Then, a while back, I grabbed a piece of paper and one of my favorite paper-mate flair markers, and tried to plan things out a little better. I wanted to be free of driving home from work trying to figure out what we were going to eat.
Fast forward a couple of months, and I've got my meal plan pretty well streamlined! I thought I'd share it with any of my readers who find themselves struggling trying to figure out what to make for dinner, or who find themselves spending a lot of money buying lunch at restaurants every day.
Step 1: What are you in the mood for?
I have a pretty good rotation of a few dozen dishes and combinations floating around in my head at any given time. It helps that I read a lot of food blogs, and I'm always drawn to magazines that feature great simple recipes. If you need a few fun food blogs to get you started, here's a few of my faves:
Joy the Baker - Joy is so fun, and even though she's a great baker, she has some great healthy meal recipes, too!
Shutterbean - Tracey's blog has given me some of my favorite recipes. I love her Tuscan Kale Salad with Pecorino (which I made here) and her Totally Addictive Brussels Sprouts Salad (which I made here).
SpoonForkBacon - they make such creative things! I love all the interesting Asian flavors that they use.
I also have a good stack of cookbooks that I like to flip through for inspiration. Even if (for low-carb reasons) I can't follow a recipe down to the letter, I can always use it for inspiration! For example, I saw a great recipe in my Rachel Ray cookbook for bone-in pork chops in a spicy tomato sauce with scallions, but it was served over polenta. Polenta is super high in carbs, so I switched it out and served it over cooked pureed cauliflower with plenty of butter, and salt and pepper for seasoning. In this step, you're just looking for a good handful of recipes you think will work for the upcoming week.
Step 2: Get organized!
On a trip to Target, I found a little pocketbook sized calendar/planner. Essentially, I just put a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks into the little boxes for each day. Sounds easy, right? Go for it! I like to do repeats for lunches and snacks since it cuts down on the amount of things I need to buy at the grocery store. I also make pots of soup/stew for dinners sometimes, and those are usually perfect for two nights in a row! It feels a little like cheating to intentionally make leftovers, but I won't tell Martha Stewart if you won't. It'll be our little secret. If you don't have a cute/handy little calendar planner, you could just use a piece of paper, like I used to do. Works just as well.
Step 3: Shop your kitchen & make your list...
I usually do the first part of my meal planning at my desk, but for this part I move to the kitchen with a plain piece of lined paper for my grocery list. Now that we've decided what we want to eat, it's time to figure out what we have, and what we need! This step has saved me from buying multiple cans of crushed tomatoes when I already have 3 or 4 in the pantry already. Go through each meal in your mind, and quickly assess what you will need to get while you're shopping. Add it to the list!
A note on grocery lists:
I take my list-making to a big of a crazy place by sorting everything by what section of the store it's purchased in. Since I always shop at Publix, and know the layout of their stores, I actually make my list so that from top to bottom it actually takes me counter-clockwise through the store, ending in the freezer section. This may sound like a crazy step, but it saves me from running across the store for things I forgot to get.
Step 4: Shop!
You're done! Head on out to the grocery store, go through your list, and feel super-accomplished and ready to take on the week knowing that the guess-work has been taken out of the usual "what's for dinner?". Just take your trusty meal plan calendar and stick it somewhere in the kitchen so you can figure out what's up next!
Ever since I started doing this, I've loved grocery shopping! I'm in and out of the store in a flash, and the whole planning/list-making process takes me around 10-15 minutes. I want to hear from you guys, though. Do you have a fave food blog or magazine? How do you plan your meals?
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