“So, what’s for dinner tonight?”
THAT IS IT! I cannot hear that phrase again, that last-minute, spoken in a fit of hunger, desperate & cranky, “What’s for dinner tonight?” If you are like me, living in a household with two working adults, sometimes it’s hard to coordinate who will order the take-out, let alone go grocery shopping & cook a meal.
So, I am going to bite the bullet & start making a weekly meal plan for my household. I really didn’t know where to start, but then I found some great advice from Unclutterer. (It felt like it was written just for me)
Here’s my plan:
- Since I don’t have many cookbooks: Sign up for a daily recipe mailing list. I am starting with Everyday Food (we used this for our inspiration last night), but would love to hear a suggestion of a food blog that does something similar.
- Forward some tasty recipes to my husband at work, to get his input. A few that got him excited recently: Salmon Skewers, Tomato Caper Tuna, Beans!
- Print out at least 6 recipes that we find online that look good & put them in a folder in the kitchen – we will add to this weekly (Saturday morning with a cup of coffee sounds perfect).
- Plan 2-3 meals we will cook next week, looking for common ingredients (or things we already have) in the recipes. Use Unclutterer’s template.
- Make a shopping list & hit the grocery store. Use Unclutterer’s template for this, too.
- Always have recipes for the next 2-3 meals queued up, with the shopping list prepared – that way, whoever gets home first can just grab the list, hit the store, and start cooking.
Will creating a weekly meal plan simplify my life? I sure hope so.
Have you tried this or other advice? Let me know what you have found to be effective.
Tags: daily food, grocery shopping, martha stewart, meal planning
My wife started setting up a meal plan for the week each Sunday and it has totally simplified our lives, both of in terms of knowing specifically what to buy at the supermarket and hence, not wasting money buying things that we don’t eat. I definitely support the idea.
We tried this for a bit and it worked great… for the first meal. But by the middle of the week our appetites had changed and that tofu scramble we were psyched about on Sunday didn’t seem so appetizing to make on Wed.
We’re now trying to get the common staples on Sunday and then in the middle of the week whatever recipe we’re psyched on we make a quick trip to Whole Foods to get the remaining ingredients for.
Meal planning is great, but I end up doing what jeff c, does, buying ingredients for the week and then going with what we feel like that day. My husband gives little input, except for what he doesn’t like – smiles!
Love the blog. Looking forward to reading more and simplifying my life, too!