Monday Meal Planning - The Overview

Warning: this one is long!

Since we are on an even tighter budget than usual, now that my husband is working and I'm staying home with our two kids, I've started meal planning again. I've started what I hope is a weekly series called Monday Meal Planning. I started last week, and you'll only get this overview post where I talk about the why and how and such for this week, because I'm out of town until Tuesday.

As you could see from my last post, my plan is to do a recap of the week before (what we actually made and how much it actually ended up costing us), tell you what our plan is for the current week, share my grocery list and what I already have on hand, and give you an idea or even exact figures of what I spent on groceries.

In the interest of transparency, our grocery budget for the month is $600. It really should be less than that, but I'm budgeting $100 a week, plus $200 a month for stocking up at Sam's Club and/or Costco. Our parents each have a membership to one of those stores, so we got pretty lucky. You can always ask around if friends have a membership, so you don't have to get your own, or go in for a membership together. I generally go to one or the other once a month and primarily stock up on large portions of meat and other freezer fodder, potatoes and onions, and other things that will keep or that I know we'll eat quickly, such as bagged salads and mushrooms. It may not seem like you're saving money, but if you followed my ideas on comparison shopping, you'll see that that huge pack of chicken breasts may only cost you $1.99 per pound at Costco while at your normal grocery store it may be twice that. And it's always nice to have that meat stored up in your freezer for meal planning purposes.

When you meal plan, you can do several important things:

1) Reduce stress. I'm one of those people who freaks out at lunch and at dinner, if I don't know exactly what I'm feeding to my kids. At lunch this is sort of ok, because at most my daughter will go down for her nap a bit late. But at dinner, with looming bedtimes, it's just not.

2) Make things ahead. Whether that's making freezer meals or in my case prepping slow cooker meals the night before, it gives me a lot more flexibility to use the time I have available, when I'm not totally frazzled watching my kiddos. I'm a night owl, it works best for me to stay up late and get stuff done then, so that's what I do.

3) Shop your own pantry/freezer/fridge. You're saving money, because anything you have in your pantry/fridge/freezer should be something you bought when it was on sale (or at Costco/Sam's because it was cheaper) or because it's left over from another meal. This includes "leftovers" (i.e. prepared foods from a previous meals) and "raw" items that have already been used for at least one meal (e.g. I buy a value pack of 6 chicken breasts, I use 4. I've already paid for it, I've already gotten one meal out of it, but if I remember to use the other 2, then that's basically free money or at least two much cheaper meals than they would have been, if I'd bought just the 4 I needed at a higher price).

4) Avoid spoilage. Again this goes along with the previous point, but it's important. You've already spent the money, but if it ends up spoiling because you don't use it in time, that's money wasted. I'll talk about waste logs in a future episode, so stay tuned for that.

5) Don't spend money you don't need to on a meal plan someone else makes for you. I'm sure those meal plans other people make for you save time, but if you have half an hour to sit down and plan out your next week's meals and make a grocery list and an hour to shop (if your grocery store will let you pick up curbside so much the better), then you can definitely save yourself some money and just do it yourself.

6) Make fewer trips to the store. We usually only shop once a week because it saves us money, unless we run out of something vital mid-week like milk. Why does this save us money? Because magically, every time I go to the grocery store, it seems like I spend $100, even if I just had three things on my list. Some people might be more strong willed than I am about getting just what's on the list, but I swear, every time I get anywhere near the ice cream aisle, the ice cream calls my name. "Buy me, buy me! You know you want some waffle cone with caramel!" Or that beef jerky for $11 a bag just jumps in my cart and I only really notice it at check out. Or that quilting magazine, the washi tape, the pack of pens, that organizational tool that would make my life so much easier... big box stores are especially dangerous for that. Minimizing the temptation is key for me.

7) It creates variety in your diet. When you're frazzled trying to figure out what's for dinner today and then needing to pack up the kids and run to the grocery store, you're wasting time, but you're also missing an important opportunity to vary your diet and try something new. I've made it a goal to try at least one new recipe every week, because I might stumble on something simple and delicious that I can add to my list of family approved meals. You can also avoid having chicken four nights in a row, or at least have chicken four totally different ways (Italian - chicken Parmesan, Chinese - chicken stir fry, Indian - butter chicken, Moroccan - chicken tagine, etc.). Need to find new and interesting ways of eating ground beef, because that is the only type of meat you can afford right now? Or maybe the Ramen noodles? You now have time to think about slipping in some new recipes.

