June 2009 Weddings
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
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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.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Easy meal planning
I think this is where I get off track in my healthy eating. I cannot pre-plan meals for the life of me, so I end up buying way more canned, boxed, and frozen meals than is necessary. But I don't do complicated recipes. I've tried looking at recipes before I leave for the grocery store, but nothing jumps out at me or they just seem too complex.
Maybe I need more staples? Go to foods that I can whip out in a few hours notice to prepare a meal with.
What's in your weekly line-up of purchases at the grocery store? I need ideas!! Thanks! 
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Re: Easy meal planning
I keep a stash of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Otherwise I purchase whichever meats are on sale that week. I also keep a reasonable stock of rice, pasta and potatoes and canned or frozen green veggies with the occasional fresh veg thrown into the mix.
I build meals based on the meat I want to use or have available, the prep method, the starch then the veggie. For example:
Baked chicken + rice + zucchini.
Sauteed chicken + pasta + broccoli.
Slow cooker beef tips + mashed potatoes + green beans.
I do my grocery shopping on Sundays. I buy fresh, and buy enough for the week... any longer than that and stuff starts to go bad. I typically make two stops (maybe three if I need household staples like laundrysoap, toiletpaper, etc)
1st stop: Farmer's Market - I buy tons of fresh fruits and veggies. Whatever's in season, on sale, and looks good. A good rule of thumb is to buy more than you think you'll need. We always buy extra and always use it all.
2nd stop: Grocery Store (or Henry's or Trader Joe's) - I buy meat, eggs, nuts, milk, and any other special request that Mike has. We don't store too much food in our freezer. By only buying enough for the week, everything is on hand, ready to use and is very fresh when I'm ready to cook with it.
If I'm in the mood for something extra special, I'll find a recipe using some of the ingredients that we have on hand, and then make a quick stop by the grocery store for anything I'm missing. On a normal night, dinner is ready in 20-30 minutes. Meat and veggies served a variety of ways: baked, steamed, grilled, crockpot. Options are endless. Every meal is very fast, very fresh, and very healthy... unless I eat out, then it's an entirely different story!
I dont plan meals either - I may have decent plans on Sunday night and then that all goes out the window when I have to work late or get otherwise distracted.
I usually buy the following at the grocery store:
I also always have the following in my pantry/fridge:
Out of these ingredients, I can always come up with something to make, and I have at least a dozen go to meals I can put together in a couple hours.
HomemadebyHolman
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Thanks KB.This makes sense.
Do you buy the frozen chicken or just freeze normal out of the produce aisle chicken breasts?
Hmmm, maybe I'll do a pork bbq tomorrow. That requires so few ingredients and no prep work. I also want to try a slow cooker pot roast/beef stew type of thing.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Try to think of the full meal as 3 different components. You need a main item, and 2 sides. If you're trying a new main component (a new protein or a different cooking method) go with 2 sides you can make with minimal preparation (for me, it's brown rice and a frozen or canned vegetable). If you're trying a new side item, use a main component that you're comfortable with (pork, beef, or chicken, sauteed/baked/broiled).
It's helped me to stock the pantry and freezer when I break the meals apart this way. I don't try 2 new components on a weeknight evening so I'm not feeling overwhelmed in the kitchen after a long day at work.
Also think about ways you can reuse leftovers. If I make pasta sauce one night, I'll make extra and combine it the next night with ricotta cheese and pasta to make baked ziti. If I have leftover rice, I heat it with one can of black beans and one can of rotel tomatos to make Mexican rice.
We usually have frozen chicken breasts and lean ground beef in our freezer in individually wrapped packs. We take one out of the freezer and into the fridge in the morning before work so by the time we get home, they are thawed and we can use them.
We've been using our slow cooker a lot more lately too but we generally just put in a beef or pork roast with water and seasonings so no magic recipe there. As a side, we really like roasted red potatoes drizzled with a little olive oil and either dill or italian seasoning. Vegetables could easily be added to this.
We take two trips, one to Whole foods, one to the farmer's market. We get all fruits and veggies at the market. I usually get 1 or two green veggies (beans, broccolli, zucchini), tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, potatoes (if we ran out at home), and 1 or 2 non green veggies (corn, carrots, eggplant), as well as in-season fruit.
