If you read my guest post on Money Saving Mom's site on Monday, then you know that I have trouble with meal planning. I know that some of you probably have elaborate plans that you have been using for a long time. Just the other day, a younger mommy friend of mine posted her February meal plan on Facebook.
Thankfully, I am now past letting it bother me. I am slowly moving toward accepting the way God made me. I am not a person who gets stressed out easily; I am an optimist to a fault. I used to feel so guilty for not meal planning, or having my grocery list made out according to what's on sale. But no more!! I am embracing my spontaneous self, and making it work for me.
Here's what I have done to help me in the kitchen. First, I had my husband help me come up with all the meals we like to eat. We did meats/main dishes, sides(veggies, salads, etc.), and rice/potatoes. I listed them all out on paper.
Then we made some combinations. For example, meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. We did several combinations like that. I wrote them all out. But that is not what I use to meal plan. Nope. That would be way too structured for me. Seriously, I am near hopeless, y'all.
What I do is make sure I have the fixings for several different meals in the house at all time. We have nearly 200 lbs. of ground venison in our freezer, so I always have the option of tacos, chili, spaghetti, soup, meatloaf, burgers, or a venison/rice dish. I also put away a bushel of tomatoes last summer, so they are available for the sauce. Having these always available saves me on those days when I haven't prepared something else.
It also makes it possible for my daughter to get supper started if I am not home to do so. She can defrost and brown the meat, and get the sauce started so supper will be ready on time. This has saved my bacon many a time!
I usually keep a few cans of salmon in my pantry, and some type of sausage in the freezer. There is always a bag of frozen chicken tenderloins in the big freezer that can be cooked up fairly quickly. I buy a huge tub of brown rice from Costco, along with their big bags of frozen broccoli.
You can see how having the basic ingredients available makes meal prep much easier; even if you don't have a plan for every day of the month, or even the week! I never know what we will be eating on which night, for more reasons than one.
First, my Type B self rebels against a written plan. I can't help it, I just hate following a written schedule. So I leave the nights open.
Second, because we live so far out of town, I never know when we might be late getting home from an appointment, or when a last minute trip into town will trip up my supper plans. Orthodontists, doctors, church stuff, shopping, playgrounds...they can wreak havoc on your supper plans!!
Keeping things kinda' loose helps me not stress over that age old question, "What's for supper, Mom?"
So that is how I get around meal planning. I have ingredients available; I rely on my older kids to help out; and I have at least a loose idea of what we'll be eating in any given week.
It works for me!! Are you a strict meal planner? Or do you like to fly by the seat of your pants like me? Tell me in the comments...
A faithful mom is tender in her touch; kind in her voice; firm in her commands; and absolutely unbendable in her convictions. Every child needs One Faithful Mom.
Welcome!!
I do exactly like you do. I keep a well-stocked pantry and freezer of staples and then I cook from that. I might have Mike run to the store on the way home from work to grab a few ingredients that I may not have on hand. I HATE meal planning and don't like to be told what to eat by the schedule. I like to eat according to what sounds good given our day, my energy level and tastes. It works for me and I think I still have some guilt though that it doesn't look more organized!
ReplyDeleteHa!! I totally had you pinned as a a planner!!
DeleteI imagined it all pretty in one of your notebooks, with pictures to match. Man do I feel better.
And 2013 is the year where we let ALL that false guilt GO. Let it go Aimee!!
P.S.- Hope you guys are on the road to wellness!!
I guess I'm weird. I love having a meal plan. I veer off course often enough to make me feel rebellious and wild, though. ;-)
ReplyDelete2013 is my year of rebellion. I hope I don't go all crazy planner on y'all.
DeleteAlthough i am way Type A, i loosely meal plan. I write ideas on paper and make sure I have all ingredients but somedays just do not go as planned so there has to be room for flexibility. I also find that when I do not have something on paper, we tend to eat out a whole lot more and then I end up feeling super guilty about that, so I always try to have quick meals, whether that be something frozen or just leftovers.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great way to plan! Plenty of room for flexibility!
DeleteI have 7 weeks of meals "planned". Like you we listed all our favorites. I actually only have 5 meals planned per week and 2 days are leftovers. We do keep a nice stock of easy frozen chicken/pizza/burritos and the like for those off days. The meal planning helps me to stay much closer to my shopping budget than when we used to just "wing it". Sometimes that week of meals lasts a week and a half-because of the abundance of leftovers, or unexpected meals out. But having that plan also alleviates a lot of the eating our-which simply kills our budget-even when we stick to the dollar menu at McDs.
ReplyDeleteI do not follow the weeks in order. I look at the calendar and see which week would best fit the current schedule. I have one mostly easy week and the others are a mix of easy and hard...some would classify crock pot meals as easy; however, we do not run it if we are not home-just in case-we do not want a house fire.
I do not shop around for deals and I do not coupon...So I guess I am somewhere in between type A and B. I will stock up on a super sale-like ketchup bottles that I got for 50cents a while back...we're now running low.
Thanks for those great details!! See, that is so helpful...just to see how other women make things work.
