Monday, January 12, 2009

Trouble Spot Tuesday: Fridge, Pantry and... MEAL PLANNING

I hate meal planning. Or rather, I should say I hate the process of meal planning. It’s my LEAST favorite household job (other than rinsing out poopy cloth diapers. Wierd that I consider those 2 equally opposite tasks, equally distasteful). It seems very tedious to me and I hate having to balance it all out and try to figure out what everyone would like to eat. The family is of little help. Hubster says "You know I'm good for anything" and Mouse says "Hotdogs! Mac and cheese! MacDonalds!"

However, I LIKE the result of knowing exactly what we’re having for dinner. I like to check the menu, take out the meat the day before, not have to rush and know how I need to plan the day so that dinner is ready on time. And I don’t mind cooking or grocery shopping. But by the amount of carrying on I do before actually sitting down and making the plan, you’d think that I was going for a root canal with an anal probe chaser.

I used to plan a month of meals at a time, but since we moved, with all the craziness that entailed along with holidays and the like, I haven’t made myself get organized enough to sit down and get to it. However, we’re getting back on track, so no more procrastinating (but I did sulk a bit).

This was a 2 day, 2 stage process for me. On the first day, I took an inventory while I cleaned things out. I started with the fridge. I threw out a bunch of stuff, wiped all the shelves down and grouped together “like” items: salad dressings, condiments, drinks, yogurts, etc. I’ve regained a bunch of my useable sized plastic containers and got rid of some interesting almost science experiments.

Then I hit the freezer. I’ve hit a boat load of meat sales in the last few weeks and we do not need meat for a long time. Especially, chicken. Good grief. Anyway, I took stock of what we had, and again, grouped like items together, meats, frozen veggies, breakfast stuff, Hubster’s meals and wiped things down. Last night we had a pasta fagioli leftover I made a while ago to use it up and realized it didnt' really carry over so well. Note to self: make less of that next time.

Next was the pantry. We are blessed to have 2 great pantry spaces. One is used for storing crafts, the crockpot/breadmachine/etc, cleaners etc. The other is for food. Again I grouped like things together: bin of potatoes/onions, water and juice bottles on the floor (and 9, yes, 9 LARGE cans of pea soup from home – we really like pea soup around here); snack items on the lower shelf where the kids could reach them; a shelf for breakfast/lunch foods; another for pasta/rice/cooking oil and pickles/extra condiments; another for baking and other staples; and then the goody basket (with Mama's chocolate stash and all the other treats that are better left out of sight out of mind for little ones. Shhh) and coffee on the top shelf. This system was already in place but needed some tidying up. Mouse’s class is having a pretend grocery store next week so this was a good opportunity for me to empty out some boxes and clean out some containers to pass onto the school.

Once I had an idea of what I had on hand, I whined, stomped around, made a coffee, threw a little tantrum and procrastinated some more. Then the next day, I sulked for a while (because I’m really mature that way) and then finally sat my ass down with a pen, paper and favorite cook books to make up the meal plan. My goal was to plan enough dinners to take us to the end of January, primarily using the food and staples we had on hand.

To start, I made a list of all the days we needed meals for and made a note beside each day if there were any plans that would need special attention: school functions, board meetings, classes, movie nights etc. Then I made a list of all the meals we could have with the food we had on hand using recipes and meal ideas that I know we like. I kept a running grocery list for any items I knew I’d need to round things out.

Then, I determined which meals were most appropriate for each night, trying to balance things out so we weren't eating chicken EVERY night (though we could) and factoring in leftover nights.

After I had things figured out, I tidied up my list and transferred the meal plans over to my calendar (which has a handy spot for it right beside the weekly view). Then, Mouse and I headed out to Walmart to grocery shop with a very short list.

Here’s what I ended up with:

12 Mushroom risotto with Italian sausage and veggies (the risotto turned out sooo well. Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow! And the Italian sausage is from home – Thanks Dad!- we inhaled it. YUM)
13 Taco soup done in crock pot (board meeting)
14 Beef fajitas (Pilates evening class)
15 Turkey pot pie and brownies (make double to give to a friend recovering from surgery)
16 Nachos with leftover taco soup and leftover velveeta cheese from killer mac/cheese (movie night)
17 Baked Pork chops, mashed potatoes and veggies
18 Chicken stir fry with rice
19 Hunter chicken (roasted chicken with peppers, tomatoes, onions)
20 Spagetti and salad (help at school in evening) (make extra sauce to use next week for chicken parm)
21 Chicken quesadillas (with leftover chicken from 19th) (Pilates evening class)
22 Leftovers or soup (anyone for Pea soup?)
23 Breakfast for dinner – pancakes or waffles (movie night)
24 Tuna pasta salad
25 Baked bbq chicken legs, roasted potato wedgies, veggies (make extra potatoes)
26 Frittata with leftovers from previous night
27 Pork chops and rice pilaf
28 Turkey soup (in freezer) and salad (participate in class = fried by noon! Pilates class)
29 Chicken parmesan and salad
30 Leftovers or pizza (we’re making pizzas at school for fundraising this day).

For groceries, I did a bit of stocking up on a few things I was out of, but generally I didn’t need much. Sour cream, pie crusts (because I’m lazy that way), chicken stock, a bit of fruit, bread, canned tomatoes, beans. Nor, will I need much other than fresh produce or milk for the next few weeks.

I do like to keep some staples on hand so that even if something happens and the meal plan falls through, at least I can put something together. And, if we decide to swap things around, it’s not really a problem either. It’s also easier for me to stay on budget if I have a plan and know what I already have in the cupboards.

I don’t plan lunches or breakfasts because these are often hit or miss with us. Especially breakfasts. Breakfasts for Hubster and I are pretty standard: toast, cereal, oatmeal, yogurt/fruit, waffles, pancakes etc. Hubster takes his lunch pretty much every day – either a Smart Ones/Lean Cuisine or leftovers and I’ll often have salad and a baked sweet potato or leftovers or soup. The kids, well, you never know with them.

So despite my griping and crabbing, I feel a sense of peace having things sorted out and planned for the next few weeks. I won’t have that ” 5 pm OHMYGOD what the hell am I going to make for dinner” freak out as I bang frozen meat on the counter. (clunk, clunk) And it keeps us eating healthier as well.

Cooking Light magazine has done a nice and simple article this month on doing this exact process but with significantly less whining and a lot more information as to what kinds of staples to have on hand. I personally wont’ tell you all of that, because well, I don’t have time and I figure you’ll know better than I what your family will eat and what you need to make those meals. Chipolte peppers might be as important to you as say, pea soup is at our house.


So, what are you waiting for? You know you need to clean out the fridge and the pantry. Go. GO. GO! And then, grab a coffee and something yummy to ease the torture, I recommend chocolate personally, and plan at LEAST week of meals based on what you have right now. It’s ok, you can curse me as you’re doing it, but you’ll thank me later. *wink*

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