8) It gives you flexibility. Didn't quite manage to prep that slow cooker meal the night before and your kids are bouncing off the walls unless you take them to the park all day? Or your meat is still frozen solid. No problem, change to a meal that's better suited to the current situation. Leftovers on Wednesday when you had planned those for Friday, go for it! You have all your ingredients for the week on hand already, changing things up is not a problem.

So now to move on to how I meal plan:

1) Pick a day (or two). So why on Monday? Well, Monday works best for me, because my husband is a chef and generally has Monday and Tuesday off. We've also meal planned on a Sunday evening, since he generally doesn't have to work as long and my grocery store is open 24/7. I'm certainly not above leaving hubby home with our sleeping kids and running to the store at midnight. For your own meal planning, you need to choose the day that best works for you. You can even meal plan for a whole month at a time and go grocery shopping once a week or even every other week. Whatever works into your schedule and your life. If you need to meal plan one day and go grocery shopping another day, do what works for you.

2) Figure out what meals you want to plan out. You'll notice that I only plan out dinner. Why not the other meals (breakfast, lunch, and snack)? Well, because I have a basic sense in mind of what we'll eat for those other meals. Breakfast is almost always cereal. As long as we have cereal and milk on hand, we're golden. Sometimes hubby will make eggs or pancakes or whatever, but that's only when he feels like it. For lunch I've developed a mental list of things that are quick and easy to make so I can concentrate on dinner and I keep ingredients for those things on hand. I can go over that list in a future blog post. Same with snack time, I try to keep fruit, fruit snacks, and cereal bars on hand. So when I don't feel like cutting up an apple or an orange for my son, I can just hand him a fruit snack or cereal bar instead. I shop for all these items in bulk or when I see them on sale, so I like to stay flexible about the specific brand of cereal or whatever. For my daughter, I wrote a post already about what we feed her for now, although sometimes she'll get what we're having if it's something non-dairy and easily chewable.

3) Have a system that works for you. I really like using my carpe diem planner/bullet journal for meal planning coupled with an app on my phone for my grocery list. Other people might find it easier to use a white board on the fridge or do everything online/in an app. But here's what you'll need to have on hand: a list or easy access to what's in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. A list of family approved meals for when you get stuck. A list of recipes you want to try (AND WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED! - Favorites folder in Chrome, Pinterest, Cookbook and page number, etc.). A place to put your meal plan and a place for your grocery list. A mental or physical list of allergies for family members and anyone who might be invited over for dinner that week (one sibling can't eat capsicum or gluten, my son has a life-threatening tree nut allergy, etc.). If you like to shop deals that week and build your list around those, a weekly flyer for your favorite grocery store(s) and/or coupons. Your comparison lists if you need a sense of what all the ingredients will cost.

4) Quickly fill in what nights you won't need to cook. Saturdays are usual with his parents, Sundays with mine. Maybe everyone is out one night - kids at sleep overs, parents on a much needed date out, so scratch that off the list. Or you're traveling and know you'll just wing it, because that can actually be fun on vacation.

5) Plan in at least one leftovers night. I like to do this late in the week, when I'm burned out on cooking. And it means I use up something that's in my fridge or freezer. This can be a store-bought frozen meal too like pizza. Basically anything that's fast and easy to heat up.

6) Get your partner and/or kids involved. I'm lucky in that my husband cooks professionally. My dad is another guy in my life who loves to cook. Me, not so much. If all the meal planning and cooking fell only on my shoulders, I'd probably throw my hands up and say screw it, we're eating frozen foods and take out every night. Anyway, we look at the nights that are left over and divide them up among us. This way I know that hubby is in charge of dinner on the two nights he's off work. He tells me what he wants to make and what he'll need from the store. Then I'll decide what I want to make on my nights. I also plan to give each of the kids one day a week when they're older, and they'll be in charge of meal planning, cooking, and cleaning that night.

