My ode to meal planning (sort of)
March 9, 2016
We spend a lot on food. But we also eat a lot and I don’t have FOND memories of those penny-pinching days when I’d only eat one meal a day and that was leftovers from dinner from the night before.
So we spend on food. I wondered, though, could we feed all three of us for $75? That’s what our biggest Trader Joe’s and local produce shopping trip cost.
Mostly I’m curious. I am terrible at meal planning in any sane kind of way that saves time and energy so this is an experiment in making a meal plan and sticking to it. I’ve hit a cooking rut. I typically like cooking even if I suck at coming up with vegetable side dishes, but when my cravings are for take out it’s because I’ve gotten busy and stressed or more tired than usual and can’t spare the brainpower to come up with foods we like.
What we bought, roughly, was mostly stuff for this week, but some stuff for freezing and will be used later. In turn, I’ll be using ingredients we already have but the value is generally going to balance out. This week I bought 4 pounds of ground turkey for $2.99/lb. Two weeks ago we picked up a few pounds of chicken for $1.19/lb and pork for $1.99/lb. We use more chicken or pork in a single recipe than ground turkey so it’s an even enough trade.
The menu
Caveats: Cooking really only applies to dinners. Breakfast is almost always eggs, sliced ham, toast, or a simple bowl of oatmeal.
Lunch is (PiC) ham and cheese sandwiches with chips; (LB) some combination of banana, tofu, raisins, clementines, tortillas, cheese, ham, dinner leftovers; (me) leftovers.
Sunday
3 pork chops & 1 drumstick, ginger garlic rice, mashed cauliflower.
Monday
Turkey burgers (made with ground turkey, minced zucchini, quinoa) on honey whole wheat buns served with tomatos, red onions, sprouts, mayo, ketchup. Plus tator tots.
What happened? Success! Despite a major bump in the day, we got burgers on the table.
Tuesday
Homemade pizza with tomato sauce, cheddar and mozzarella, chicken
What happened? Fail! Turns out my yeast is super expired. It didn’t even put up a token fizz. Of course I discover this at 430 pm, so instead I recklessly tried a miso-butter chicken and bok choy recipe. This is what happens, I was looking for a green bean vinagrette and get a whole new recipe instead. I cannot be trusted. (Justification: We had leftover baby bok choy that needed to be used! And it’s not every day I have miso in the pantry.) It was delicious, soooo, yay improv?
Wednesday
Hainan chicken with ginger garlic rice (cooked Sunday), served with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers
What happened? Fail! My brain shut down at 4 pm and this is where it would have been really useful to have cooked more on Sunday. But I had cooked enough rice and mashed cauliflower to go with the Trader Joe’s packaged chicken curry we had in the fridge from last week and that was served with a side of fresh green beans. I did cook ahead a pan of roasted red potatoes for tomorrow.
Thursday
Side roasted red potatoes with dabs of butter and lots of garlic. Um. A main dish of some kind.
What happened? We had turkey burgers again because I’d made 6 adult patties and 2 baby patties.
Friday
Tuna or ham and cheddar sandwiches, salad and soup
What happened? Cheese sandwiches and boxed tomato soup. I could make a good tomato soup from scratch but not all days are from-scratch cooking days.
Saturday
Unplanned
What happened? Turkey burgers again! We wanted to use up the burger buns and veggies bought specifically for this (sprouts, red onions, etc) and we did. Good thing we love our turkey burgers and enjoyed them down to the last bite!
Meal approximations are better than planning
Ironically, I did better in the three weeks after the initial challenge. Forcing myself to follow an exact menu plan, meal and day, just didn’t seem to work well. $75 was high for our perishables but our overall costs were generally in line with a $75-100/week budget. We pick up bulk staples irregularly so that’s the extra $25-40 in the weekly spend.
Some of my best dinners were…
A) Lemon baked tilapia served with brown rice and green beans
B) Mixed cavatappi and whole wheat rotini topped with a zucchini, carrot and turkey ragu sauce served with a homemade load of bread, baked bok choy and carrots
C) Crockpot lasagna
D) Tilapia fish tacos & burritos.
Warning: if you’re baking your fish with lemon slices, the rind might leave a bitter taste on parts of the fish. Also remove all the lemon slices before serving. I missed one and wondered why my fish taco was disgustingly bitter.
