Is it just me or has the advice for meal planning been less than helpful? It’s taken years from when I first attempted a meal plan to finally having a system that works for us. I’ll do my best to outline how for you.
Take Inventory
Before anything else I go rummage around my fridge and freezer and write down what needs to be used up. I start with meats, including how many dinners I can make with each. So I might have 3 lbs of ground beef and one dinner worth of kielbasa. Write that down. Then I check out the veggie crisper for anything that needs using up there. Maybe there’s some asparagus, mushrooms and a romaine heart. Add that too. I also take a quick look in the pantry for things that might be time sensitive, like buns.
Check sales
Next you need to look at the ads that will be valid the day you will be grocery shopping for whatever stores you frequent. Every store I know of has a digital copy in case you don’t get a physical copy. Some weeks I don’t find anything on sale. That’s ok. But you need to check because if there are good deals on what you’re family likes you should be choosing a meal plan that takes advantage of it. Or better still stock up on what you can for later meal plans. This is usually how I buy my meats. When I see things on sale I’ll grab as much as I can afford and then portion it out and freeze for later.
Write down what you plan on buying on your shopping list. Be sure to know how many meals you can make with each item. Lets say there was no good sale on meat and I elect to get a whole chicken and butcher it apart for several meals. I know one chicken gives my family 3 meals of meat plus broth. So now I have 3 meals of ground beef, 3 meals of chicken and 1 meal of kielbasa. One week worth of dinners. Perfect.
Now maybe there were some good sales on produce. If so, I’d write down what I planned on getting on my shopping list.
Pick your meals
The obvious part comes next. Using what’s on your lists, come up with the 7 dinners you will be making. (Or however many you may be planning at a time) Try and keep in mind what you may have in your house but might not be in need of using right away too. Carrots or potatoes for instance. They might not be on your ‘I need to use them before they go bad’ list. But using them instead of planning on buying something else is always the smarter option. Also pantry items such as rice and pasta. Use as much as you can from what you already have.
Try and be specific in your meals. Instead of burgers, try mushroom swiss burgers with homemade fries and a caesar salad. Because I have ground beef, buns, mushrooms, and a heart of romaine to use. Along with potatoes that aren’t going bad but I don’t need to purchase anything to make either.
The most important thing to remember at this step is to make sure you plan meals that you and your family will actually eat. I would also strongly recommend when starting out to stick to meals you don’t have to look up a recipe for. Or recipes you’ve made and know a little about already. DO NOT PICK 5 NEW MEALS. Seriously. Don’t get every single meal from Pinterest and expect to not be overwhelmed every single time you have to cook.
Fill out your shopping list
This is usually a step I do WHILE I pick out my meals. So those mushroom swiss burgers require me to pick up swiss cheese to complete. I would write down swiss cheese on my shopping list. Make sure you go through each meal and it’s ingredients to determine if you need to buy anything to make the meal. Don’t forget spices, seasonings, marinades, egg for dredging or any toppings you plan to have available.
Extras
Most people meal plan partly because they only want to shop once in a given time and get everything they need until their next planned shopping trip. But there are things outside of meals that we shop for. Such as coffee and creamer, toilet paper and trash bags. You really don’t want to run out of any of these so my suggestion is to have a list (probably in the kitchen) designated for these kinds of things. Keep a pen nearby and make sure everyone knows to add things to the list as they get used up. Just be sure to remember it when you make your shopping list to merge them. If you need some help on how to tackle lunches and breakfast try here. Or if you’ve tried meal planning unsuccessfully learn my trick for meal planning without losing my mind here.
That’s about it. Shop your list and stick to your plan.
