i get asked a lot, especially now that i put recipes on my blog, how i plan my meals. i cook dinner every night of the week (with a few exceptions, of course) and take saturday and sunday off. to keep my mind sane and avoid the grocery store as much as possible, i plan all of the week's meals and shopping list the week before.
for example, last week i planned out this week's menu and had my grocery list ready to go by friday. i shopped for groceries on saturday and haven't had to go to the store for anything this week!
the steps in the process...
- my meal inspirations come from 2 places: my cookbooks and pinterest. [follow my food board here!] if you follow me on pinterest, you already know that i pin quite a lot of recipes. i try not to pin anything that i don't actually plan on making, so normally if i pin something, i go ahead and write the name of the meal down on my calendar to schedule it for a particular day. right now i've got all of our dinners planned for about 3 weeks. i also make some of my own cookbook recipes that are old favorites.
- when a week starts winding down, i look on my calendar at the next week's schedule, go back to the pin or my cookbook, and make my grocery list, which i type up as a note in my iphone. i always separate the list by departments: produce first, then meats, then boxed/dry/room temp "middle of the store" food, then frozen. that way i never have to run back to a department because i forgot something.
- i generally grocery shop on saturdays when i'm home or mondays after work when we're gone for the weekend. if any vegetables look like they're on the verge of death, i might move the meal that uses that vegetable to monday or tuesday and switch something else to later in the week.
notes:
- i am a tad bit ocd about my meal planning process but i can't tell you how much time, energy, and aggravation it saves me. i hate leaving work at 5:00 and not knowing what i'm going to cook for dinner! planning meals this way has saved us a ton of money and calories, since we eat out much less when i have a plan for the week.
- i'm also trying to start planning new dessert recipes. we don't eat dessert at home very often, but i love baking and taking sweets to work. we have lots of dessert-lovers, so i think they enjoy it! i don't bake on a regular schedule, but i'd like to start trying new recipes more often. to do that, i started putting new dessert recipes on my calendar on monday of each week. that way i'll see it and plan to buy the ingredients, then have all week to give it a try. i'm starting that in 2 weeks, so we'll see how it goes!
- side dishes are not my strong point. i'm always trying new main course recipes, but my side dishes are fairly standard. i usually try to have a carb and a veggie if i'm just serving meat as the main course. my old standbys are sauteed green beans or asparagus and cous cous or pasta salad. i have been trying lately to get a little more creative with my side dishes, but in case i'm lacking that week, i always make sure i have a good selection of frozen or canned vegetables on hand that can be cooked quickly.
- i tried making freezer meals a few months ago. i know that's a pretty popular meal planning process, but it didn't work out for me. while i can spare an hour to grocery shop every weekend and a few minutes during the week to find new recipes, i rarely have a weekend afternoon with nothing to do when i can do some mass grocery shopping and make a ton of recipes to freeze. we also have a fairly small freezer. finally, i found that lots of freezer recipes left the food tasting a little too watery and borderline cold. i never figured out the right balance of temperature, cooking time, and sauce so i gave that up awhile back. i think it's a great option if it works for you though!
- a great side benefit of meal planning is that the husband is always impressed :)
i hope you give meal planning a chance if you don't do it already! it's so worth the time you put into it!
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