Ideas for future menus
Shrimp and grits with garlic, onions, and tomatoes
Poached eggs served with polenta, hash browns, veggie
Marinated Baked Pork Chops
Pork chops with caramelized onions
Lemon baked chicken with roasted potatoes and onions
Best Takeaways
I don’t mind using the occasional packaged or prepared meal anymore. First it was about the cost, then it was about the nutrition. But overall, we’re doing a lot better on both fronts just by virtue of this experiment, more so than expected, and a few conveniences are just fine by me.
Our stress over getting a meal on the table, previously disproportionate to the crime, is incredibly low now.
I did serve pasta so frequently it’s been put on the No Fly List for a while. That was predictable but oddly disappointing, nonetheless. It’s just barely fathomable that it’s possible no one can eat pasta every day for three weeks without complaint.
If you’ve got tried and true recipes that you’re willing to share, please do! I require simplicity, though.
I know we’ve talked about cooking and improvisation re: flavors you like and using what’s at hand, before. As this was pre-LB, are you finding that ze has any particular likes/dislikes that are throwing you off? Two big suggestions I always make for veg are to buy seasonally (location may make this moot) and if you can, GRILL. (Even if it’s a grill pan/top or electric.) Parcook if needed, but grilled veggies with any citrus or herb, will nearly always brighten up a meal and can be broken down to add flavor to salads. Batch cooking on good days can be done with a lot of proteins in one pan, as long as you don’t mind mixed flavors, esp with chicken, which can then be shredded/diced for meals. This is less recipe or meal-plan based, obv. It does give a little more flexibility to your week, since proteins usually require most prep and cooking time/spoons.
I don’t mind mixed flavors but I seem to be on a permanent hunt for the right combination of flavors that I can like enough to cook more than once. I get so bored with the flavors that I’ve tried.
I really, really want to do meal planning, but the problem is that we all eat different things (Mr. Sandwich cooks for himself, so no one is doing short-order cook duty). Also, weeknight cooking can be difficult because of our schedules. So to make meal planning work, I need to do the planning on Friday so that I can shop Saturday and cook Sunday. But honestly? That rarely happens.
Tragic Sandwich recently posted…Doing What Works, Because It Works
We all eat the same thing but would it make sense to do more of a general weekly shopping list to cover the three food groups: yours, Mister’s, and Baguette’s? As N&M have noted, doing a meal plan by the week rather than by the day seems to work better for me.
We kind of do that. The real problem is my commute (an hour each way) and Baguette’s needs, which combined mean that it’s really hard to get anything else into the evening. And that means all of the errands and fun activities have to fit into the weekend.
Tragic Sandwich recently posted…Doing What Works, Because It Works
Totally understandable – weeknights are hard.
We do meal planning by the week instead of by the day.
We strongly recommend Help! My apartment has a kitchen! (feeds 2-4) or Faster! I’m starving! (feeds 4-5) by Kevin and Nancy Mills for quick easy weeknight meals.
nicoleandmaggie recently posted…Incorporating minorities in fiction (even if you’re not from that minority group)
Thanks! I have also found from this experiment that picking a few recipes for the week instead of planning day by day is working much better for us.
I’m only cooking for one, so what I do may or may not work for you. I find roasts very convenient for flexi-meals, so I do one pretty frequently. A roast chicken is always good for flexible leftovers (shredded chicken can top a salad, fill a tortilla or sandwich, and few slices can be heated up for dinner or lunch). Today I roasted a boneless pork loin while I worked and enjoyed a big slice for lunch with some reheated broccoli.
I love green salads and use bagged greens plus protein (like canned tuna, cooked chicken, or leftover roasted meat) and add stuff like cucumber, peppers, onion, radish, etc if I have it on hand.
Another good main protein recipe that can be prepped, frozen, and reheated as needed are salmon cakes. I think I’ve shared the recipe on my blog but will check.
That’s a great reminder. I do keep some boneless pork roast on hand, and it’s an easy and yummy go-to. I’d love your salmon cakes recipe!
I searched my email and blog, but didn’t find the recipe. So I added it for you. Hope you like it, and have fun playing with it! https://awindycitygal.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/recipe-salmon-cakes/
Linda recently posted…Recipe: Salmon cakes
Yay, thank you for taking the time to do that!
