Planning Progress

This past Friday I put together the first meal plan I've made in months. Having the baby threw us off schedule and that kind of advance planning went right out the window. But I sat down with the last weeks coupon mailers, perused online coupon sites and checked out the weekly sale fliers for grocery stores near us. Harris Teeter happened to be having triple coupon week. How is it that I've never paid attention to these things before? So I marked down all the items we would actually use that were on sale or special then set about making my meal plan. (This meal planning website I found was a big help, allowing me to search for menu ideas by ingredient and then drag them to a calendar to put together the weekly plan.) I have to say this is the first time I've done it this way. Usually I just say, "Oh, that sounds good, lets have that" and then get to the store and see that all the ingredients I need are full price.

After I inventoried our pantry and freezer I typed up a detailed list with the item names, amounts, and sale or coupon information for each item. That may seem excessive, but I was sending my husband to the store and wanted his shopping to go as smoothly as possible. Have you ever been to a grocery store during the weekend of a triple coupon sale? Have you been with a toddler?

I am most pleased to say that all said and done we saved over $60 on this shopping trip, our biggest savings ever. Coupled with last weeks total our weekly average for the last 2 weeks is $100 for the four of us. Not bad. I'm hoping to bring that number down even further but it's an excellent start. The next change we're making to our shopping habits is to only go to the store once a week. It's hard enough to stick with just what's on your list, and if you run to the store two and three times a week you're opening yourself up for impulsive buying. Was I planning on making chocolate chip cookies but somehow managed to forget the chocolate chips? Well, then it's applesauce cookies this round and I'll keep a running list for next week. Rarely is there a situation where we can't get away with substitutions or simply leave a recipe for a later date.

It was actually quite enjoyable, seeing how much money we could save, and I can see how people can start to think of it as a game. I'm excited to see what we put together for next week and expand our recipe index at the same time. I think eggplant was $0.99 a lb....

Meal Plan Monday

Sickness has been running rampant in our house for the last 4 or 5 days, taking down every person in the family. We finally seem to be coming out of it, but because the last few days were survival mode, I have no meal plan ready for the week. Normally, I make the plan on Friday and go shopping Saturday for what we'll need. As mom can attest, Saturday was a knock-down, drag-out day with no napping or semblance of normalcy. She was kind enough to run out to the store for us, but I had her get only the essentials. So, based on what we have, we can have soft tacos one night and sloppy bunnies another. We also have saffron rice and pasta shells and sauce in the pantry and plenty of chicken and veggies in the freezer. I know what we can make, at least, which will help, but I'm taking a week off from planning.

Meal Plan Monday

Monday:
B: Cereal and fruit
L: Leftovers
D: Chicken merlot with mushrooms (crock pot)

Tuesday:
B: Omletes
L: tuna salad and carrot sticks
D: Leftovers

Wednesday:
B: Overnight apple and raisin oatmeal (crock pot)
L: Leftovers
D: Vegan Lasagna

Thursday:
B: Pancakes and applesauce
L: Leftovers
D: Hibachi chicken and shrimp

Friday:
B: Muffins and fruit
L: Crab cake sandwich
D: Vegan "black death" wrap

Saturday:
B: Eggs and toast
L: Leftovers
D: Sticky chicken and rice

Sunday:
B: Cereal and fruit bars
L: Leftovers
D: Leftovers

Meal Plan Monday

Monday:
B: Bacon and egg biscuits
L: Leftovers
D: Pasta E Fagioli

Tuesday:
B: Baked Oatmeal
L: Leftovers
D: Chicken Burritos

Wednesday:
B: Cheesy Fried Potatoes
L: Taco Salad
D: Chick peas and veggies with brown rice

Thursday:
B: Cereal and fruit
L: Leftovers
D: Leftovers

Friday:
B: Muffins and applesauce
L: Crab cake sandwich
D: German Potato Soup / Grilled cheese

Saturday:
B: Blueberry and cream cheese french toast
L: Leftovers
D: BBQ chicken over baked potatoes with steamed veggies

Sunday:
B: Cereal and fruit bars
L: BBQ chicken pizza
D: Chicken and dumplings (my great-grandmothers recipe)

Meal Plan Monday

Most of my planning if simply for breakfast and dinner since the kids and I eat leftovers, sandwiches and veggies for lunch. This is the first plan I've completed in several months and felt an instant weight lifted off my shoulders after filling in the last day. We went shopping Saturday night and stuck to our list, knowing that impulse buys would be a waste. Such a change from just grabbing things that we like to eat, without a plan of how or when we'll use them.

