Meal Planning Continued...

Thanks for all the great comments about my new adventure into monthly meal planning. I wanted to answer some of your questions. Mom, are you reading this? Can you believe I'm actually answering questions about how I grocery shop and the recipes I use? I've come a long way from what my attitude was about any type of home-making skill when I was in my teens and 20's. When I was a SAHM I discovered I actually liked being in the kitchen and I learned a few tricks along the way. I love gardening... so cooking just naturally goes along with that. So, here it is...all my kitchen wisdom...if you were here you'd hear me laughing now....


When I grocery shop
Most of the time I grocery shop every two weeks. On the off week, I run in and get juice, milk, fruit, bread or other necessities we need. This in between shopping trip doesn't amount to much maybe $20 or $30. I shop this way because I get paid every two weeks and I just like to get it over with. I don't enjoy grocery shopping at all. I also found that when I shop every two weeks I save a lot of money over going every week. Mainly because I'm only tempted to overspend twice a month instead of four times. I budget $150.00 for groceries every two weeks but I usually end up spending closer to $200 by the time I make the in between week run. It could be better I'm sure. Also, this is strictly for food items. Occasionally, a bouquet of flowers and a latte from Starbucks is thrown in there. Okay, EVERY TIME a bouquet of flowers (usually $5.00) is thrown in there, but that's my reward for dealing with the crowds, right? And looking at the flowers as I spend an hour putting away the groceries makes it so much better.


How I plan
When I plan, I literally sit down with a blank calendar and I usually start with our favorite meals that we have every month...tacos, brown sugar meat loaf, roasted whole chicken, etc.. Then I usually go to the Grocery Cart Challenge blog because she posts her meal plans every Monday for the week. I copy down the one's I like from her list and then I move on to the other websites or the magazines. The only thing that I really have to think about is how long it will take to prepare something and if it's a longer preparation time (like roasted chicken or meat loaf) I will usually fix that on a weekend. The rest of the meals are fairly quick.


Keys to sticking to the plan
For me, when I actually have a plan I don't have a lot of trouble sticking to it. Having the plan right on the refrigerator is the key. I also do quite of bit of preparation for the next night while I'm in the kitchen fixing the meal. For example, we'll have tacos tonight and while the ground beef is browning I will mix the meat loaf up for tomorrow. I get it all ready, put it in the baking dish and place it covered back in the frig and then tomorrow it's all ready to put in the oven. Tomorrow, when the meat loaf is in the oven and I'm preparing the side dishes I will be getting something ready for the next day if there is preparation needed. I don't know if it actually saves me time...but on the busy nights I love just grabbing something out of the frig and popping it in the oven with no preparation.


Some of the Recipes
The most requested meal in our home is Brown Sugar Meatloaf. It definitely gets served at least once per month. I wasn't a meat loaf eater until I discovered this recipe.

Home-made Mac and Cheese is also a favorite. It's the baked old-fashioned kind...the best! I use a couple of different recipes...but the Fanny Farmer recipe is the one I use the most.

Creamy Beef, Mushroom and Noodle Soup. I haven't actually made this yet. But it sounds delish!

For Homemade Pizza I use this New York Style Pizza Crust Recipe. I also use the bread machine for pizza crust a lot too.

About once a month I make Buttery Bread Machine Rolls or Country White Rolls and put them in the freezer. I take the number of rolls out that I want for the next nights dinner and let them rise in the refrigerator all night and the next day and they are usually ready to bake by the time I fix dinner. If not, I will take them out of the frig as soon as I get home and let them rise on top of the oven for the hour or so before dinner is ready.


What is Woodcrest?
Woodcrest is the church we go to. Every other Wednesday we will eat dinner there and there is no need to fix anything at home and that is always a good thing! These are the Wednesday's that I go to the new group I told you about here. I went to the first one this week and it was great. There was a lot of sharing and I will definitely know these people very well by the time we're finished in May. It's a diverse group of women in their 20's through their 70's and we're bound to learn a lot from each other. It will be good...and what a cool class it is...meditation, prayer, silence, journaling, sharing...totally my cup of tea.


Other Randomness...
Deidra said that they use e-Mealz. I neglected to tell you that e-Mealz is also one of my resources. I recently (in the last month) signed up with them and have been really pleased with the recipes too! I haven't seen the savings on my bill yet though...so I'm not sure I will continue it.

Besides grocery shopping, the rest of my weekend is filled with laundry, prep of my bedroom for painting, dinner with my husband to celebrate our 13th anniversary and a couple of kids activities.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Jackie



**for the record, that is not my clipboard and pencil holder on the frig...but isn't that a cute clipboard? It matches my new blogger theme so well too (grin).