Nothing can strike fear into the heart of a woman more than the thought of meal planning.
Good grief!
You're asking me to not only MAKE the food, but to actually PLAN in advance?
Fuhgeddaboudit.
But I am here to tell you that when you cook with Real Food, meal planning is a cinch!
At least the way I do it.
Not only is my method fast & easy, it's also economical which saves you $$$ in the long run, which makes your sweetheart happy, which gives you brownie points, which allows you to cash your brownie points in for when you want to buy that goat you always wanted. See? Meal-planning miracles right there.
So listen up. Grab your recipes, some paper and a pen. And prepare to have your mind blown.
How I Create my Real Food Meal Plans:
I always start Sunday with meat. Mmmm...meat. But there's a reason for this. A meat dish will provide for 2-3 days worth of meals and here's how.
Eating real food means you believe in food in it's "whole" form. You're not afraid of meat with skin on it and bones in it. At least I'm not. I hope you're not either. Good. So, for example, if you purchase a whole chicken then you'll be able to roast said chicken and have a delicious meal, then you can take the leftover meat and make a casserole-like dish the NEXT day, then you can use the bones to make a broth for a soup the NEXT day. It's easier than you think and IT WORKS.
Later on in the week we have an "in season" day, which means we up the produce intake for that meal and create something with the local in-season produce sales.
Another day is a seafood day, because well, we love seafood and it's wicked good for you.
Fridays are always homemade pizza night & Saturday is our "quick & easy" meals, or out-to-eat meal.
So let's re-cap how I plan my meals:
Sunday - Meat Day - hopefully in whole form with skin & bones.
Monday - Casserole/2nd Meat Day - something that can be delicious with only a small amount of meat like lasagna or enchiladas or a pasta dish.
Tuesday - Soup Day - almost EVERY soup has a broth base, and with homemade broth the taste is out of this world! If I have leftover meat, I'll throw it in. If not, then it's meatless. Yes, sometimes we have meatless chicken noodle soup. Craziness over here.
Wednesday - In Season Day - Fresh, local produce - this day is fun because I can get creative
Thursday - Seafood Day - If you don't like seafood (give me a minute to stop gasping) just think of something else.
Friday - Homemade Pizza Day - And I'm not gonna lie, on busy days it's also known as "take-out pizza night"
Saturday - Quick & Easy Day - Grilled cheese, Bean burritos, whatever's easy or just go out-to-eat already.
Not too bad, right?
The best part is ACTUALLY placing your recipes into these categories. Then every week you can look at your list and be amazed at how easy it is to plan.
Wanna see my Meal Plan Master List?
This is a VERY simplified version for. I promise we don't just have "HAM" for dinner.
We usually have Honey Mustard-glazed Ham with Cheesy Potatoes & Green Beans. And our Mango salad is full of quinoa, black beans, red pepper, green onions, cilantro & lime!
This purpose of dividing your meals into days is so that you will have a MASTER LIST. One that will remind you of all the good stuff you can make so you can meal plan in 10 min. flat!
An Awesomespice Meal Plan:
I wish I could give you my recipes, but they are just not quite ready yet.
You see, I am working hard on creating Real Meal Plans for all my peeps, so just be patient, it's gonna be good!
In the meantime, you can follow me on Pinterest and see me pin all sorts of delicious Real Food recipes I find!
And here's a good broth recipe....either in the pressure cooker....or the crockpot
im trying to be patient!! you seriously have the best set up vie seen in .. ever. i appreciate your time and effort SO very much. im trying so hard to eat real food for LIFE not just for now. its hard when you are raised on boxed mac n cheese and bologna. thank you again! i am going to be checking back (daily lol) for recipes and the like... can you make an app for this meal planning stuff when you are done, that would be amazing.. too much?
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i like this idea. sometimes i get in a meal planning rut (and honestly, i've been in one since i got pregnant this time around! i made my husband clap for me last week because i actually planned and executed four meals in a row last week. that hasn't happened for months!) and i like the idea of having each day have a category. here's something i'm scared of though - making my own broth. i have no idea how you go about that. have you done a post on that already that you could point me towards? if not, maybe you could share the ways in a future post? :) it sounds overwhelming right now, but i'm sure that once i knew how, it wouldn't be bad.
