Now you get to shop for your meal plan. You really want to maximize your savings at the grocery store as much as you can, especially since the cost of groceries have gone up so much in the last couple of years. This is why you have created the 4 weeks worth of menus at a time.
First, you need to get out a notebook or paper or whatever you find convenient to write down and store your shopping lists. For this, I find it easiest to use a notebook that I use specifically for this purpose.
Now take out your first menu plan for the first week. Gather all the recipes that you are going to use and write down all the ingredients you will need for all those recipes. Next, gather all the recipes for week 2 and write those ingredients separately from week 1. Then, repeat for weeks 3 and 4.
Get the sale papers out for the grocery stores that you frequent and look to see if there are any grocery items, meat, and produce that are included in the specials. Compare prices, collect your coupons (if you use them) to make sure you are making good choices.
I always purchase the items that I need for the week that is coming up. I also check to see if there are any grocery items or meats that are on special that are included in the next 3 weeks. I want to be sure I take advantage of the best prices. I only buy fresh produce for the week coming up unless it something I know will keep , like onions or potatoes.
That's it. It's a lot to get started, but once you get the initial preparation done it is so easy to maintain. Good luck!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Putting Together a Meal Plan
Now for the fun part: putting the meals on a calendar. Now, you can set this up however you want, but what I do is use a word processing document for storage purposes. You could use a notebook, or an actual calender or even something else. I just find that it is easier to keep it on my computer.
Initially, you will need to make 4 weeks worth of meal plans, but after that you will just need to add only 1 week at a time. You can set up your document like this times four.
Week 1
Breakfast
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Lunch
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Dinner
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Snacks
Once you have set up your document, you are ready to start filling in your meal plans by transferring the completed meals in bold from your grid to your document. You can have as many snacks as you want. My family only needs two snacks for the whole week, but your family may require less or more.
As you transfer your meals, gt out your calendar and see what kind of activities are coming up for your family. If your son is having a cub scout pack meeting one night, that will mean that dinner needs to be early and quick. Perhaps you have planned to meet a girlfriend for lunch for her birthday one day during the week. Take all of those kinds of things into account and put them into your meal plan so that you can plan accordingly.
As you transfer your completed meals to your document, you want to make sure that you don't plan two of the same types of entrees on the same day or too close together. For instance, you wouldn't want to have soup for lunch one day and soup for dinner on the same day or even soup one day for lunch and soup the next day for dinner. That would be too close together.
That is basically it! The next post will explain why you need four weeks of meal plans at a time. I'll give you a hint. It has to do with shopping.
Initially, you will need to make 4 weeks worth of meal plans, but after that you will just need to add only 1 week at a time. You can set up your document like this times four.
Week 1
Breakfast
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Lunch
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Dinner
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Snacks
Once you have set up your document, you are ready to start filling in your meal plans by transferring the completed meals in bold from your grid to your document. You can have as many snacks as you want. My family only needs two snacks for the whole week, but your family may require less or more.
As you transfer your meals, gt out your calendar and see what kind of activities are coming up for your family. If your son is having a cub scout pack meeting one night, that will mean that dinner needs to be early and quick. Perhaps you have planned to meet a girlfriend for lunch for her birthday one day during the week. Take all of those kinds of things into account and put them into your meal plan so that you can plan accordingly.
As you transfer your completed meals to your document, you want to make sure that you don't plan two of the same types of entrees on the same day or too close together. For instance, you wouldn't want to have soup for lunch one day and soup for dinner on the same day or even soup one day for lunch and soup the next day for dinner. That would be too close together.
That is basically it! The next post will explain why you need four weeks of meal plans at a time. I'll give you a hint. It has to do with shopping.
Setting Up the Rotation Grid
What I am about to introduce to you is not rocket science. It's a simple table set up in whatever word processing application you use. Mine is set up using 7 cells in a row and the rows can go on to infinity if you like. You will actually need 4 documents with a simple table in each one: One for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinners, and one for desserts/snacks.
