I try to meal plan before going to the grocery store, but it doesn't always work out. I'm curious to see how others do this, and if you have any tips that are helpful. I would love to hear them!
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I'm starting this because I always go to the store with a list and leave with nothing on there, have no food when DH is home, and I eat out a lot when it's just me.
I sat down and wrote down meals for this whole week: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am doing some old favorites and trying some new meals from Pinterest. I then made my grocery list with everything I need on there. I'm checking my cabinets to make sure what I have and don't have. Then, I'm going to get my coupons together. I could have gone tonight, but decided to wait until tomorrow morning so I am not rushed. The whole point of me doing this is to make sure I have stuff at home and not buy extra things.
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@Jennimac: This is how I feel, that's why I desperately need help with this! I go there, and get home and have a bunch of random things that I can't make anything with...so frustrating.
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@Bao: Yes! I can't tell you how bad I feel whenever DH is here and I"m like, "Yeah....there isn't anything really here for you to eat, etc." He is really excited for our meals this week. I decided that I'll always have PBJ as an option and then some lunch meat.
I'll let you know how this week goes. I feel a bit better going back to work with a plan. I know that the week before Christmas break, I was a total wreck....spending money here and there, eating horribly, etc.
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@Jennimac: Let me know how it goes! I'd love to hear some ideas of what meals you are thinking of doing too. Are those budget friendly as well, I'm assuming?
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I usually shop every Monday, so Sunday night I'll flip through cookbooks and go through pinterest to figure out what I want to make for the week. I only really worry about dinners, lunch is leftovers and I always have simple foods that lo likes around like organic turkey hotdogs, pasta, grilled cheese, etc if there are no leftovers. And we tend to eat the same things for breakfast.
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@Bao: Well, I think they are pretty budget friendly....right now I looked at what Kroger had on sale and planned some meals around that.
Here is our week:
M-different appetizers to snack on throughout the day and night: chili's salsa and queso (found recipes on Pinterest), smokies with bacon/brown sugar, nutella squares
T-Bourbon chicken, salad, rice
W-I'll eat out because I'll be traveling, but I'll use a gift card I have
Th-chicken and dumplings (crockpot)
F-Pork loin with honey and apples, sweet potato fries, salad
Sat-chicken tenders, homemade fries, and Cane's sauce (this awesome restaurant that I love--recipe from Pinterest)
Sun-leftovers of whatever is left.Chicken/Pork loin/cream cheese/cheese/biscuits are all on sale at Kroger this week.
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@Bao: Forgot to add--chicken and dumplings I've cooked before. the Bourbon chicken, pork loin, and Cane's sauce will be new. I've cooked pork loin in the crockpot before but I usually put in barbecue sauce. I used to cook it in an oven bag, too.
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@Jennimac: You've got a great menu going for this week! Good job. We have a lot of odds and ends laying around, I really need to make something with all of that to get rid of it and then next week will start the meal planning process!! Thanks for sharing your meal ideas
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I try to plan my meals on Sunday and I write them down. Typically, I look in my kitchen, see what I need and don't have and then make a weekly shopping list.
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I have a notebook I write meals for the week in, then write out what we have versus what I need to buy, along with any additional needs.
Meals then go on chalkboard in kitchen and we are set for the week!
We usually try something different 1-2x a week, but most of the time it's usual staple meals, we're not too adventurous.
We put a lot of meat in the freezer in the fall and I stock up on staples when they're on sale, and then I round things out from there!
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I do a meal plan for dinners of the week (Monday through Friday) and try to grocery shop on Sundays.
We buy a lot of meat on sale or in bulk so we check the freezer before we shop and then fill in what we need. We have a pretty basic rotation of meals.
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I plan dinner for the week and make a list of all the ingredients I need. Then i buy them, plus whatever staples we need (eggs, oatmeal, milk, oj, etc). We make enough for dinner to have enough for lunch leftovers. Breakfast is always on our own. We usually have a 'scrounge' night where we just wing it or find something in the cupboards to eat. It helps us go through some leftovers or frozen food. And we buy food on the weekend.
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I try to stick to the same idea each week:
M: Chicken
T: Tacos
W: Pasta
Th: Beef
F: Pizza
Sa: Casserole
Su: Leftovers or one of the other night items if we had leftovers another night. I might also put together a casserole for another night that coming week.I will buy frozen veggies so we always have some veggie in the house. I keep frozen peas and corn in there to use in casseroles or other meals. I will have frozen broccoli, green beans and spinach in the freezer for our side of veggies.
Sometimes I'll use the recipe on the side of the rice or pasta box to give me an idea of what to cook for dinner. One pot meals are my favorite - rice, chicken, veggies - all dumped into one pan and cooked up on the stove.
I've started emailing myself recipes that sound easy and ones that I can make on the weekend, that we can eat on a weeknight. This makes things easier when I only have about an hour after we get home at night before we have to start our lo's bedtime routine. I'm making a conscious effort to do this now with the new year on us, especially since our lo will soon start eating with us (in a few months she will move on from just purees) and I want to make sure we have a system going.
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@mediagirl: I like the idea of sticking to the same type of thing every night, as the main ingredient. Good idea!
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I sit down at the beginning of the week, figure out what we have going on, and fill in my whiteboard menu on our fridge. We also use the our groceries app for the grocery list, which is nice because you can add things from a phone, computer, or iPad. Our menu this week looks like this:
Monday: potluck for NYE
Tuesday: leftover Chinese takeout
Wednesday: lasagna with salad (I will freeze unbaked portions or it for later)
Thursday: pulled pork, cole slaw, and sweet potato fries (pulled pork is premise Jack Daniels kind)
Friday: homemade deep dish pizza and saladOne of my favorite go to dinners is salad bar night. I will bring home salad fixings from the salad bar at our grocery store (which is awesome!) and we will make some chicken breast too. Usually there is enough for me to take for lunch too!
We need to get a lot better about eating leftovers...DH needs to be reminded over and over.
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Premade not premise! Silly iPad.
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We are terrible at this!! We always try to meal plan for a week but then we don't fancy the meals we've planned when it comes down to it and then the food goes out of date! We need to be more disciplined!
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I meal plan every Sunday, and go shopping that afternoon/early evening.
I sit down with the grocery sale papers, see if there are any good deals, then I check the weather - b/c there's nothing worse than planning soup or something hearty and it ending up being 70 or something. And I try to take into consideration if one of us will be traveling or at a work function that night during the week.
I come up with some meal ideas based on what we have on hand/what's on sale, and then I make my grocery list.
The meal plan goes on the whiteboard calendar on the fridge - so DH doesn't call me every night saying "What's for dinner?" (That's the idea anyway...he still does it.) I make sure to work in some nights for leftovers too.
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