$128=12 meals
Ok, so now that I’m out of my post-holiday funk I decided to get my family on board (again) with helping me do menu planning. For some reason, I seem to need reminders of what my family likes to eat (besides pizza, that is). I have made countless lists to refer to but, I realized I need something more obvious. As a personal chef it might seem like I should know how to meal plan for my own family, but like my clients, we all have very personal ideas of what we want to eat. In this post, I’ll attempt to show you how a few minutes of extra planning can make your weekly cooking easier and save you time. You will also save money by being prepared and can avoid last minute phone calls for take-out.
In general, I try to keep my family dinners VERY simple. My family (excluding myself) doesn’t like complicated food. They don’t like things mixed together, sauces, soups and casseroles, usually. The following menu is a good example. These meals don’t really require recipes for me to follow, or the recipe is on the package. When I want to try a new recipe or have something like a casserole or stir-fry I usually make all the components separate and mix them together for my self and everyone else can eat theirs plain. Some people might think I’m catering too much to the picky eaters, but I think of it as the opposite. I’m catering to myself so I don’t have to make 2 meals. I don’t want to eat what my kids eat or how my kids eat so this is a good compromise.
So last night we all contributed ideas to our weekly menu and I wrote it all out on a whiteboard. Then I took a quick look in my pantry and freezer to determine what I needed. I brought home four bags of groceries (I use re-useable so they fit a lot more), and spent $128. I wasn’t really paying attention to sales but often do, which is why I already had some of the main items on hand. We get a side of beef every fall in just about every cut imaginable to store in the freezer so I never have to buy beef, but we eat a lot of chicken so I bought extra this time because it was on sale. I also buy bread when it’s on sale and freeze that too.
We aren’t really crazy about leftovers. I’m usually the only one who eats them for breakfast or lunch. So the meals make about enough food for my family of 4, (my boys are 7 and 10 and are just beginning to get into the eat-like-mad stage). But according to my list I bought enough food to complete 12 meals. And that translates to less than $10 per meal. I know 128/12 is $10.66, but I also bought laundry detergent, 1 gallon of milk, 3 cans of frozen juice and orange sherbet. And I bought the extra chicken, and extra pasta and some of the veggies like the carrots and onions will last me a while.
| Day | Meal | Already Have on Hand | Need to Buy |
| Sunday | Chicken parmesan, garlic bread | Sauce, bread crumbs, egg, parmesan | Chicken breasts, spaghetti, french bread |
| Monday | Cheeseburgers, salad | Ground beef, cheese, dressing | Buns, romaine, tomato |
| Tuesday | Roast chicken, asparagus, rolls | Chicken, rolls | Asparagus |
| Wednesday | Chicken noodle soup | (use leftover chicken), noodles | Carrots |
| Thursday | Fish/fishsticks, rice, broccoli | Fish, rice | Broccoli |
| Friday | Lasagna, baguette | Noodles, baguette | Sauce, cottage cheese, mozzarella |
| Saturday | Crockpot BBQ chicken, couscous | Spices | Chicken legs/thighs, sweet potatoes, onions, bell peppers, tomato sauce, couscous |
| Lunches | Pad thai, Pierogis and cabbage, tuna casserole, tuna sandwiches, clam chowder, fruit | Pierogis, pad thai (shrimp, noodles, sauce mix), bread, chow mein noodles, celery, potato | Cabbage, tuna, bread, clams, clam juice |
The only new recipe I’m trying this week is the Crockpot BBQ chicken which I found through Pinterest and you can find the recipe on this blog:
http://mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com/2011/04/freezer-cooking-with-slow-cooker.html
Her post is how to assemble multiple days of crockpot kits for your freezer. I love the idea, and I’ll probably make a few kits for my freezer once we decide if we like the flavors and come up with a couple more crockpot meals that my family will eat. Like I said, they aren’t fans of their foods mixed together. So I generally just make meats in my crockpot and serve veggies on the side. I’ll share some of my favorite recipes in a future post.
Tags: chicken, comfort food, dinner ideas, easy dinners, family, food, freezing, groceries, grocery lists, healthy, kids, leftovers, make-ahead, meal planning, picky eaters, weekly menu, winter menu
