What's Cooking?
fhorns147
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Menu planning strategies
Hi all! I've recently been reconsidering how I go about planning the week's meals. I'm looking to spend less on groceries while still having nutrious, interesting meals. How do you plan your meals?
Re: Menu planning strategies
I always look first at the food we already have and try to plan meals around that. There's a few different websites that you can enter what you have and it will give you recipes based on that. My personal favorite is www.supercook.com, but www.myfridgefood.com and www.recipematcher.com are two others you can use. However, my absolute favorite recipe website is www.allrecipes.com!
Then I look at our schedules for the week. If there's a night I'm off work, I plan something that takes a little longer to make or is more complicated than what BF can handle (he's not exactly a chef). Nights I work and he's off are usually casseroles or pizza, something easy for him to make while I'm on my way home.
After that, I fill in the blanks. For example, nights we have his DD are usually kid-friendly meals like french toast or chicken nuggets. I usually throw in a leftovers night too, depending on what the week's meals looks like.
One more thing, if you're looking to spend less on groceries make sure you plan breakfast and lunch too! Stopping at the store to grab a lunch for work that day is not always cheaper than fast food (or healthier).
i typically do a veggie (frozen) and a starch of some sorta- rice, potatoes, pasta etc
I have recently done a lot of shopping at Aldi's, they have comparable food to many of the major store's "store brands", for less. Not sure where you are or whether you have them near you.
I like to get more than one meal from a "big meat" item. For example, if I make a turkey breast, that should be good for 2-3 meals plus some lunches. One "off-shoot" meal would be hot turkey sandwiches with a can of turkey gravy, another might be turkey tetrazzini or turkey pot pie.
If I make a pot roast, then that is a meal one day with the veggies and potatoes I throw in, then I can make a Mexican beef dish with some of the meat for another meal.
For both of the above, thinly sliced meat can be a sandwich item for one of our lunches
I can't always get to the grocery store for fresh veggies, and TIME magazine's cover this week is all about foods......per Dr Oz, frozen veggies are actually as good as fresh, and much cheaper. Kroger often has 10 bags of frozen veggies for $10, so these are always a good side dish, plus they have mixed veggie bags for the pot-pie or rice & stir fry dishes. I also buy frozen bags of chopped mixed peppers and onions and add them to things like pasta sauces, chopped further for omelets or other dishes. Real time saver and tastes like fresh. I waste a lot less fresh veggies this way.
My hubby is "meat and potatoes or rice" guy, so I always have fresh potatoes on hand, red skins or Idaho for baking, or cut up and baked with some olive oil, garlic and rosemary. I do use a lot of Rice a Roni styled side dish packets, but prefer Zatarain's.
Rachel Ray has a lot of recipes that can be cooked once and re-used in different recipes, large roasts and such.
I pick two meats that I can use throughout the week in different ways (usually chicken and ground beef). A whole chicken is sooo cheap and really easy to cook, search for videos on you tube, and will make at least 3 meals. Then, I pick up items that can be used in various ways, pasta, tortillas, frozen veggies, cheese, and go from there.
If you're new to this, I suggest googling "weekly meal plans with shopping lists". It'll make everything so much easier. Men's Health has some great ones, all under 50 a week and more than enough to feed two people (so you could always halve recipies and spend $50 for two weeks).
I have a few more tips!
I always check the weather, if it is colder then I will plan a soup, etc.
For sides, I usually get a 3 or 5 lb bag of potatoes, they last about 2 weeks. I will do different things with them, it is about $5. I get a large bag of brown and white rice, about $2 each. And then I have both of those options. Then I just buy a bag of spinach for side salads and then one or two other things like a bag of broccoli or mushrooms. And alternate all of those things for the sides all week.