Now what in the world am I going to use a table for, you ask? Well, I'm going to tell you. You are going to enter one complete meal per cell. To do this, start with your first resource mentioned in the previous post Getting Started with Meal Planning - Resources. For example, in my list Cookbooks is my first resource. I use Cookbooks first because it is a place where I can pull a variety of meal types from one place and come up with complete meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. It's a good resource to use when getting started with your meal plan.
As you enter the recipe name in the grid, don't forget to note where the recipe came from. For example:
Now what in the world am I going to use a table for, you ask? Well, I'm going to tell you. You are going to enter one complete meal per cell. To do this, start with your first resource mentioned in the previous post Getting Started with Meal Planning - Resources. For example, in my list Cookbooks is my first resource. I use Cookbooks first because it is a place where I can pull a variety of meal types from one place and come up with complete meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. It's a good resource to use when getting started with your meal plan.
As you enter the recipe name in the grid, don't forget to note where the recipe came from. For example:
Lasagna (Betty Crocker Quick and Easy)
Salad
French Bread
You could even put the page number if you think you need it. When you have a complete meal put together on the grid, bold it. That way you know that meal has all the elements that you require. Enter all the recipes that you want from whatever resource you are using at the time, even though you may not be able to put a complete meal together right now. It is possible that you will find something to match up with it using the next resource.
You are done meal planning for the week. I only add to my meal plan grid once a week, usually on Friday. However, you can choose whichever day of the week that suits you best. Friday just works for me. The next week you will add to your grid using the next resource on your list. As you put together complete meals and bold them, you may have them scattered all around your grid. For the sake of organization, I move all the bolded meals to the top of the grid. Once you take a complete meal from the grid, delete it. I do this for breakfast lunch and dinner and also desserts and snacks.
Now, I could go into some more details about how I tweak my grid, but I don't want to overwhelm you for now. We will get to that later.
Salad
French Bread
You could even put the page number if you think you need it. When you have a complete meal put together on the grid, bold it. That way you know that meal has all the elements that you require. Enter all the recipes that you want from whatever resource you are using at the time, even though you may not be able to put a complete meal together right now. It is possible that you will find something to match up with it using the next resource.
You are done meal planning for the week. I only add to my meal plan grid once a week, usually on Friday. However, you can choose whichever day of the week that suits you best. Friday just works for me. The next week you will add to your grid using the next resource on your list. As you put together complete meals and bold them, you may have them scattered all around your grid. For the sake of organization, I move all the bolded meals to the top of the grid. Once you take a complete meal from the grid, delete it. I do this for breakfast lunch and dinner and also desserts and snacks.
Now, I could go into some more details about how I tweak my grid, but I don't want to overwhelm you for now. We will get to that later.
Getting Started With Meal Planning - Resources
When I was trying to figure this whole meal planning thing out, I was afraid that I would get in a rut of making the same things over and over again. You can certainly do that, but I like a variety of foods and I like to try out new recipes and techniques often. And I do have some family favorites that we like to repeat regularly. So, I had to figure out a way to get what I wanted and stick to a plan.
The first thing I did was to make a list of resources. By resources I mean the places I usually depend on for recipes. Somehow I keep adding to my list so my rotation keeps getting spread out. The following list is what I use, but it is just an example of some of the resources that are available. You can customize your own list.
The first thing I did was to make a list of resources. By resources I mean the places I usually depend on for recipes. Somehow I keep adding to my list so my rotation keeps getting spread out. The following list is what I use, but it is just an example of some of the resources that are available. You can customize your own list.
- Cookbook - Like most people who like to cook, I have a lot of cookbooks, so I just pick one (and only one) cookbook each time it comes around in my rotation and choose recipes from that ONE cookbook.
- Regular Meals - These are the recipes that you have made before and liked well enough to write down wherever you save them. You may have only made these meals once, but if you wrote it down, they are worth making again on a regular basis. These are not to be confused with Favorites.
