Speaking of grocery stretching and meal planning...

[Sherri Tierney]

Have any of you tried emeals? I really need to get in to the habit of planning meals. I am working closer to full time now and next fall I will be full time. I know that a little planning will save me a lot of stress so I am trying to get some ideas. I have planned meals before but I find it takes me so long to get my meal plan together and finalize my shopping list that I'm better off just winging it at the grocery store.

~I want to stay on budget ($100/wk for a family of 4)
~I want to avoid processed foods as much as possible
~I want meals that are relatively quick and easy or can be prepared somewhat in advance
~I want meals with ingredients I can find at my local Walmart since that is where I do 80% of my grocery shopping (we don't have a lot of options in town)

Anyone have advice for me?? I sat down today to put together a meal plan and I just stared at my list and at the cookbooks I had pulled off the shelf and finally put everything back and gave up. Then I ate oatmeal for dinner. LOL

 

[lovely1m]

What I do is have a list on Pinterest and All Recipes of things I want to try. I also have a list on my computer of favorite meals that we eat often. Then when its time, I decide on a few meals from my lists (mine is more loose meal planning as I don't pick which night we eat each meal) and make a list of what I need for each recipe.

 

[Darcy Baldwin]

Sherri - I found the best way to meal plan was to write down my family's favorite meals - ones we love the most, and prepare a shopping list based off 1 month for them. Then I would double or triple as many of those meals as I could when I would prepare them, and tuck them in the freezer. Then, the next month - I could use those stored meals when doing my planning again. Then you can begin to branch out and expand the menu selection, always doubling meals where you can. They can be put away for emergency nights or just security when you know you're going to have a really busy week.

I keep a spread sheet each month of the meals I do - and can go back and look at them again to plan - changing out seasonally, and using it as a reference if I get stale. It really helps.

 

[Nutmeg]

I use emeals. For my family it's kind of hit or miss. For example, in the past three weeks we've had 2 weeks of great recipes, and then one week of 'meh' recipes. Sometimes I consider canceling it, but for me it helps more often than not.

I use the 2 person plans for Wal-Mart (it's just DH and me), and the plan usually averages around $50-$60 of food a week for the meals. I normally make only 3 or 4 meals from the plan and have leftovers. I've tried a few of the different plans...Classic, Clean Eating, Simple Gourmet, the old Whole Foods one. While it does have more processed foods, I usually go back to the Classic after a month or so because its recipes look the most normal to me.

I hope that helps!

 

[rach3975]

The only way meal planning works for me is to have a weekly schedule to plan around. Otherwise I do just what you did and stare at everything feeling overwhelmed. So Monday we do a pasta dish, Tuesday is a meat with bread or potatoes, Wed is leftovers, Thurs I alternate Mexican and breakfast for dinner, etc.

 

[Jenn Barrette]

I use Pinterest for my planning. I get board with the same meals, and love to try new things so this works for me. I have boards full of recipes I want to try, and then a board with my meals for a weekly period. I just go to that board when I make my grocery list. We usually do 1 main trip for groceries each week, and then a few smaller trips for extra produce.

At the end of the week, I go in and re-pin the recipes to my "completed and reviewed" board, so I can find my favorites again, or make sure not to make the duds a second time.

Like Darcy, I do make some items as double batches to freeze them for another meal. I usually have things like taco seasoned meat, pulled pork, sloppy joes, turkey burgers, meatballs, etc homemade and frozen for easy meals when time/money are tight.

 

[lorigaud]

ROFL Sherri... the oatmeal for dinner sounds like me! I get overwhelmed too....
I want to use my crockpot more, but I never seem to get around to finding good recipes... maybe I'll post a new thread about that!

 

[nun69]

I just started this and what I did is ask my family what were some of their favorite meals and I went from there! I also like Traci's idea of only buying what you need...I am cutting out alot of chips, frozen nuggets, frozen burritos, corn dogs etc....

here is what I did
1. made a list of my family's favorite meals
2. made my grocery list from that and that ONLY
3. I just cooked chicken in my crockpot, shredded it and froze it....I also cooked a corned beef to shred and freeze but it didn't make it in the freezer!
4. cut up your veggies and freeze them for a quick thing to take out and throw in stir fry, with chicken, cook with hamburger, make meatloaf etc
5. cook your hamburger/taco meat in advance and freeze it
6. I am trying this for the 1st time (so not sure if it is gonna work or not) ...I bought fresh fruit (raspberries, blackberries, grapes, blueberries and strawberries) and I am flash freezing them to put them in little snack bags for the kids to grab a quick frozen snack out the freezer....my DH grew up on frozen grapes as a treat
7. if your family likes meatloaf, double it and freeze 1/2 for another meal
so that is all I have...I am very new to this, so I am trying to figure it out....

