The Cooking Part. Yeah that. I guess it's inevitable that when you make a meal plan, at some point you have to do some actual cooking. Now, don't get me wrong. I love to cook. I have fun cooking and it makes me happy to do this for my family. It's the pressure I don't care much for. You know, when it's close to meal time and everyone starts staring at the ONE person who provides the food. Yeah, that's me! And up until I started this meal planning thing, they would all stare at me and I'd look away, wanting to cower in a corner somewhere, because how should I know what's for dinner? Well, I'm the Mommy and I really SHOULD know what's for dinner and for breakfast, and for lunch, and for whenever anyone wants to eat. I should know this because it's my job and it truly is in the fine print of the SAHM Manual. And if I ever get around to writing that, I will definitely share it! But in the meantime, what IS for dinner?!
The Meals. I would love to share exactly what I cooked for the first 10 days, along with the recipes, but I won't. A) it's not that interesting to read and B) they aren't MY recipes, so I can't very well take credit for them, or publish them here without permission. I will, however, tell you the meals and which cookbook they came from so you can do your own research and go out and buy that book. I'm sure that the authors/chefs would very much appreciate the sales. For the first 10 days, I chose meals from one cookbook: "Wholesome Meals for Babies and Toddlers" by The Bridgewater Book Company. Now I have had this book on my bookshelf for over a year and maybe made one recipe out of it. It's a real shame, because this cookbook is wonderful. And it has recipes for every stage of a baby's first year, as well as food that can be enjoyed by the entire family. That was important to me, because I was getting very overwhelmed cooking different meals for the kids and the adults. So I had to change that as well. Of course, your meal plan does not have to do that, and of course, it does not have to follow any of the same recipes. Any recipes work, even your old stand-bys. I just chose to jump-start our meal planning by preparing all new dinner recipes. I thought it would be more fun. Besides, I was bored with the food I always cook.
The Menu. Here is the menu for the first 10 days. If you decide to do the meal plan yourself, there are several sites that offer a template that you can follow. But, seriously, is it that hard to write out on your own? You could even just use a calendar or dayplanner if that is something that already fits into your routine.
Day One.
Bananas, Yogurt, Cereal.
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.
Beef Teriyaki w/Soba Noodles and Veggies.
Day Two.
Fruit and Yogurt.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.
Chicken and Apple Bites w/Mashed Potatoes.
Day Three.
French Toast.
Hot Dogs and Cheese.
Green Giant Pesto Pasta w/ Chicken.
Day Four.
Biscuits and Gravy.
Tuna Salad Sandwiches.
Ham and Pineapple Rice.
Day Five.
Yogurt w/ Granola.
Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches.
Pastina w/ Butternut Squash.
Day Six.
Pear French Toast.
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches.
Starfish Casserole.
Day Seven.
Frittata.
Cheesy Potatoe Pancakes w/Corn and Scallions.
Creamy Tomato and Lentil Soup w/ Cheesy Garlic Toast.
Day Eight.
Pancakes.
Macaroni and Cheese.
Minestrone Soup.
Day Nine.
Eggs in a Basket.
Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches.
Vegetable and Cheese Pasta w/ Chicken.
Day Ten.
Bacon and Eggs.
Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwiches.
Ground Beef w/ Apricots.
Now, keep in mind that in our household, my husband gone every third day (he's a firefighter) but I save his portion for him to take to work on his next shift. Or in a pinch (and if they are really, really good) we supplement our dog's dinner with the leftovers (especially if there isn't a whole lot left.) So virtually no food goes to waste. If your family is smaller than ours, simply cut the recipes to make less servings, or freeze the leftovers. If it's bigger, multiply the recipes as necessary.
Of course, there were some meals that didn't please as well as others. And I'm learning that some ingredients or methods of cooking are not everyone's favorite. Take, for example, Bobo doesn't like scallions, and my husband doesn't like gravy thickened with cornstarch. But other than that, the meals were met with few words (lip smacking and mmmm's don't count as words) and even less resistance. And the best part, no one whined about what was for dinner. Not once. Dinner was ready at dinnertime or a bit earlier. Less stress. Less panic. More eating. All for less money (a LOT less) than we normally spent. Success!!
Showing posts with label simple plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simple plan. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
A Simple Plan
Really, it is. Simple that is.