ReplyDeleteBriana, there are links at the bottom of the post for two ways to make broth.
DeleteMy two cents, just take it with a grain of salt: I really like your simple meal planning approach - however, like most meal plans out there, I think that planning for breakfasts, snacks, and lunch is just as necessary as planning for dinner, if you are going to make an accurate grocery list/budget and not waste food. Sometimes coming up with breakfasts and lunches are more difficult than dinner planning, simply because those are the meals that the cheapest, easiest to make convenience foods are available for (mac and cheese, cereal, etc) and those hours of the day (early to late morning) tend to be more rushed than the afternoons and evenings when we're making dinner. There's only so many days of sandwiches or oatmeal or even pancakes that my kids are willing to eat. If you could cover ideas for other meal planning, too, that would definitely help and set your plan apart :)
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ReplyDeleteOh, I love you! You had me at your crazy goat birth blog. But this post has left me in a tizzy! Are you willing to share recipes?? In regard to Ciera's suggestion, yes...if you get time I'd love to hear what you do for breakfasts and lunches. Because, being new to this whole foods way of eating, I frankly have no idea what to feed my family! Sure, they'd love Velveeta Mac & Cheese 7 days a week...but it's just not gonna happen. (Sorry, sweeties!) Again, thanks for the encouragement and humor!
ReplyDeleteI was actually just thinking about emailing you and asking you about your meal planning. I love your blog. It is so great to find a whole foods blog that is actually budget conscious. In addition to the questions other commenters have asked about breakfast and lunch, I would like to ask about snacks. My husband works really long hours, and not sending him with snacks is not an option for me, but there is only so much whole, budget conscious food I can think of...
ReplyDeleteWe've got breakfast down, but lunch and snack ideas would be greatly appreciated! My lunch plan usually involves leftovers, but my boys have been so hungry at dinner this week that we haven't had leftovers. Today my husband and I are fending for ourselves at lunch which puts a dent in the food budget =/ My sons favorite snacks are cheese (SOOO expensive to buy organic cheeses), yogurt and fruit cups. My husband is more of the salty snack food lover. Chips, snack mixes, etc. I'm also having a heck of a time finding someone with Nigerian Dwarf goats to buy milk from or at least try it! We can't have goats where we live right now so that's not an option.
ReplyDeleteThis is great! Ever since morning sickness struck at Christmas, I have completely stopped meal planning. For the first two months it was because food was totally gross and I didn't even want to eat it (much less spend time thinking about it). I feel pretty good most of the time now, but I just can't seem to get out of the planning dinner only for today rut. Hoping this post gives me the motivation to get back into it...
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm sharing on Facebook and Pinterest!
DeleteThis is a great blog! Love it. I've been working on a 'master plan' as well--really enjoy seeing how you've put yours together.
ReplyDeleteLOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!! I have been avaoiding this for months! I just told my husband I needed to stop procrastinating and do it...as meal planning takes so much out of me. Im exhausted by the thought of cooking breakfast lunch and dinner each day!!! thank you!
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm commenting. Which means I have something important to say because I'm typing it instead of muttering it under my breath.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this plan. And I'm not sure why I didn't think of it other than I just stopped thinking when it got too hard. I have recently resorted to writing down everything we eat after the fact. How does this work, you ask? It doesn't. I have slips of paper and notebooks with two pages written in them all over my house. I just can't seem to get into the habit of writing down a plan before hand. But it makes so much sense to have 7 categories and then just plug in the menus that fit that category. Genius!
I would love to see some of your recipes, but I know that family menu's are so personal that I just need to go back through all the stuff we eat on a regular basis and plug it in. Plus, I just heard Sally Fallon give her Nourishing Traditions talk so I have a good idea of what we should be eating.
Thanks a bunch!
Great post! Thanks so much for sharing! I like this blog and can't wait to explore!
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