Meal Planning Introduction

This is the first segment on meal planning that we are going to have on the Mom Inspirations blog! I decided that in this first post I am just going to go over some tips that I have for planning weekly dinners, and in the future I hope to post my own meal plans, recipes, and perhaps grocery lists as well, if you want to follow along with me. Although I have only recently started putting time into trying to be organized with weeknight dinners and cut costs at the grocery store, I know that a number of moms that I speak to don't plan their meals at all. So feel free to give me feedback too and share your own tips in the comments section.

I first want to say that I find it extremely important to decide before the week begins what dinners you will be having (I usually take an hour or so on Thursday or Friday). This way, you can create a comprehensive shopping list that covers all of the food you will need for the week. That way, you only make that big trip ONCE a week, and do not have to run out for that box of pasta or head of cauliflower that you didn't realize you needed. I like to look at the supermarket circulars to see what sales they are having, and that usually helps me to determine what we will be eating that week.

If I see that all canned tomatoes are on sale, I know I'm making sauce. If there's a big chicken sale, then a few chicken dinners are probably going to be on the menu. I also check the sales because it's good to buy extra of a product when it's on sale. For example, if I know I'm having a big bbq in a few weeks, I'll check for a buy one get one free hot dog sale, cheap hamburger meat sale, cheap chicken sale (examples) and stick them in the freezer until my bbq.

Freezers are wonderful when it comes to saving money on meat. Most supermarkets have a meat section with 3 lbs.+ packages that cost less per pound. I like to look for meat that is already on sale - so if they are offering chicken breasts on sale for $1.99/lb., the big buy package will be even cheaper per pound. Then I separate it into meal-sized portions and freeze them in ziploc freezer bags. (Another great tip I just learned from a more experienced mom-chef is to freeze any leftover veggies that you have and then use them later in stew.) If you have a big family that will be eating 3 lbs. of meat within two meals, just do a double-duty dinner (Rachael Ray's term, not mine).

Double-duty dinners are an excellent way to ensure that you never waste food. (Picture those tupperware containers stuck in the back of your fridge that hold that three-week old leftover beef dinner or last week's stir-fry). Rather than just reheat that chicken and rice dinner you had Monday, you can turn it into something new and tasty. For example, one night I made a sour cream chicken dish (courtesy of my church cookbook) with a starch and broccoli. Two days later I made a cheese sauce from butter, flour, milk, and shredded cheese, then mixed it in a casserole dish with the cubed, leftover chicken, leftover broccoli, and some pasta I boiled. I crushed Ritz crackers on top, and baked it. I had then eliminated all of the leftovers from my first dinner, but it tasted very different. (I actually had enough leftovers to make two of these casseroles - one is in the freezer for a quick meal another night). The trick is to anticipate the amount of leftovers you will be having so that you can plan the "leftover makeover" meal. A friend of mine (contributing writer Carolina) just told me she bought a big package of ground beef and cooked it all one night. She used some to make tacos the first night and the rest to make meat sauce another night! She was surprised at how much faster dinner got on the table when she just used the leftover, pre-cooked meat.

One last note on saving money on your groceries: it is great to clip coupons, but only if you're going to use them. Someone gave me a coupon binder as a gift recently, and it has been very helpful. There are plastic pocketed pages inside that I can slip coupons into by category. Don't get me wrong - I am a very inexperienced coupon user. I have seen coupon experts on TV that go into a supermarket and end up lowering their bill from $100 to $5 because of the coupons they use, and I have no idea how! But it is useful to look up coupons on coupons.com or sometimes on the manufacturer's website. However, I cannot offer much advice on that subject!

I think this is a good place to end this post - next time I will be posting my weekly meal plan and recipes, as well as a grocery list. I hope until then you have some new tips to put into practice!
Caitlin