7) Double check your plan. Did those three chicken dishes end up back-to-back? Maybe move things around a bit. Do you have any green veggies on your list? Any allergens that you might have missed?

8) Pull up the recipes and make your grocery list. Find where you hid the recipes and take them out. Start listing everything on them with amounts. Add up ingredients that appear in multiple recipes. Now check your list or storage and see if you already have something stashed away, check or cross these off the list. We plan at the kitchen table so we can quickly run to the pantry and fridge to look and see if we have certain things and I have a running list on my phone of what's in our freezer. Only the things you truly need go into your final grocery list (I use scrap paper and then transfer the final onto my phone app). I will often skip the optional garnishes, because I don't ever remember to pull those out anyway. Unless it's chicken fajita soup or something, where the garnishes are truly key. Finish out the list by discussing with your family if there is anything else you might desperately need from that grocery store, like toilet paper because you'll run out before your next trip to Sam's Club, or toothpaste.

9) Go grocery shopping. I comparison shop brand name versus generic if I need something that's not already on my comparison list. Or I take a quick look to see if the pasta I usually buy is actually cheapest that week after sales on some other brand. Takes a little longer, but luckily grocery stores are good about putting like things together, so it shouldn't take much longer.

10) Put things away where you can find them easily. Break down/subdivide and freeze extra meats immediately, the meat you will use that week goes in a leak proof container on the bottom shelf. Have zones for like things. All of my pasta is in one spot in my pantry. All of the dry goods in another spot. Baking has its own shelf. Proteins (i.e. dairy and meat) has a side in my fridge (milk and cream on the top left, eggs and yogurt and sour cream below that, meats on the bottom shelf). If you know where things are, that means you're not having to rush out at the last minute for something you think you may have forgotten only to find it five days later.

11) Prep ahead as much as possible. If you can figure out a system where you can prep ahead as much as possible all in one day, go for it. I prefer to prep ahead the night before just in case something changes. Some recipes will call for marinating. I'm no food safety expert, but since your meat is in the fridge anyway, having it sitting in the fridge and marinading for longer shouldn't be a problem.

12) Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Finish those meals the day of and truly enjoy the experience of eating with your family, maybe even on time and while the meal is still hot, in the knowledge that you've saved yourself stress, money, and time by meal planning.

Any questions, need clarifications on anything, have anything you want me to go into more detail on in a future post? Leave me a comment!

Monday Meal Planning (A Day Late)

So I'm already a day late with this post, and the worst part is that this week we meal planned on Sunday and I went grocery shopping that night after hubby and the kids were in bed (the benefits of a grocery store that's open 24/7). Also, this is a weird week, because I will be gone Friday through Tuesday of next week (so next week will be late as well). In the future, I will try and price out everything, but I'm not sure I even have receipts going back that far for some of this stuff.

I was going to do an introductory post all about meal planning, but that may have to wait for week after next, when I can actually sit down and wrap my brain around how I meal plan, including how to shop deals, shop your pantry/freezer/fridge, and so on. I'm also planning a post about a waste log, so stay tuned for that as well.

So without further ado, here is my meal plan for the week and how much I spent on groceries.

Week of April 9:
Monday: Freezer meal (White Chicken Chili, bagged salad kit, baguette)
Tuesday: Fish, brussel sprouts
Wednesday: Leftovers or freezer meal (TBD)
Thursday: Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Pasta (Recipe here)
Friday: Airport food/late dinner
Saturday: Dinner with friends
Sunday: Dinner with friends

Grocery Total for the Week: $17.61 (Savings: $8.56) at Meijer

Actual money spent per meal:
Monday: White Chicken Chili - free from hubby's parents, Bagged Salad Kit - $4.49 from Meijer, Baguette - price unknown from Costco

Tuesday: Fish - free minus fishing license if hubby catches anything, Lemon: $.79 from Meijer, Brussel Sprouts - price unknown from Costco

Wednesday: either pasta and pesto - price unknown from Costco, or frozen leftovers - price unknown from previous meal

Thursday: Boneless, skinless chicken breasts - $9.33 from Meijer for 6 (will freeze 2), Crushed Tomatoes - $2.00 (for 2 cans) from Meijer, Onion - price unknown from Meijer or Costco, Dried Herbs - price unknown, Penne - $1 from Meijer, Shredded Mozzarella Cheese - price unknown from Costco, Parmesan Cheese - price unknown from Costco

Of course, my total grocery bill was not $17.61, it was $56.78, of which $3.65 was for baby food (cereal and bananas), $13.28 was for adult snacks, $17.05 was for lunch items, and $5.19 was for drinks (milk and OJ).

