Goal 49. Simplify Meal Plan / Groceries

Last night at my small group I posed this question, "I just don't understand how one can go to the grocery store without having a meal plan. When I try that I leave the store with tons of food and nothing to eat!" All the girls agreed and most of the men did too! This of course sparked a little conversation between all of us, but then the men went on to talk about sports. The girls of course kept talking!

Source. 

For me the benefits of meal planning are first of all time. I hate it when I get home from the store and don't have enough food to get through the week. This means that I actually plan all of our meals and snacks when considering my menu. The second goal is budget. I am still not great at this part, but I am sure I would be in a much, much worse position if I didn't plan. And the third goal is health. We are much less likely to go out to eat and aren't continually eating junk food snacks when we have easy, healthy, tasty food at home. For us now eating out is purely emotional, as in, we tend to eat out more if we are feeling down, sick or just "hard-done-by". We also eat out if we are feeling celebratory. So we still have a ways to go, but I want to share how I organize the part I am good at. :)


My meal plan consists of 3 main documents on my computer. They are my monthly meal plan, grocery list and then just for a lark I made a 6 week meal plan. I was very simple to put together and would be easy for anyone to do, especially if you like to rotate the same meals.

6 Week Meal Plan

6 Week Meal Plan on google docs!

What I like to do with my 6 week meal plan is to change it out seasonally. The menu plan that I am showing you today will not be the one I am using in late August or in November. I also organize it by categories that I am trying to incorporate into our diet. Here are my current categories:

• meatless monday
• beefy wednesday 
• slow-cooked thursday
• freezer friday
• sunday fun-day

Other ideas include different proteins (chicken, pork, fish, eggs), different cuisine's (asian, mexican, italian, greek, southern), different cooking styles (soup, sandwich, salad, pasta, breakfast for dinner). 

Also notice that I do not plan every meal. In fact, I find that when planning 5 meals a week I generally don't use all of them. So then I just roll that meal into the next week. Play with this number and see what you find. You may find it more helpful to only plan 3 or may need to plan all 7. I do include all necessary side dishes and condiments in the meal plan. As much as these meals are assigned to a certain day I don't actually follow that part. It just helps me organize, but in reality I serve whatever meal is convenient for that day's schedule. I might cook on Tuesday and not on Wednesday. The key to meal planning is to plan for flexibility. 

The way that I plan my vegetables is to start by planning a Salad of the Week. Actually once I had plugged in my salads it made plugging in the rest of the items into the menu plan relatively simple. I just asked myself which salad I would like to eat with that meal and then put it in the appropriate spot. It really only took about an hour. I do plan some meals to have other side dishes, mostly relying on frozen or roasted-with-the-meal vegetables for this. This is because sometimes you gobble up the salad too quickly and then need to have some vegetables with your dinner. Again, flexibility is imperative. 

I also have a section at the bottom of my plan for my "fast-food alternatives". These are staple meals that are ridiculously fast, either me or Prince Charming can make it and I have all the ingredients on hand. When planning the grocery list I always make sure that I have the ingredients for these meals.

Within this general overview I like to try out different "food goals" that I set for myself. These are usually very informal and short-term. But sometimes I like the results so much I carry it on. Currently I am trying to avoid buying any items from the bakery besides sandwich bread. I am trying some recipes for various items, which you see represented in this menu plan. Other goals include low-fat, low calorie meals, high vegetables meals, inexpensive meals, avoiding certain foods etc. This part is totally optional and up to you. 

Monthly Menu

Once my 6 week menu is set (and I only do this every few months, sometimes I don't even use one) I can then plan my monthly menu. So from my meal plan I choose 4 weeks of meals. When doing this I try to first start by using up whatever meat I have in my freezer already. No sense buying something, when a different item is going unused. Simply take a peek around your freezer and fridge to get an idea of what you already have. 

Once I have chosen my meals I then write out all the ingredients for that meal into my spreadsheet. Like this:

(you can click on the images to see them full screen!)