 

[Kara]

I use Zip list. You can use the web site or an app. Import or enter your recipes and it will create a shopping list and then you can schedule the meals and it'll add it to your Google Calendar. I use the app to add things to my shopping list throughout the week as I notice we're low.

 

[kelley]

I'm terrible with meal planning! I have gone all out with it before, but I found that it is just way too time consuming, at least the way I did it. I had a binder (still have it actually) with weekly caendars and then also all the recipes we like as well as any I found that I wanted to try. I don't know why, but whenever I started planning, I would literally spend hours looking at the internet and cookbooks and being indecisive. I guess it just works better for me to make 1 trip per week and grab the things we usually like, and then pick from what we have any given night of the week. I probably try a new recipe every other week, usually on the weekend since weekdays are crazy around here. I really should go back and attempt planning again now - I would love to be organized with it!

 

[Stacey42]

I have a very large cookbook collection plus recipes I've pinned & recipies I've copied off of websites & recipies from magazines....

What I did over a period of about a year was go through them all & fill out index cards on meals my family loves & meal I want to try - I wrote the recipes name & the place it can be found & then put a list of the main ingredients so I know at a glance what is involved. I sorted all the cards by main ingredient - beef, chicken, veggies, if it is a crock pot or a long oven cook, etc

Then every other Sunday I go through the cards & pull out things from each category for 2 weeks of meals &try to arrange it so I have overlap in ingredients - 2 meals that involve cooked chicken, 3 that need leeks, 4 that will combined use up a box of broth, a few that I know will produce leftovers for one night of "choose your own".

I also look at what's on sale at our grocery store & pull recipes that include that stuff.

It sounds more time consuming than it actually is. Once you get the system in place it's a half hour for 14 meals & a grocery list. But copying all those cards took a lot of time. And every time I get a new cookbook I have to go through it & do cards.

We have texture issues to deal with so I find things like emeals don't really work for me.

 

[scrap2day]

Don't know if this will help you but I like to precook hamburger and chicken and freeze in meal size packets. It makes it easy to "throw" together dinner depending on what we want to eat that night.

I also precook rice and freeze.

 

[kristijoy]

Here's another method that might be helpful. Takes a little time upfront, but then each week it should be easy!

I used 3x5 notecards. On each card I write a complete "MEAL" which includes the main dish ingredients, side dish ingredients, breads, beverages... Then each week I pick 7 cards look at the lists on them and then make my big shopping list. I've tried putting all kinds of fancy things in the computer, but find that it just takes too much time to fiddle with a special website, quirks, figure out how to sort it, print it, etc.. I just love my notecards.

That's the basic idea:

Here's ways to extend it.

1. have one notecard with your family staples written on it. THen you can carry it around the house when you want to check staples and write them on your list. I have things like: bread, parmesan cheese, bananas, on here.

2. When you put a meal in your freezer write than meal (and what you would need to purchase for sides) on another notecard of a different color card. Put it in your collection of cards. Then when you pick you 7 cards for the week you could choose one or two 'freezer meals' that you know are in your freezer!! After you eat that meal, don't return the special colored card to your regular pile, but set it aside in another pile. After while, you'll find those special cards accumulating in a 'to cook for the freezer' pile and you'll see...gee lets make a big pot of chili or taco meat or whatever!

3. Make something pretty to put your cards in! Like an altered hybrid box! :thumbup:

4. Color code your main pile of cards for types of meals: pink for pasta, yellow for soup, green for main dish salads, blue for chicken, etc...

5. When you find a recipe in a magazine or cookbook, or pinterest you really want to make write it on a notecard (or make a reference to a blog etc..). Put that in your pile. Or if you do a lot of 'surfing' make another pile of 'things to try'. Don't get carried away!

Have fun!

 

[Sherri Tierney]

Thanks for all the great advice! I read through everything and will do so again tomorrow when I can be sure to concentrate more. It's been a crazy week!

Kelley, your planning sounds like mine. I usually buy the things I know we'll eat and throw meals together during the week.

I am a boring eater. I could eat the same thing every day of the week and be content. My family not so much. I eat 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast every morning, for example. There are other breakfast foods I love but eggs are quick, easy, and have lots of protein which I need to stabilize my blood sugar... so eggs win. My lunch is typically whatever was left over from dinner the night before. DH doesn't eat lunch as he sleeps days. He eats breakfast and dinner at home and then takes snacks to work and he has a snack every 2 hours while working to keep him energized. The kids take things like pb&j or a tortilla with cheese for their school lunches. Dinner is where I struggle.