DeleteI love this ! In the future, maybe could you share a loose list of staples and go to meals? Thanks! It's gives me hope for myself :)
ReplyDeleteKate
Hmmm, I think it really depends on WHAT your family eats, and where you live. We live in the deep south, so I would think that our foods are fairly regional.
DeleteI am not a gourmet cook, nor do we eat casseroles. So we typically do meat, veggies, and rice or potatoes.
Dessert happens very rarely.
My husband is a hunter, so we always have lots of venison in the freezer. We also eat canned salmon, which I make into patties. We do chicken sometimes, but my hubby is NOT a chicken lover.
We do a lot of tacos, chili, homemade veggie soup, meatballs, spaghetti, ham, salmon patties, stuff like that.
I homeschool our 8 youngest, so making elaborate suppers is just not possible right now!!
I think I discovered what was the worst thing about cooking...for me; and that was not knowing what to make! I didn't like the thought of having my meals all planned out but I was desperate and decided to try a schedule of sorts.
ReplyDeleteUsually Saturday evening or Monday morning I sit down with a pile of my favorite cookbooks and plan our evening meals for a week.
I designed a sheet that has room at the top to jot down a breakfast plan. Next is the supper menu: a place to write the recipe name and which cookbook and what pg. Then I add a few details, like thaw ground beef. I'll also list the items I don't have on hand (so I can get them). Then possibly the most important help to me is I need to jot down what time to start supper...so it's ready on time! I tend to procrastinate!!! :(
Our freezer is well stocked with beef, sausage and chicken and a few other things like veggies, and I have a cold room with enough jars to feed an army, so I try to plan my meals with as little shopping as possible. Wednesday is casserole night, Friday is pizza (made from scratch) night and Saturday we have pasta. Sometimes we have leftovers Wednesday but usually the children and attack leftovers at lunchtime.
This schedule has kept me from always having a variation of the same thing night after night, which was often something that only takes half an hour to prepare. I felt like I was failing my duty as a wife...!
Sometimes I feel like skipping my schedule but I feel so free with not having the nagging question (all day); what am I gonna make for supper?!
For now, this works for me.
Hey Dawn! Love your blog! Making meals for my family has been on-the-job-training. I have found a couple of things that work for me: buy meat in bulk and buy frozen veggies when either Publix or Bi-Lo has BOGO sales. I buy big packages of hamburger (Bi-Lo has it for about $2.79lb. when it's on sale) and cook it all at once. Once it's cooked, I divide it up into freezer bags, about a pound in each bag. Then, when I go to make a pasta dish or tacos, it's already cooked. Just take it out of the bag and defrost it in the microwave. Chicken breasts (on the bone) go on sale at Bi-Lo for $0.99lb. every few weeks and there's about 4 in a package. So, for about $5 I buy those and have my hubby grill them for me (sometimes when he's already grilling something else, so we have the chicken as early as the next dinner). Then, I take the meat off the bone and use my imagination. Favorites in my house are quesadillas, which I can use the hamburger or the chicken for. Chicken salad sandwiches are an easy Sunday lunch when cooking is the last thing on my mind when I don't want to cook after arriving home from church. Eating out is not an every-Sunday option.
ReplyDeleteThis works for me because I am famous for forgetting to take meat out of the freezer and I have found that defrosting cooked hamburger takes minutes vs. thawing meat takes...?
Also...fish. Frozen tilapia, flounder, and cod (I think) go on sale BOGO at Bi-Lo about every 6 weeks or so. The filets are individually packaged inside the bag and very easy to bake. Salt and pepper on the fish. I melt some butter, mix in some panko bread crumbs and herbs and pat the mixture onto the top of the filets to form a crust and bake them. You can eat them like that with a veggie on the side or they make great fish sandwiches, too!
Ok, now I'm hungry. What's for lunch? :D Thanks, Dawn. This blog has been such a blessing in my life, and for many others I'm sure! Carli~
Thanks for making me feel better. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have a hate/love relationship with meal planning. I ordered those words backwards intentionally because, for me, there is definitely more hate than love. I learned to cook the way your daughters are- out of necessity (mom isn't going to be home when she thought, so there is the pantry, come up with something). And, although I see the helpfulness of planning, and value it, I also enjoy the creativity and spontaneity of making things up as I go. But, as you pointed out, a stocked pantry and fridge is crucial. And, I might add, knowing what is there and using what you have is crucial too. It is really easy for things to go bad when every item you buy is not designated for a certain meal. My mom has helpfully pointed out that as wives and mothers, food is just part of our lives, three times a day, every day. So, I say, why not make it fun and do it in a way you enjoy? I do, for my own sanity, plan when we have guests or I know we have a crazy couple of weeks. Don't know why I shared all of this, but it is nice to know that I am not the only happy non-planner.
I sure am glad that you shared all of this!!
Delete: )
I'm so glad to have come across your blog and this post! I've tried many times and failed planning out meal plans. I will stop just have to accept how God made me and I have found that having the ingredients that we use a lot on hand helps as well! thanks for your encouragement :) Do you have blogs on homeschooling?
ReplyDelete