Homemade Baby Food

We've been making most of our own baby food. Why? It's cheaper and we control what goes in it.

Think about costs. We really like the Beech-Nut baby food jars, which run about $0.95 per jar for a 4 oz. jar. We still buy them when we see them on sale, because they are convenient to take with on trips. However, for day-to-day use, we make our own and freeze it.

To do the math, our kiddo eats about 4 ounces (1 jar) per meal twice a day (sometimes more, she also get Cheerios, bread ends, and whatever other soft veggies and fruits we might be eating). Over the course of a week, that's about 14 jars of baby food (so about $13.30). A head of cauliflower is $3.69 at our local Meijer, and yields about 20 1.5 ounce cubes (or 30 ounces/about 7.5 jars), so for about $7 you can make the same amount of food that you would get for $13.30. And that's one of the more expensive types of produce. Sweet potatoes are about $1 per lb., so for $4 you can get about 56 ounces of food. Doesn't seem like a huge difference, but over the course of a year, that's about $700 in baby food jars versus about $370 on the high end or just over $200 on the low end.

When looking for produce that will puree up well, I prefer to find ones that aren't too acidic (so no mandarin oranges, rhubarb, pineapple, etc.) and don't have a huge water content (watermelon, oranges, etc.). I prefer to have several different types on hand so that I can mix and match 2-3 cubes per bowl. Some of our favorites include cauliflower, zucchini, sweet potato, acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, apples (apple sauce), turnips, bananas, and parsnips.

Something to watch out for is the Dirty Dozen. They are foods that you really should buy organic, because the regular version uses a crazy amount of pesticides. And while those might be fine for most adults to eat (with some washing), you probably don't want to expose your 6+ month old to those levels. Here's the full list (anything over 20 or so, you can probably buy regular, but it's good to be informed, regardless. It's up to you to make choices for your child).

Once cooked and pureed, I like to freeze them in 1.5 ounce portions in my WeeSprout freezer trays (silicone, top rack dishwasher safe, with a clip-on lid). Once frozen, I transfer them to a freezer bag (although freezer safe containers would work too) and stash the freezer bags in a bin from IKEA. Make sure to label and date what's in the container/bag.

To reheat them, I put them in a glass bowl (usually 2-3 cubes of whatever combo strikes my fancy - but I like to put more watery things like zucchini with at least one cube of drier stuff like cauliflower or sweet potato), and heat them up in the microwave. For my microwave, I do 1:15 for two cubes and 1:25 for three cubes, but test your own. The goal is to melt enough of the food so you can stir the rest of the frozen stuff into it, which melts and cools down the nuclear hot food enough that it's edible (or almost edible with a bit of blowing). Always make sure you test the food before you feed it to your baby, because temperatures may vary even from batch to batch and bowl size to bowl size.

If you have a baby (like I do), who is a bit underweight, our pediatrician recommended adding some olive oil into pureed foods. Although we don't ever add salt to our purees, we are not shy about adding other spices, like nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, and so on.

So, here is my first recipe:

Butternut Squash Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Butternut Squash (medium to large)
Olive Oil
Nutmeg (optional)
Rosemary (optional)
Ground black pepper (optional)

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2) Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds (I like using my metal ice cream scoop for this task).
3) Place the squash flesh side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with olive oil (if you want additional olive oil for calorie loading, I like to pour a good amount in the middle of each squash and then use my hands to distribute the oil over the squash).

4) Sprinkle with any seasoning/spices you choose and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the flesh is tender.
5) Scoop out the flesh, being careful not to get any shell (I again used my ice cream scoop), and puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Add additional olive oil, if desired.
6) Feed some to your kiddo once it cools down and freeze the rest.

Yields about 20 1.5 ounce cubes, depending on the size of the squash. And actually tastes pretty decent even to me, although I would prefer a bit more salt and less olive oil.