My Meal Planning Strategy

 

When coming up with this year’s grocery budget I did a lot of plotting and planning first.  I’m trying some new things to not only help me stay within my budget, but also curb food waste.  In the process I also need to come up with healthy and delicious meals all while making sure I don’t deplete my resources.  All tall order to be sure, hence the plotting and planning.

 

Korean beef with rice & stir fried vegetables

As a household of one, occasionally two, I no longer need to cook up big family style meals.  With my current lifestyle and schedule I also find my meal times can become a little erratic simply based on what I happened to be doing each day.  I only really need to plan one good meal a day and then have a small supply of healthy snacks or brunch items at the ready.  Most days I’m good to go with only one healthy meal per day, while others I’m a little hungrier and will have two meals or just one and a good snack before or after.  It just depends on how I’m feeling and how much activity I have going on in any particular day.  Right now no two days are alike so having flexible options is a good idea.

 

Home canned soup with a little cornbread muffin

Despite the fact that I’m a one person household I’m cooking meals as if there were four.  Most recipes accommodate that anyway so I’m going with it.  I will make a meal and divide it in half.  One half then goes into the freezer to be eaten within the next couple of weeks while the other half is divided into two meals to be eaten right away.

 

Two meal portions ready for the freezer

Currently I am cooking two meals per week and enjoying a hot soup and salad meal in between.  For instance, I made Korean beef, put half of it into the freezer and ate one portion.  The next day I ate a bowl of soup with a cornbread muffin and a small green salad, the next day I had the leftover portion of Korean beef and then the next day I ate soup, muffin and salad again.  The following day I prepared another meal for four, put away half of it in the freezer and repeated the same pattern.  I hope this makes sense.

 

Leftovers pulled from the freezer to thaw for the week ahead
This plan saves me a lot of time spent cooking as well

Every two weeks I am pulling out frozen leftovers to thaw and reheat.  In between those meals I’m eating a soup, bread and salad meal.  Throughout the month of January this worked out amazingly well.  The soups were varied enough that I felt like I was getting plenty of variety and because I was freezing leftovers I didn’t get tired of those.  I’m also pulling things out of the freezer sooner than I used to so these leftovers taste better and much fresher by only sitting in there for no more than two weeks at a time.

 

Quite often I heat up my soups in my little slow cooker

What I consider to be a soup is not just your average broth based soups but also stews and chilis.  Some are heartier which is really nice on a cold winter day, but if I’m not particularly hungry I might choose a lighter soup such as turkey vegetable or egg drop.  This is where having a good supply of home canned soups on the shelf comes into play.  Preparing fresh salads to go with these soup meals helps me to make sure I used up my produce on a regular basis.

 

Cream of broccoli soup
Some soups are cooked from scratch and can be canned or frozen

Last month I baked a recipe of cornbread into twelve muffins.  I kept out four of them for my soup meals that week and froze the remainder.  The following weeks every time I made a soup meal I’d just remove one muffin and spin it in the microwave for thirty seconds and it was nice and warm, ready for butter and the perfect accompaniment to my soup and salad.  In the future I will be doing this with biscuits and dinner rolls.  These breads don’t sit in the freezer too long and become stale or freezer burnt which is my goal to keep them tasty and fresh.  And handy!

 

One of the meals I made last month was a sausage & vegetable quiche
I'm keeping my meals very basic and simple

By inserting a soup and salad meal in between a regular meal I’m able to save some money on my grocery bill.  I’m efficiently using what I have on hand as well as using up leftovers and controlling potential food waste.  I’m keeping a good variety in my menu plan and I’m making sure I’m boosting the nutrition level.  Most importantly, I’m looking forward to these meals and leaving the table very satisfied and that is what I call a successful meal plan.