A. Meal planning saves you time.
You want to do a little meal planning because it saves you time, later. What home kitchen cook wants to stare at cupboards and empty pots, wondering what to fix for dinner?
B. Meal planning is also easy on the food budget, because planning is less expensive than making unscheduled trips to the grocery store to pick up something you forgot; and it costs less than take out, drive-thru and paying a local restaurant tab and tip, doesn't it?
C. Of course, another important reason to take an hour to plan the week's meals is to make sure you have all the ingredients on hand. You plan, shop, cook, right?
D. 99% of the time, meal planning leads to eating healthier meals, too. Preparing meals at home generally means that the family eats nutrient-rich food, has better portion control and consumes less calories.
Meal planning, the menu, recipes, shopping, food and food safety go hand-in-hand. You want to plan the menu, every day, by the week or month.
- You only want to shop for what you need to avoid overspending.
- You want to serve well planned, healthy meals to avoid junk food
- You want to save time cooking in the kitchen
1. Cuisine. Choose the food cuisine you want for each day or just for Sunday dinner. One of the considerations is the cuisine. Maybe you want to cook Mexican one day, or Oriental or Italian. It's a good idea to vary the cuisines so your family doesn't get "food fatigue" from being faced with the same cuisine or the same meal time after time.
2. Quick Check. Do a quick check of what's available in the freezer, refrigerator and pantry. To make things easy, do a quick check to see what you have on hand in the kitchen. Make a list of what pantry, refrigerator and freezer items that need replenishing. Also, evaluate what leftover food in the refrigerator and freezer can be re-purposed into another meal. This way you can plan to use what you already have, so you don't duplicate what you already have.
3. Review Recipes. Once you know what's on hand, plan the meals and review recipes. Add ingredients in season to buy the best and freshest and save money, too. This makes my easy everyday meal planning go quickly.
Recipes are important for both cooking good food and serving a tasty variety of food at mealtime. I bought cookbooks. I have a shelf full of cookbooks from ones I've followed for years to specialty cookbooks dedicated to certain cuisines such as Oriental and Mexican.
I have cookbooks on my shelf that are all about cooking for a diabetic and one just for cooking slow cooker meals. I have a whole cookbook for desserts and one full of holiday meals suggestions. These are wonderful, helpful cookbooks. Today, you can also find outstanding recipes online.
Back in the day, I thumbed through recipe books tirelessly. Even with terrific recipes to follow, it took me hours slaving in the kitchen just to fix one meal. The problem soon surfaced. It wasn't the recipes... it was the cook. You know what I discovered? It was easy once I learned a few basic steps. Preparing ahead was the key.
Save recipes that look good. You don't need to invest in cookbooks. With technology today, just subscribe to Being Grand and have recipes delivered to your inbox. Save them in a folder called "Recipes" in your email program so it's easy to look them over when you're meal planning.
Most of the meals today are small and simple. Three courses: Salad, Vegetable and Meat. But sometimes, vary it up a bit. For example, if the meat is hearty, only serve two courses: the mail entree and a light side dish. Other times, serve a meat entree with just a salad or potato dish. Most dinners or main meals include dessert, biscuits and a beverage. Depending on the "weight" of the main entree, choose these other courses with common sense.
Most cooks agree that a full course dinner today is a dinner consisting of multiple dishes, such as soup, salad, meat and dessert. If there are guests, a meal can start with hors d'oeuvres (appetizer). You can set out chips and dip at Christmastime for the kids to munch on while waiting for dinner to be ready.
If it's a formal dining evening, a full course dinner could actually be seven or twelve courses. When I was a girl, my parents used to go out to dinner at the Victor Hugo Inn in Laguna Beach. What I remember about the 12-course meal experience was how long it took. I was not eager to spend so much time at the table. It's a good idea to keep "timing" in mind when planning the meal and number of courses you serve.
Here's a typical 7-course meal plan:
1. Appetizer
2. Soup
3. Salad
4. Entree with vegetable/potato/side dish
5. Dessert
6. Something savory like cheese
7. Coffee with Petit Fours
How to Plan Good Food for Your Meals
Most home kitchen cook want to present good on the table. People want to eat good food, because it's not just about what you eat, but about feeling fit and full of energy (rather than feeling tired all the time). Food choices are not about dieting to lose weight, vanity or even a strong desire to look nice.
5. Add Healthy Foods. You want to choose food that provides your body with good nutrition helps avoid those little aches, pains and suffering caused by the wrong food choices. Good nutrition is all about your lifestyle and the good food choices you make.
I love big juicy hamburgers with battered onion rings, apple pie with real ice cream, and chocolate milkshakes with chocolate chip cookies on the side. There are plenty more foods I love, but are on my "stay away" list. Most people know to avoid poor food choices or pay the price: Your health suffers and your wallet empties quickly.
Plan to choose food from the healthy food groups.
Food Groups
For example, some foods that are ripe in March are not there for the pickin' in August. You can get foods out-of-season, but the cost increases to include shipping and that can blow the budget. When planning the menu, I pay attention to what's in season here in Texas.
You can grow herbs and a few vegetables and maybe even fruit . The challenge is that growing food depends on where you live, the ground, climate. Find out what grows best indoors and outdoors and try herbs. Herbs and spices are easiest to grow, and you can grow them indoors.
Try carrots, celery, sweet peppers, sweet onions and some greens year round. Blackberries, May through July.Cherries, June and July. Apples July through November. Growing even a few of your own herbs, vegetables and fruits provide healthy food for meal planning and plenty of personal satisfaction.
7. Outs. As you cook through the days and weeks, make a note of any food or staple that runs low, so you can remember to buy a back up. This way you never run out.
Recipes for Meal Planning with Automatic Shopping List
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