planning. I think it's really personal. For me (when I'm in a good routine) I have meals divided up into categories in an excel sheet, with ethnicity and protein sources listed. Those are kind of a main factor for variety for us, especially when we're being good at eating meat sparingly. So, in one week I may try to mix it up with protein sources: egg, lentil, bean, chicken, tofu, fish, cheese etc...and if I'm really good, those meals also may be Mexican, Greek, Asian, Italian, Indian, American etc etc. Also, In my excel sheet I have the recipe source listed (cookbook and page usually), and how many stars we give it. There's also a bunch of recipes listed that I want to but haven't tried yet. Man, this is motivating me to get in my groove again. We've been having waffles for dinner a little too often lately. Nothing against waffles. :)
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