Meal Planning
I have just put together - for the first time - a six week rotation of meals. I am really looking forward to being to use it at the beginning of next month.
I have also been motivated to make one day a week a fasting/liquid only/liver rest day. I will see how that goes.
I am excited to have a plan though. I have been wanting to do this for a long time.
Comments
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@monica197 I really need to get the freezer meals assembled. I can yank one out the freezer in the morning, pop it in the crockpot and have it done when I get home.
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I had to learn a bit about meal planning for a month at a time for the daycare we had in Idaho. Having rotating plans really helped a bunch, and we did change it up seasonally to take advantage of farmer's market.
We quickly discovered that if more than a few kids wouldn't eat something it made sense to replace that option in the rotation sooner rather than later. And we always had a few things on hand that could be put on the table quickly that we knew the kids would eat in case of power outage or other issues. Those were not as healthy, but it's important to have an emergency meal or two on hand.
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My family always laughs at me because I get overly excited about meal planning. I used to have an 8 week rotation several years ago when I first started meal planning. My planning has adapted and changed a lot over the years and I have enjoyed every minute of it.
I always try to have several days if not a weeks worth of freezer meals available for my family. My youngest son has some health issues that land him in the hospital unexpectedly for a few days on occasion. It makes me feel better about leaving the other kids at home while I stay with him to know that they won't have to worry about food. The older 3 do know how to cook but it is nice to know that they can just pull a meal out when things are stressful. We also use them occasionally on days when I'm just overwhelmed with things that need my attention. I also keep several homemade meals such as ground beef (for tacos or spaghetti) or stews canned on the pantry shelf for similar situations.
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@Mary Linda Bittle, West Plains, Missouri Yes and I was thinking it is so much easier to restock the pantry when you kid of know what you tend to cook - it eliminates the 'a little bit of this and that' and distills out what is needed
@Michelle D I bet they are all super thankful when they want a quick grab meal!!
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@monica197 That is great. I have done some meal planning for a few weeks one week at a time. But that has fallen by the wayside again. Need to get back to it.
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Any Instant Pot meal I make gets made into a full pot so there's always leftovers for the freezer. Chili, stews, meat for wraps, veggies for side dishes or a last minute potluck, etc. Saves a lot of clean up time rather than cooking every day.
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Meal planning has become an essential program for me.
Its saves time ans money and when I have Mom health issues I can just have one less thing to think about
Love all the ideas here. I forget to use an insta pot or crock pot at times. We do not eat big meals here so freezing leftovers or planning meals around them helps a lot.
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One of my favorite sites for freezer meals is:
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Wow @monica197 this is so impressive! I love the idea of taking one day to fast.
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I have never been good at water or juice fasting but I know there are huge benefits to doing it once a week.
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Great site! Thanks for posting @RustBeltCowgirl
Many years ago Mother Earth News had a frozen meal page and info. I saved it but lost it (you know how that goes!) I have not been able to find it since.
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Found this Instant Pot free class in the previously mentioned freezer meals website.
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OMGosh - I'm a super freak when it comes to meal planning. I even created my own meal planning journal.
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I did a monthly meal plan years ago. It was fantastic (in my opinion) and included many favorites! It saved time, probably money, and certainly cut down on stress.
I included leftover meals, spare days where I could try something new, had a day that had simple choices (like a choice between soups) or just finish up any other leftovers that might happen to be. I also made up a special recipe book of just those recipes, for 2 and scaled up to 6 people as well. Unfortunately, as much as I saved and backed things up, one of our toddler boys at the time did a great job of crashing our computer...over & over, just before I could get it printed out. I lost all my work that day. I thought it had been backed up, but it hadn't been for an unknown reason, apparently. I still mourn that, as I was going to give each of the kids a copy for when they left home. 🤔
What I also did was make up my grocery list to match...down to how many cups of certain things that I would need in total so that I would know how much to buy or keep on hand. It was most likely similar to what restaurants do, I would imagine.
To top it off, I had a very simple grocery list program that I altered slightly (and loved) that I could rearrange for going through the store I used most, aisle by aisle, and current price input. This program would total up my groceries so that I knew almost to the penny what I would be spending that day. I would know as well if I had a bit extra to spend on a new treat/mystery veggie item to explore or if I needed to cut back on something to fit the budget that we had at the time.
If you want to go to all that work, it is an awesome system. It was a lot of work and took a long time. Maybe I should try it again. Our tastes have changed somewhat as we expanded our choices, but some of the recipes have remained favorites.
I often wished that I had an app for exactly what I had accomplished, easily alterable/customizable to suit the needs/preferences of the user, not necessarily all of my recipes, that included all of the features that I wanted. There are some programs/services/websites out there, but none quite like that. I had at one point, tried to put together a class on how to put something like my system together, complete with templates, but got hung up on a few details and never completed it. Now, I wonder where I stashed it. I know that I didn't through it out.
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You are much more of a planner than I am if you have a six-week plan. My plans focus on keeping the stocks full, and having a few weeks of frozen meals ready for quick heating when I'm busy. But I don't plan what we are going to eat on any given night more than 1 night ahead.
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The idea behind the planning was to see if I could streamline the groceries and rearrange a short list of ingredients to come up with many meal variations. It kind of started as I was evaluating the stocking up that I did in 2020 and thought...how could I by a simple streamlined list of stuff - stock up on that - and then use those few items to create a variety of meals. I thought it would take a lot of fear buying and last minute angst out of the equation if I just had a few things to concentrate on keeping well stocked all of the time. I could then commit to memory some tasty recipes so I would not have to fumble with recipe cards all of the time. @VermontCathy
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@monica197 This is a good idea. I am less formal about it, but I make sure I always have canned beans, eggs, frozen chicken breasts or thighs, flour, yeast, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices.
With those plus the garden produce, I can make a fairly wide range of foods.
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So I am into Day 3 of my meal chart. I already love it. All my meals for the week were made on Sunday and all the dishes were done then. Just a rinse out of the dish that holds the current meal. LOVE IT!
And today is my first liquid day - wish me luck!! I am starting my day with Marjory's Oatstraw tincture. @Marjory Wildcraft
Yesterday was 'fish' day and I made these salmon cakes. They were great! And the thing I liked best was that they held together in the pan while cooking.
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It can certainly be relaxing to have the plans, shopping, and most of the prep done ahead of time.
If you feel like going off the plan for a day and making something else, you can. If not, you are ready to go with an easy meal even when busy or tired.
The challenge I am having with my once a month meals right now is that the freezer is full of recently harvested vegetables, leaving little space for prepared meals untill some are used up!
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@VermontCathy yeah - that funny place where you have your coffer full and it is time to just begin using it
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I love crock pots but unfortunately when you live off grid it is harder to use them. I need to find a meal planning template or something I can use. Many nights when I get off work I don't feel much like cooking, but family still needs to eat.
Will go through these when I get home tonight. Thanks for sharing the ideas.
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Fantastic. I was looking for a salmon recipe and this will fit the bill in so many ways
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@vickeym Here's some links for templates.
Plus don't forget about what might be available in your Excel templates.
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RustBeltCowgirl Thank you. Will look into these. I don't use Excel but will look through the equivalent program in my Open Office program.
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