- Favorites - These are the recipes in your head. The ones that you have in your head that don't need to be written down. For example, gumbo....it's my husbands recipe actually and he taught me how to make it. I have made it so many times that I don't need any guidance.
- Leftovers - I have a document with a list of ways I can reinvent leftovers from a variety of things. We are just a family of 3 so if I make a big roast or something, it is nice to make the leftover roast into something new the next day. I put 10 recipes in the rotation, but I have to make sure that I make a notation that this is a leftover recipe for scheduling it a day after I make the main ingredient.
- New Magazine - I am way behind on reading my magazines. they are neatly stacked behind closed doors in my family room bookcase. When it is time to use recipes from a new magazine in the rotation, I pick the next magazine in line from the bottom of the stack. I take a piece of paper and pencil and write down the recipe and page number of the recipe on the paper. When I am done, I stick the paper in the front of the magazine and place the magazine on a shelf in my kitchen where I can find it.
- Old Magazine - You don't think I throw them away do you? Well, I need to, probably, after I have gotten all I can out of them. I use the same method as I do with new magazines, so I am methodically getting rid of old magazines as I rotate through.
- Foodnetwork - I have a recipe file on Foodnetwork. It is a tool I use to save recipes that I see on their website from their shows. I only use 10 at a time in my rotation.
- Email - At one time, I would send myself emails with recipes that I like. I just store them there, but that just makes me have a lot of email. So I apply about 10 recipes at each rotation. I delete them after I have made them.
- Blogs - I'm addicted to blogs. I have bookmarked a lot of them. I pick one blog and select 10 recipes to use from that blog.
- Pioneer Woman Website - Technically, this is a blog, but I separate it out because I just love her food so much and she is constantly adding new things. Again, I only select 10 culprits.
- Tasty Kitchen - I love Tasty Kitchen! So it's 10 again for the rotation. I like even numbers!
- Recipe Bookmarks - These are all the recipes that I have saved to my bookmarks from around the web. Would you like to guess how many I use in a rotation?.....10!
- Once a Month Cooking - I have a list of recipes I would like to try to consider for freezing. If the family likes it, then it has passed the test and will be placed on my regular meals rotation with a notation to double, triple, etc. 10 please.
- Pinterest - My newest addiction. I have lots of pins for food. I select 10 for the rotation.
Welcome!
Welcome to Stick to the Plan! I am starting a journey. A journey to hold myself accountable to meal planning for my family. In the past, I would haphazardly construct a meal plan, shop for that meal plan, but then end up only following some or none of the meal plan. Sometimes I wouldn't feel like meal planning at all. And sometimes I just didn't feel like cooking or planning or thinking about just to end up eating out.
Well, NO MORE! It took sitting down with my husband to determine how much money we were spending eating out to make me realize that the money spent on eating out and buying food for a nonexistent meal plan was not good on many different levels. So, I have made a commitment to make a meal plan and stick to it. This is not to say that sometimes things happen and preparing a meal at home is just not possible plus there are times when eating out should be planned into the schedule. I also need to have some accountability to myself so that I won't fall off the wagon (or at least not too much). Blogging about my attempts at meal planning will help me do that.
I have taken a lot of time and effort into perfecting my method for meal planning. I hope you can find some inspiration, recipes, and tips that can help you along in your journey for meal planning for your family as well.
Well, NO MORE! It took sitting down with my husband to determine how much money we were spending eating out to make me realize that the money spent on eating out and buying food for a nonexistent meal plan was not good on many different levels. So, I have made a commitment to make a meal plan and stick to it. This is not to say that sometimes things happen and preparing a meal at home is just not possible plus there are times when eating out should be planned into the schedule. I also need to have some accountability to myself so that I won't fall off the wagon (or at least not too much). Blogging about my attempts at meal planning will help me do that.
I have taken a lot of time and effort into perfecting my method for meal planning. I hope you can find some inspiration, recipes, and tips that can help you along in your journey for meal planning for your family as well.
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