One day during the weekend (usually Saturday), I sit down with the calendar and put pen to paper on what our week/weeks looks like ahead. Do we have something going on one evening? Are we going out of town for the weekend? All of that effects our dinner some nights. The nights we have something going on or one of us is going to be late coming in that night, I write down "take out." And usually the day before we go out of town, that evening is full of packing and cleaning the house up (laundry, taking the trash out, etc) so that would be a "take out" night as well.
After those days have been marked, I start with the nitty gritty...
• What are some of the foods we love, and don't mind eating once a week.
• What did we have last week that we don't want to repeat again this week.
• What do we have in the fridge or freezer that needs to be used up first.
• New recipes... do we have all the ingredients?
• Anything we've been craving?
• What's the weather going to be like? Soups, grilling, etc.
Then it's all about not having the same thing day after day...
• We don't like leftovers unless it's something we can make sandwiches out of the next day.
• We try not to have the same kind of foods back to back. (i.e. italian/spaghetti noodles, chicken, beef)
And this is how we sometimes fail at meal planning...
• Someone gets sick and doesn't feel like cooking (me).
• Unexpected dinner dates with out of town guests.
• Just not in the mood for what we have planned (me again).
• We're out of something we need, and neither one of us wants to head to the grocery store (the Mr).
Well, that's how we meal plan. Have any questions or suggestions for us? And let me know what you think...
I am so glad to read about someone else who does not like to eat leftovers! My boyfriend thinks I am so strange. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are awesome as always.
ReplyDeleteYou are awesome as always.
ReplyDeleteI don't enjoy leftovers either! Love your meal planning! :)
ReplyDeleteI do something similar, but I tend to make most of our food on Sunday, so in essence we are always eating leftovers.
ReplyDeleteThis is so organized and I bet it saves you a lot of money. I'm beyond pressed that you can do it a month at a time. I'm can do a week at a time and for some reason it takes me forever to do just one week. It would probably take me a day to plan the entire month #slowpoke
ReplyDeleteLook at you! You make my meal planning look like amateur hour! I just sit down and think hmm what do I feel like making this week and create a grocery list. Sometimes its epic..and other times it an epic fail! I am throwing away pork chops today that didn't get used last week. Oops, should have stocked up on freezer paper too!
ReplyDeleteLove your meal planning. I'm super good at meal planning, but overall, we are terrible at sticking to it. It's usually because we don't "feel like" having whatever we were supposed to have. I really like those meal planning calenders you see on pinterest, but I'm not sure how much I would use one.
ReplyDelete