The problem arose when I began to make a budget for my family. I know, a budget? What's that? Precisely. My husband and I are the guiltiest of the guilty when it comes to saving money. Saving? You mean, we aren't supposed to spend every penny (sometimes more)? Yeah, that. So, this budget thing. I set out to track exactly how much money we were spending and on what. And you know what happened? I discovered that we spend too much. Shocking. But the point is, I knew we could do better. Now, I tried that whole "keep track of every penny spent for a week and base your budget around that" plan. I'm sure it works for some families, but it did not work for us. It sucked. I hated it. My husband hated it. And at the end of the week, we were both VERY irritated. And we didn't learn anything about our spending that we didn't already know. The truth is, we aren't exactly interested in saving every extra cent so that we have a few million when we retire. We aren't even totally interested in saving for our kids college funds (I know, it's awful, but give us a break here, we are still a young family, and we will figure THAT part out eventually). What we really were interested in is paying off our credit cards and not spending so much at the Grocery Store.
So we decided to tackle the Grocery Store thing first. Why? Because it's tangible. We shop for groceries constantly. We have to eat. We like to eat. And we were spending nearly a $1000 in groceries a month. Yes, we are a family of 4. One Mommy (me), one Daddy (my husband, duh!), one 3 1/2 year old girl (Bobo), and one 16 month old boy (Mister). And we were shopping like a family of, I don't know, 6 possibly? 6 adults? Something ridiculous. I was determined to at least make a dent in this overspending. And I was hoping, (praying), that somehow along the way, I wouldn't be reduced to feeding my family rice and beans every night.
So the plan evolved. A simple plan. A way to alleviate that ever-annoying whine around 5 pm, "Mama (although it's really more of a Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!) what's for dinner? I'm HUNGRY!" and me, standing in the kitchen, scratching my head, thinking, "Darn it, I didn't thaw out any chicken. Guess it's hot dogs and mac n' cheese. Wait, no hot dogs, either. Guess it's mac n' cheese!" Ah, mac n' cheese, the always pleasing, dinner saving treat. What would we do without you? But, seriously, when I began to think about it, my kids were eating mac n' cheese WAY to often. Practically every other night. I suck. I can do better. So the plan evolved.
The Plan. And it is a plan. A meal plan. For 10 days at a time. I plan out what we will be eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I write it out. I dig through cookbooks. I spot something that sounds good. Something that will appeal to everyone. I write it in the appropriate meal spot. I then make a list. And this is crucial.
The List. Obviously, every meal needs ingredients. Some ingredients are already in my well-stocked kitchen (remember that $1000 a month grocery spending). Some are not. So, I make a list of the items that I need to make these meals. I write them down. I then search through my coupon stash. I must pause here to make a GIANT note: I AM NOT one of those coupon freaks (no offense to anyone that is. I just really don't have time or patience for that. And I can't figure it out. I've tried. That whole CVS thing where mom's end up getting cash back from their purchases or a totally free shopping trip is beyond me. Beside, we don't have CVS here, but I digress). I have a coupon stash. I clip coupons every week and I print them from online. I do want to save money, remember. So anyway, I find coupons that fit the items I need. If there aren't any, I don't sweat it. The real savings will come on the actual shopping day. Here goes.
The Shopping Day. Okay, it's the big day. I am nervous. I am ready. I am thinking, "10 days, 30 meals, 4 people. I should spend about $200. That would be great!" So, I feed the kids and myself first. This is very important!!! I pack them snacks so that they won't grab stuff to eat in the store. We are very guilty of this!!! I grab my list. I grab my coupons. I grab my diaper bag. I grab my wallet, with the ever-important Club Card (don't go shopping without one!). Am I forgetting anything? Oh, yeah, the kids....and we are off. We arrive. We start to shop. We compare prices of all the brands. We opt for the less expensive (when possible...I still prefer buying mostly organic, but sometimes it's not an option). We opt for the larger sizes (especially with cheese and yogurt....this is where you can save tons of $$. Buy the blocks of cheese and shred, slice, yourself. Buy the big tub of yogurt. Compare the "per ounce" price. You'll be shocked. I was.). We buy on sale. We use our coupons. But most importantly, WE STICK TO THE LIST!!!! We check out. I hold my breath. There are a LOT of groceries on that conveyor belt thing. Of course there are! I'm shopping for 10 days worth of food...for 4 people. We receive the total....$110. Seriously? And I had purchased some household necessities, too (like Listerine and deodorant). $110! Yippee! I can hardly contain myself. Feeling pretty good! Now, for the actual cooking part!
