Meal planning
Apparently asking “hm, what should we have for dinner?” at about 5:20 each day just isn’t cutting it. Or rather, it’s resulting in a lot of junk being eaten. Since I’d like to improve how I eat (which will in fact save money), I’ve been considering meal planning. I’ll probably start small, with a week’s worth of suppers to see how it goes. Of course, that means I actually have to THINK of things to eat in advance. Poking around a few recipe sites has helped with this more than staring blankly into the cupboard. I’ve also run across a couple of useful ideas for when I get super-motivated: once a month cooking and just generally freezing foods ahead. A site called recipezaar allows you to search by a variety of methods. For example, there are 98 cookbooks tagged with OAMC (once a month cooking). We’ve already started freezing on a small scale, by buying meats & breads in bulk from Costco and freezing them in smaller portions. Anyone have any other site recommendations for the lazy cook that wants to save money?
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February 7th, 2007 at 7:09 am
You might want to check out savingdinner.com. I have the Saving Dinner cookbook that I’ve used for years and I’ve also subscribed to their menu-mailers (email subscription) for more menu ideas. The food is consistently good and it is organized in weekly menus with shopping lists. There is a frugal menu mailer that will also help you stretch your dollar.
Like I said, the food is consistently good, but it isn’t spectacular. I started using it because I got tired of trying to figure out dinner every night and the cookbook and menu mailers allowed me to set the weeks menu ahead of time and I just had to come home and put dinner together.
Try some of their free sample menu mailers and pick the book up from the library before buying either. I highly recommend both for saving time and money.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Hmmmm, lazy cook? You’ve come to the right place. I like Michelena frozen dinners which are healthy (look for the light ones) and around $1. Overall they aren’t too bad.
Other than that, I like to just cook some staples on the weekends and eat them during the week. You’d be suprised how many things ground beef or turkey can fit into (think meat sauce and pasta, hamburger helper, taco night, etc.) The same can be said of sliced grilled chicken (salads, again taco night, subs, etc.)
I also like to keep some hard boiled eggs on hand. They can go in a salad and work great for breakfasts.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Thanks, I’ll check that web site out. (And for some odd reason I’d never thought of making subs…mmm.)
February 8th, 2007 at 8:40 am
It can be tedious, but we menu-plan in advance. Every Saturday morning we take stock of what’s in the fridge, build a menu for the week (usually just dinners). Then we build our grocery list based on what we need to make our dinners, and what we know we usually eat for breakfasts, snacks and lunches (which is almost always last night’s leftovers + a salad).
It is a pain to do, but we went from spending $140 a week on groceries (most of which we threw out because it had gone bad), to about $55/wk. And it means that we usually always end up with a virtually empty fridge by Friday.
February 8th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Have you thought of soups or chili?
They are good, throw in a quick side of bread, and your done.
Make some on the weekend, and freeze it.