I’ll be honest: my wife does most of the cooking. I just don’t enjoy doing it. We do meal plan (typically two weeks at a time) and it’s been a huge win for us. We are both really busy during the week so it’s nice not having to think about it.
Most of the cooking is in my court now too because it works better with my schedule and I enjoy the break it gives me from work. It’s nice, I do the main cooking and PiC handles all the reheating in between. If our work situations change much, we’d have to revisit the arrangement.
MMM fish tacos. Obsessed but haven’t made them myself yet. Recipe?
Am also a fan of turkey mince. I like to make meatloaf out of it. Turkey meatloaf. I actually make these all the time: http://mesohongry.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/marvelous-mini-meatloavesmmmmmmmmmm.html
I will write it up!
Oh that is actually on my list of favorites, I’ve got turkey defrosting in the fridge for a dinner this week.
(NZ mince = US ground) for the turkey
Figured it out with context but appreciate the clarification!
Since I almost exclusively shop at Aldi (except for curry paste, soba noodles, Tahini paste, and sometimes produce like bok choy or produce), I don’t feel the need to meal plan ahead of time. Instead I just buy the meats and produces that are on sale, and pick up the staples we don’t have on hand. Normally, I can get seven days of meals out of it. We always have at least one day of stir fry or curry, one day of tacos and one day of breakfast for dinner… in the summer I’ll add burgers to the rotation.
My biggest issue is using up leftovers. Nobody likes them much, so I try to avoid having any on hand.
Do you do curry from scratch? I hoped meal planning would reduce the amount of thinking we’d have to do but I think it only cuts it in half.
Avoiding too many leftovers is now part of my goal, too, because I used to go overboard and cook enough for 3 meals for 4 people and that’s way too much.
[…] at A Gai Shan Life recently asked for recipe ideas, and this is one of my favorites. I know I’ve shared this […]
I make tuna cakes a bit more simply from the salmon cakes posted above (although the recipe sounds really delicious, tuna burgers are one of my quick and easy meals, so I don’t want to chop veggies that night). In a large bowl, I beat 1 egg slightly and then add a small dollop (less than a teaspoon) of prepared brown mustard, about the same amount of Worcestershire sauce, a few shakes of Italian seasoning, and a large spoonful of Miracle Whip or mayo (I don’t measure; it’s whatever sticks to the soup spoon, but I suppose it’s about half a cup), and mix those ingredients till smooth. Then I mix in canned light tuna, drained (four small cans or two large ones)–before doing so, I give the cats a spoonful for their special treat. Finally, I add about a cup of bread crumbs (previously homemade from toasted white bread) and mix thoroughly. (Don’t add the bread crumbs earlier, or they will absorb all the liquid and make it difficult to mix.) Form into patties and cook them in canola oil (or whatever type of oil you like) on the stove top. Freeze the extra burgers for another quick meal. (Note: amounts and proportions of ingredients can vary tremendously, according to taste, and the recipe will still work. If it’s too dry, add a bit more mayo; if too soupy, add more bread crumbs.)
Also, we have salad along with the main dish almost every night. We don’t care for bagged salads, but to save on prep time, I try to rotate the peeling, slicing, etc, so I only do one or two items each night. I make enough for several days at a time and keep the remainder in containers in the fridge.
At this stage in our lives, all three of us have dietary restrictions, so we eat foods that are low in sodium, sugar, cholesterol, and potassium and lactose-free. I used to use prepared mixes much more often, but when I started reading the sodium and sugar content on the labels, I was shocked. I decided to cut back on prepared foods and soy sauce and eventually succeeded in finding substitutes or eliminating them (with a few exceptions that I try to space out, so they’re not served on consecutive days).
I almost never plan the meals in advance, but I keep a variety of meat, poultry, and fish (plus leftovers) in the freezer, as well as an assortment of frozen bagged veggies. I usually have carb foods (rice, noodles, potatoes, other grains) in the pantry; I sometimes substitute eggplant, corn, or acorn/butternut squash. We love fresh veggies, so I buy some of the following when in season and available: tomatoes, green and red peppers, carrots, broccoli, Swiss chard, bok choy, other greens, zucchini, and yellow squash.
Thanks so much for sharing! Seamus is going to be disappointed that he doesn’t get a spoonful of tuna when it’s our turn to try this recipe 😉