Monday:
B: Scrambled eggs and toast
D: Herbed Chicken and Veggies in the crockpot

Tuesday: Bake sandwich bread
B: Oatmeal, muffins
D: Leftovers

Wednesday:
B: Cereal
D: Soft tacos

Thursday:
B: Blueberry pancakes and applesauce
D: Chicken stroganoff and steamed veggies

Friday:
B: Oatmeal, fruit bars
D: tuna salad

Saturday:
B: Omletes
D: Chicken and vegetable sauce in the crockpot with pasta

Sunday:
B: Cereal
D: Sloppy Bunnies and zucchini/squash saute

Progress in planning

For the first two weeks I was meal planning, I left only one or two days for leftovers and picked a few meals that turned out to be too much trouble to prepare when I was running low on time or patience. By the end of these weeks I had more leftovers than I knew what to do with and was feeling pretty discouraged about meal planning in general. But I realized that I was getting caught up in the idea; I really liked the look of the plans I had seen, each day assigned it's own menu. I'm sure for some having a set daily plan works wonderfully, but with the unpredictable hours my husband can work along with taking care of the twins the last thing I need is something else to worry about getting done that day. "I've got to be sure I get this started by 4! No matter that the kids are cranky from not napping, the toilet's overflowing, and my back is aching. Got to stick to the plan!" That's exactly what I don't need.

So, instead of assigning a meal for specific days I pick out 5 recipes to use in the coming week, but still plan on 3 days for left overs, going to our restaurant or being at friends and family for meals. I put these recipes (on index cards or printouts) in my home management binder and decide which I'm making each night based on how the day is going. If it's been a long, hard day well then leftover night is just the ticket. If the morning is going well and we don't have errands to run or places to be I reach for a crock pot recipe. Dinners that are made mostly on the stove top I keep for when Steve will be home to help with the kids.

I've gathered around 30 recipes that I keep filed in the front of my binder. Some of them are made primarily with pantry items (beans, tomatoes, rice, etc) and other items I normally keep in the kitchen. Others share similar perishable ingredients such as potatoes, carrots, and onions, which is helpful to be sure I use up bulk purchases. None of them are very difficult to make, but all of them are filling and tasty. It's been enjoyable trying out new recipes and getting out of our usual routine. This recipe is my new favorite, offering up tons of flavor with little prep required.

BBQ Chicken over baked potaotes
In crock pot combine the following:
12 oz any BBQ sauce
1/2 cup vinegrette dressing (I like sun-dried tomato)
2 Tbsp worcester sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
Add 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast and cook 4 hours on high (or low for 8.)
After the chicken has cooked 3 hours pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes clean, coat in olive oil and season with salt. Bake 45 minutes.
After chicken has cooked use a fork to "pull" or shred the chicken then serve over split potatoes. Top with sour cream or shredded cheese.

Meal Planning, or something close....

Dad, Jen and I took the kids to the Farmers Market this morning to pick out some fresh produce. It was a lovely morning, in the mid 70s with a slight breeze. We had gotten there early enough to sit and have a breakfast of egg biscuits and hash browns at a picnic table while the last farms put out their products. I ended up going home with some beautiful peaches, yellow squash and zucchini. Dad opted for some lesser known varieties to experiment with. I plan to use some of our peaches fresh for the kids and will probably make a crisp with the rest. The squash and zucchini will be divided between a chunky sauce (made with tomatoes from our garden) for pasta one night and sauteed with some leftover onion as a side dish another.
It's a start to a meal plan, anyway. I've got to go through and inventory our pantry and freezer to see what we have to work with, but I'd imagine we can create quite a variety of dishes with the staples we normally keep around. Today I used 7 frozen (black) bananas to make 2 loaves of banana bread for the kids. I'll freeze one loaf and the other will take us through breakfast and snacks for a week. (Did you know you can freeze bananas? In their peels, no less! No more will you have to toss black, mushy, wasted bananas! Defrost them in the microwave and they'll make super moist banana bread.)
To get a jump start on tonights dinner, I decided to go the crock pot route. I had some boneless, skinless chicken breast in the freezer so I looked around the kitchen to see what I could create. A simple chicken stroganoff seemed to be in order. I threw in the remains of a tub of sour cream (about 1 cup), a packet of mushroom gravy mix, a little flour and about a cup of water. Once those were mixed well, I tossed in the chopped chicken breast, and used up the last of our yukon gold potatoes, some baby carrots and half an onion. Its slowly simmering away now and in about 4 hours I'll add some peas and mix up a savory biscuit topping to cook for another hour. Dinner should be ready and waiting after the kids go down for the night.
We try to keep food items on hand that are often used to make many simple dishes. Besides pasta (spaghetti, rotini, and orzo), rice, potatoes, carrots, onions, and tomatoes are serious multi-taskers in this house. I just need to start getting in the habit of planning these dinners out ahead of time so at the end of the day I don't throw my hands up in the air and say, "Oh, forget it. I'm having a sandwich."