The problem arose when I began to make a budget for my family. I know, a budget? What's that? Precisely. My husband and I are the guiltiest of the guilty when it comes to saving money. Saving? You mean, we aren't supposed to spend every penny (sometimes more)? Yeah, that. So, this budget thing. I set out to track exactly how much money we were spending and on what. And you know what happened? I discovered that we spend too much. Shocking. But the point is, I knew we could do better. Now, I tried that whole "keep track of every penny spent for a week and base your budget around that" plan. I'm sure it works for some families, but it did not work for us. It sucked. I hated it. My husband hated it. And at the end of the week, we were both VERY irritated. And we didn't learn anything about our spending that we didn't already know. The truth is, we aren't exactly interested in saving every extra cent so that we have a few million when we retire. We aren't even totally interested in saving for our kids college funds (I know, it's awful, but give us a break here, we are still a young family, and we will figure THAT part out eventually). What we really were interested in is paying off our credit cards and not spending so much at the Grocery Store.
So we decided to tackle the Grocery Store thing first. Why? Because it's tangible. We shop for groceries constantly. We have to eat. We like to eat. And we were spending nearly a $1000 in groceries a month. Yes, we are a family of 4. One Mommy (me), one Daddy (my husband, duh!), one 3 1/2 year old girl (Bobo), and one 16 month old boy (Mister). And we were shopping like a family of, I don't know, 6 possibly? 6 adults? Something ridiculous. I was determined to at least make a dent in this overspending. And I was hoping, (praying), that somehow along the way, I wouldn't be reduced to feeding my family rice and beans every night.
So the plan evolved. A simple plan. A way to alleviate that ever-annoying whine around 5 pm, "Mama (although it's really more of a Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!) what's for dinner? I'm HUNGRY!" and me, standing in the kitchen, scratching my head, thinking, "Darn it, I didn't thaw out any chicken. Guess it's hot dogs and mac n' cheese. Wait, no hot dogs, either. Guess it's mac n' cheese!" Ah, mac n' cheese, the always pleasing, dinner saving treat. What would we do without you? But, seriously, when I began to think about it, my kids were eating mac n' cheese WAY to often. Practically every other night. I suck. I can do better. So the plan evolved.
The Plan. And it is a plan. A meal plan. For 10 days at a time. I plan out what we will be eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I write it out. I dig through cookbooks. I spot something that sounds good. Something that will appeal to everyone. I write it in the appropriate meal spot. I then make a list. And this is crucial.
The List. Obviously, every meal needs ingredients. Some ingredients are already in my well-stocked kitchen (remember that $1000 a month grocery spending). Some are not. So, I make a list of the items that I need to make these meals. I write them down. I then search through my coupon stash. I must pause here to make a GIANT note: I AM NOT one of those coupon freaks (no offense to anyone that is. I just really don't have time or patience for that. And I can't figure it out. I've tried. That whole CVS thing where mom's end up getting cash back from their purchases or a totally free shopping trip is beyond me. Beside, we don't have CVS here, but I digress). I have a coupon stash. I clip coupons every week and I print them from online. I do want to save money, remember. So anyway, I find coupons that fit the items I need. If there aren't any, I don't sweat it. The real savings will come on the actual shopping day. Here goes.
The Shopping Day. Okay, it's the big day. I am nervous. I am ready. I am thinking, "10 days, 30 meals, 4 people. I should spend about $200. That would be great!" So, I feed the kids and myself first. This is very important!!! I pack them snacks so that they won't grab stuff to eat in the store. We are very guilty of this!!! I grab my list. I grab my coupons. I grab my diaper bag. I grab my wallet, with the ever-important Club Card (don't go shopping without one!). Am I forgetting anything? Oh, yeah, the kids....and we are off. We arrive. We start to shop. We compare prices of all the brands. We opt for the less expensive (when possible...I still prefer buying mostly organic, but sometimes it's not an option). We opt for the larger sizes (especially with cheese and yogurt....this is where you can save tons of $$. Buy the blocks of cheese and shred, slice, yourself. Buy the big tub of yogurt. Compare the "per ounce" price. You'll be shocked. I was.). We buy on sale. We use our coupons. But most importantly, WE STICK TO THE LIST!!!! We check out. I hold my breath. There are a LOT of groceries on that conveyor belt thing. Of course there are! I'm shopping for 10 days worth of food...for 4 people. We receive the total....$110. Seriously? And I had purchased some household necessities, too (like Listerine and deodorant). $110! Yippee! I can hardly contain myself. Feeling pretty good! Now, for the actual cooking part!
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