How to Make a Meal plan & Money Saving Tips
Planners help you stay organized!
Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. Today I want to talk to you about how I make my meal plans, and how you can make your own weekly, biweekly or monthly meal plan. It is not the most exciting topic, but knowing how to make a meal plan will save you time, money and help ensure you stick to making healthy choices through the week. There are four basic steps to making a meal plan; reviewing your week, selecting your recipes, shopping for ingredients and prepping.
I like to keep track of what I frequently run out of and how often. This really helps when you are meal planning and shopping for multiple weeks, so that you do not end up making extra trips to the grocery store. If you have never shopped for the long term it might be better to start with planning for a week, then move up so that you can keep track of what you and your family need throughout the month.
Review Your Week
The first part of making a meal plan is to know how many weeks you are planning in advance. Is it for a week, two weeks or a whole month? Do you cook every day, or do you usually end up having take out once or twice a week? At the end of the of a typical week is your refrigerator full of leftovers? This helps you know how many meals you need to be planning for.
Planning for a week of meals is fairly simple, but you want to be sure you are taking the weeks events into account when meal planning. If you are headed into a more hectic week plan to make simpler meals; such as chicken pitas or tuna melts severed with a salad or potato wedges. Sheet pan meals are perfect for busy weekdays, and most can be prepped days before cooking.
If larger pieces of meat are on sale in your area you can use one cut of meat for more than one meal. For example, if I have a roasted chicken as a main dish during the week I might use the leftovers to make chicken noodle soup; utilizing the roasted bones and leftover meat.
Make sure you are looking though your local grocery stores’ weekly ads and looking through your freezer before making your meal plan. Many times we put extra meat and vegetables into our freezers with the good intention of using it for another meal, but the next time we need chicken we buy more instead of checking if we already have it.
Once you have a good idea of what is on sale, what you already have in your freezer/refrigerator/pantry it is time to plan out what you want to make for the week.
Picking a Recipe
Now you have to think of how many nights each week you need to cook. For a lot of us it is 5 days a week, but you know what is best for you and your families lifestyle. So, if you need to cook more or less that is totally fine! Some people like making large batches of one meal, and eating it through the week. That takes a lot of the guess work out of meal planning and shopping. I am someone who gets bored with the same meal over and over, so I like to plan for new meals every night I am cooking.
I like to pick one or two new recipes to try out per week, and the rest of the week I make meals where I do not necessarily need a recipe. For me this is a good balance, but as you meal plan you will find the right balance for you and your family.
Look for recipes with overlapping ingredients, as this helps cut down on food waste and saves you money. For instance if two recipes call for ground beef you can buy one larger pack, and split it into two meals.
After you pick your meals you will need to make a grocery list. Be sure to double check your kitchen, so that you do not double up on ingredients you already have.
Shopping for Ingredients
When writing a grocery list I like to group things into departments. This makes it much easier to shop, and helps ensure that I do not have to backtrack through the store or possibly miss something. I also write out my list in the order I like to walk through the store. I know this might seem like a bit much, but it really does help make my shopping trip quick and efficient.
Never shop on an empty stomach, or without a grocery list, and don’t buy it just because it is on sale. These are my holy grail rules when it comes to grocery shopping, and they make a bigger impact than you would think. That is not to say that if you see a good deal you should not purchase it. I usually like to leave a little wiggle room for “extras” when I can.
Meal Prepping
You did it! You made a meal plan, a shopping list and now you have a kitchen full of indigents. Now what? It is time to meal prep! Now, I do not like to meal prep on the day I actually shop, and by the time I get home I am a bit over the whole thing to be honest. So, I try to plan the easiest meal possible for that day, and prep the next day.
How do you food prep? Well, I like to start with breaking down large cuts of meal and labeling them, then putting them in either the refrigerator or the freezer depending on how quickly I intend to use them. Do not forget to label freezer items. You don’t want to end up playing “what the heck is this?” in a few weeks!
Then, I move on to produce. I make sure everything is rinsed, then I separate them into bags or containers. If I am making a few meals with diced bell peppers I dice them, and put them into a container. This is the same with onions, carrots or really any vegetable I will be needing through the week. This really helps during the week when I may be short on time.
Cutting Down on Food Waste
Save trimmed vegetable scraps in the freezer
Save roasted chicken bones in the freezer
Make your own stock using scraps
Freeze leftovers
Make big batch meals like chicken noodle soup, lasagna and enchiladas, save half in the freezer
Ultra pasteurized dairy products have a longer shelf life.
Use leftover chicken to make chicken salad for lunches
Use leftover meat for stir fry (cabbage, carrots, onions, celery)
Shred larger cuts of meat to use in tacos, salads and soups.
Produce Shelf Life
Apples: 4 weeks in pantry, 2 months refrigerated
Potatoes: 6 weeks in the pantry, 4 months in the refrigerated
Celery: (wrap in foil) 4 weeks
Cabbage: Don't wash until ready to use, store in plastic wrap, 4 weeks
Garlic: Dark dry place up to 6 months
Onions: Mesh bag 6 weeks, longer if refrigerated
Carrots: whole, uncut, 5 weeks
Meat/Meat Substitute Self Life
Tofu: 2-3 months unopened, can be frozen
Tempeh: 5-7 days past the sell by date
Meat: Break down larger cuts, freeze flat 3-4 months
Pantry, Freezer and Fridge Essentials
These are items I like to keep stocked in my house. This helps me spend less money on weekly shopping trips, and ensures that I am ready for an emergency should one arise.
Non-Perishables
Dried beans and grains: quinoa, lentils, barley, red/ black/ white beans, barley, millet.
Canned tomatoes
Coconut milk
Tuna
Peanut butter
Jam
Flour
Oatmeal
Cornmeal
Sugar
Salt
Baking powder
Yeast
Oil
Snacks
Tea
Condiments
Bread
Pasta
Ramen
Soup
Canned fruit
Dried fruit
Frozen
Vegetables
Meat
Prepared foods
Dairy
Butter
Ultra pasteurized milk (longer shelf life)
Milk alternative
Eggs
Cheese
Here are links to my planners! These really help me stay on top of things, I highly recommend using planners when meal planning, being able to see your whole month in front of you is so helpful.
Recipe Keeper: https://www.michaels.com/recipe-keepsake-spiral-planner-by-recollections/10656399.html
Yearly Planner: https://www.michaels.com/medium-marble-hourly-spiral-planner-by-recollections/10656391.html
Menu Planner: https://www.michaels.com/menu-spiral-planner-by-recollections/10655375.html
Pens: https://www.michaels.com/gelly-roll-moonlight-06-daylight-fine-point-gel-pen-set/10635583.html
https://www.michaels.com/gelly-roll-moonlight-06-twilight-fine-point-gel-pens/10635591.html