At whole foods we get bulk rice, oats, and nuts. We see what is on sale at the meat counter. If its a good deal we'll get a lb of whatever it is (and if we won't use it that week we freeze it). Often I figure out what to do with this meat until after. We always get a chicken, and he cuts it into pieces. Sometimes we use the whole thing for the same dish, sometimes we use the breasts for one dish and the dark meat for others. Milk, eggs, cheese (lots of cheese!), bread for sandwiches. I find having a cook spice rack is very helpful too.
I've also been trying to go to the fish market once a week to get fish.
As far as go to meals that we do without planning and at least every other week:
Pasta sauce with veggies (typically red, but can also do a EVOO, garlic and herb sauce)
Tacos (I make my own taco seasoning)
Some kind of baked chicken dish (usually easy to prepare as long as I have basics at home)
Chicken breasts or pork chops - sauteed with seasoning
Big salad with either beans, tuna, or chicken.
AND....breakfast for dinner if we just can't pull something together.
Lastly, I really have to plug one of our cookbooks again - the Silver Spoon is really great, MOST of the recipes are basic and have only a handful of ingredients (most of which you'd have on hand). It can be vague at times, but has really come in handy for last minute meals for us when we are sick of the same old stuff.
I want to be a planner! Maybe it's a learned thing. Or a habit thing. Must. Start. Small.
Thanks, all!
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
I'm going to add on to this as well. We grocery shop for the week, buying very fresh (and local if I can find it) food. We grocery shop by the meals we want for the week. So together (but more me) we write the list of what we want for dinner. We always have a meat, a starch, and a fresh veg.
Breakfast and lunch are similar week to week so those are easy. We have a lot of standby, easy meals that we just grab stuff for, but are still healthy and quick. We typically try out a new recipe once a week, sometimes once every other week.
I find that planning really is the best, but we are also on a very tight budget, so this is how we keep to it. Then the meals are laid out for the week and all is said and done.
*Since this is hard mamie, maybe start by just planning one or two specific meals each week.
Some staples we always have for when we're in a rush or just don't feel like cooking:
can of black beans & rice, breakfast foods, frozen pizza.
We usually try to do 1 chicken, 1 fish, and 1 pork meal weekly. Not a lot of red meats, maybe 1-2x/month. Hubs loves tacos, so that is always what he wants, but we make these with ground turkey and the 40% less sodium taco mix.
Also - CROCKPOT meals are amazing. Set it and forget it...dinner is ready when you get home. I have a few fabulous ones that I'll have to add to the blog once I join it!
Sorry so long and rambling, just trying to throw out various ideas! GL!
on Sundays, I look at my schedule for the week, and all the recipes I've starred recently on google reader/the latest food magazines. I build a plan for meals based on how much time i'll have that day - on Tuesdays i have class until 7:30, for example, so I plan to make veggie enchiladas, one of our favorite meals that takes about 15 minutes. ( It helps that we like to eat dinner late.)
Then I write down all the ingredients i'll need for the meals for the next week, plus our basics, and shop based on that.
I like to cut up all of our vegetables after we get back from the grocery store and store them in tupperware - it makes cooking SO much faster
i used to be really intimidated by "complicated" recipes too, but one semester when i had NOTHING to do, I took the plunge, and now I love to try different things.
These are great ideas, all!
I kind of bombed at the grocery store tonight. Only really got ingredients for ONE recipe - but one that will give us lots of leftovers I'm sure. This will definitely be a work in progress. I probably will start relying on more meals thatn I can do in the crockpot now that my pork bbq has been such a success.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
This is pretty much what I do too. I have to plan some meals- after work there is no way I can decide what to make, shop, cook, eat, and clean up. That's my whole night. And when it doesn't sound good, we just go out.
If I plan 7 nights of meals, it just goes to waste and is unrealistic. I like to do 3-4 meals at a time and see how long that gets us. There will be leftovers, and nights out, and changes of plans. Every weekend (often on Sundays) I sit down at our kitchen table and pick out a few recipes. I get "Cooking Light" and "Real Simple" and as I read them I flag pages that sound good. So on Sundays I look at the flag pages and see what sounds good/easy to make for weeknights. I have a lot of cookbooks, but stick to ones like Rachael Ray or Taste of Home or other recipes without a lot of ingredients.
I make my shopping list from those recipes plus basics we are out of. Go to the grocery store and do the "big shop". There is a Trader Joe's RIGHT by our apartment, so we run there mid-week if we need anything to fill in.
For me, its a discipline to save money and time and eat healthier, and it is getting easier and easier as I stick with the habit of meal planning.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12