There seems to be two camps of people with regards to meal planning - those that do, and those that don't. I fall into the category that does and it has honestly changed the way I shop, cook and eat.
I used to just wing it. I'd have a rough idea of some things we might eat that day and I'd amble my way around the supermarket chucking things into the trolley willy-nilly. It wasn't an entirely successful method and often I'd either overspend, things would go to waste or we'd have nothing in for dinner!
Since starting to meal plan a couple of years ago I have become a lot more regimented and have a little routine. Sundays are online grocery shop day and I have it delivered on a Monday. I'll always earmark some time at the weekend to sit and look through my (*cough* extensive) cookery book collection, food magazines, recipe files and of course other people's blogs for inspiration. I might already have a few ideas of what I want to cook and sometimes I am just looking for something different. I'll print off/copy the recipes and write a shopping list from these that I can then go through when filling up my virtual shopping basket. The recipes plus the meal plan then get placed into my new command centre. I keep all the olds plans so I can look back for more inspiration.
Wow. I have admitted publicly just how obsessive I am about some things.
On average I cook at least two brand new meals a week - I love trying new things but this is where it gets a bit tricky as Mr M isn't nearly so willing to try new things so I have to carefully select recipes that I know we'll both enjoy. Fortunately so far, Mr M hasn't hated anything I've made although he does sometimes offer some constructive criticism - normally relating to an excess of chunky cooked tomato or stringy onion on his plate, two of his particular aversions.
Taking my anal-retentiveness to another level, yesterday I made myself a planning sheet. Up until now the planning has been done of scraps of paper - but NO MORE! Gleaning inspiration from American blogs and websites I created this...
Okay, green and purple may not be the prettiest of colour matches but they match my Paperchase binder, okay?
Meal-planning for the week means that there's always food, I know what I am doing each day and I don't overspend on things I don't need. I don't stick rigidly to the days because sometimes you might not feel like what you have planned for, but it's okay, on those days I just live life on the edge and stray from the meal planner - I might even *whispers* switch the order of the meals around!
So tell me about your meal-planning strategy? Do you try lots of new meals out? Do you look for inspiration? or possibly do just have more of an exciting life than I do?
love & kisses
I used to meal plan rigorously, including noting dates when only one of us would be in but then we got less poor and more lax.
ReplyDeleteIt annoys me though as it means that food does indeed go to waste and we spend way too much money at the co-op.
One thing that made it more lax was that we stopped shopping together and started taking turns. I may see if we can set it up for me to lead on food shopping and meal planning.
I somehow missed your command centre post. I think I need one of those in my life. I shall make one after my next pay day.
Thanks for the timely reminder. I calculated recently that we spend up to £30 per week at the coop since we stopped meal planning and that was our old weekly food budget.
I meal plan! Not as meticulously as you do, and I admit that I often cook the same things, but it really saves money. We've slipped out of the habit in the past and food gets wasted. So when I make my shopping list I look at what we already have, and try to plan meals around that, so it minimises what I buy and uses up what I have in the cupboard. I think it means we eat more healthily too - both veggie so we eat a lot of pulses and such. It's definitely the way to do it, especially as I hate throwing food out.
ReplyDeleteMrs M - you and I were clearly meant to meet each other! I always meal plan, write a shopping list based on it AND I have a wee A4 planner with meals and snacks on it stuck on my kitchen wall. Admittedly it isn't as pretty as yours though... :) I did that as a result of starting a Rosemary Conley diet plan, and because I am still losing weight (although not with RC anymore) I put my weight loss at the bottom of the page too :) It stops me winging it and eating too much, or being really hungry but not knowing what to cook and ending up getting chinese.
ReplyDeleteMy fiance loves it as his mum makes him the same thing on the same night each week e.g. Monday is curry, Tuesday steak and rice etc. So he'll be very easy to please when we are married!
All hail menu planning!!!!!
That's a timely post for me.
ReplyDeleteI used to meal plan. I started when I first went back to work & my mum was helping with childcare, & the kids were at nursery. It was really important in making sure they ate well.
Plus my head was full of work stuff & trips round the supermarket resulted in cupboards full of stuff that made mrbird shake his head in bewilderment.
I got lazy when the girls started having school dinners, which I think are pretty good. However, I've started again after our food spending got silly. I really need to write up a planner though, as Mrbird got a right earful the other day for cooking outside of a plan that only existed in my head :)
Mrs M.... can I just clarify for your own peace of mind that when I said "meet" each other, I meant virtually online. I did not mean I would be tracking you down and arriving on your doorstep to compare menu plans.....! Just wanted to make that clear... Me = not a stalker!
ReplyDeleteGUTTED!
ReplyDeleteYou would have been my first ever stalker :-(
Haha awwww well if you insist.... Just email me with your full name and address, DOB, bank details and a few family photos for me to make a montage on my wall and I'll be all set...... ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a meal planner. I'm not one of those people who can pull random things out of the fridge and invent something there and then. I must have a recipe and all the ingredients to with it! Like you I sift through my books and magazines on a weekly basis, create a list of meals for the week and build my shopping list from there. I'm really liking your command centre and meal planner - I think I might have to upgrade from my usual scraps of paper!
ReplyDeleteI meal plan, as I found that when I wasn't, I ended up buying way too much and things were getting wasted every week. I find that sometimes at the moment I get stuck for ideas, but I do have a stack of cookbooks and magazines so I just need to take a bit of time to look through them before I sit down to do the (online) shop. I write the plan on the big blackboard in our kitchen, which is great as we can both refer to it easily, but the downside is it gets rubbed away each week so I don't have a record to inspire me. In my dream world I'd make a spreadsheet so that I could easily reference previous meals and sort by month or main ingredient to inspire my future planning. One day...
ReplyDeleteI definitely meal plan. I have only been doing it for about 6 months, but it has changed our family dynamics for the better. No more stressing out about what to make at 5:30 any more! We have a few articles on Deviantly Domesticated about meal planning if you would like to check them out. And feel free to contribute an article too!
ReplyDeleteEmily
Deviantly Domesticated Team
http://stephaniehillberry.com/2011/03/february-meal-planning-%E2%80%93-lessons-learned/
Bit οf a failure to communicate, there is nothing wrοng with bеing civil.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to visit my blog post - Unsecured Long Term Loans
Ρerfect short іntroduction, made me rеad
ReplyDeleteit all. Mine alωays seem to drag оn, youгs is really ρunchу.
Αlso νisit mу blog ... loan company