But here is a secret. Since I am using a rotating meal plan, and even when I don't I usually re-use some meals I mostly just copy and paste. That is why I take the time to write out all the ingredients instead of just the ones I need. Makes it reusable for the future. 

Then at the bottom of the page I add the following categories:

1. Breakfast: We eat the same items each morning for breakfast, so Toast, Eggs, Oatmeal, Bananas, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate Milk are always on. If I have done a freezer cooking day I might add Egg McMuffins or Breakfast Burritos. 

2. Lunches: Always the same in theory, but changing based on what is available. Entree, vegetables, dip (usually tzatsiki), yogurt & frozen berries, eating fruit. I try to avoid lunch meat so our stand-by is tuna salad or egg salad. Again, if I have done a freezer day I will make calzones. Otherwise it is usually leftovers, leftover sandwiches (such as baked ham, roast chicken and meatloaf) or a meal salad. The yogurt is always plain greek, potentially sweetened with honey. The eating fruit is two different fruits of whatever is on sale. Enough for two people to eat daily. The details change weekly but the basic structure remains the same. 

3. Snacks: I plan out a few snacks, such as pineapple & cottage cheese, cheese (spreadable, cream cheese or slices) & wasa crisps, taco chips & salsa. This also changes weekly based on what is on sale. 

4. Treats: If I am in the right mood I might bake or make a fruit dip. These are added on a weekly basis.

I really think that adding these categories to the meal plan is what makes it work, because if you just plan your dinners there is a lot of other food that will get missed. If you grocery list is not complete then you will have to buy items that aren't on the list. It is well known that once you get to a store more items will most likely end up in your cart than were on your list, so not having a complete list to begin with only adds to this temptation. As much as I have said I change these items weekly, they also tend to be in a rotating fashion. We just like certain things and have them a lot, so I can often utilize copy and past here too. 

I make sure that I save each month's menu onto my computer, so that when I am making a meal that I have made before I just look through past menu's to find it. 

Grocery List

So by the time you have made your 6 week plan and your monthly menu the grocery list gets really really easy. All you do is copy your ingredients into a grocery list like this:

It is basically the same as the menu, but you just don't leave all the spaces. Then you go through the list deleting the items you already have and re-pasting items to the top, so you don't have a 4 page document with a lot of empty space. You do have to make a separate document for this since you want to keep the ingredient lists intact on your monthly menu's. This is a really simple, no-brain type task. I usually do it while watching TV. 

Grocery Shopping

I like to do a really big shop on the 1st Tuesday of the month since my grocery store offers a 15% discount on this day. I stock up on all the grocery items I have put on my list as well as as much meat as my freezer can hold. I like to buy freezer packs from a local butcher, so having a monthly overview of my whole meat order is very helpful. Also remember that most dairy will last much longer than a week, especially if unopened. Once you really start thinking about it you will probably find you can get a lot of stuff in one big shop. 

As for produce you do have to go back to the store for this. So I simply buy my bananas, 2 eating fruits and salad of the week ingredients on a weekly basis. And on my monthly shop I stock up on items like onions, potatoes, carrots and lemons. Pretty easy to remember. 

When you do your first big shop it will take some time to do the planning and to actually do the shopping, especially if you find a special savings day at your grocery store as they will be very busy on this day. But then the rest of the month is smooth sailing and takes almost no effort. 

If you are starting from scratch I would recommend you just keep to doing weekly planning and shopping until you have enough menu's that you can actually make a month. Otherwise the planning will take a really really long time. But if you have a long weekend and a few good movies, maybe you can crack at it! 

All of this planning has really made the grocery shopping and food preparation in our home much smoother and as I continue to work with and refine how I plan there are less last-minute rushes to the store. Just keep with it for a while and you will start to see a routine that works for you emerge. 

Do you already meal plan? Do you have any tips to share? Comment below!