Meal Planning: Foundation

A childhood friend messaged me today, asking how I meal plan.  I've touched briefly on it elsewhere before, but figured it would be an interesting topic to delve into further here to tie into the Real Food Fridays that I have not been posting (innocently whistling sheepishly).  Meal planning is ever-evolving around here--we have to work around a slew of food reactions, within a budget, and still live life.  One of these days I will get back to more scratch-cooking and our microfarm will be full-tilt, but until then...

 I try to meal plan all meals and snacks, and I meal plan for the entire pay period.  DH doesn't like having similar things too close together so I can't do chicken two nights in a row, or pasta two nights in a row, etc.  I created a framework to cut down the brain power required:

• Roasts
• Soup/Salad
• Breakfast for Dinner
• Mexi/pseudo-Asian
• Rice/Pasta
• Grill
• Miscellaneous

I plan dinner first--on a good week I also plan sides--then I plan lunches, breakfasts, and snacks.  Some things we have standing each week, like animal crackers for our snack coming home from church on Sunday.  When I have an opportunity to be crafty, I want to update my menu-planning menagerie to something similar to this.  I like the idea of the primary ingredients list being on the back so you can quickly build your grocery list.  At the same token though, I keep a pantry and tend to shop to replenish the pantry rather than shopping for specific recipes.

Also, we have fail-safe meals that don't go into meal plan rotation that we fall back on during those crazy days where nothing goes according to plan.  They include:

• Spaghetti
• Alfredo (though not all of us can eat it)
• Sloppy Joes
• Rotini (a family recipe)
• Chicken and Stuffing
•  and we have a few boxes of Hamburger Helper from when it was free due to couponing

There are some options for those that do not wish to do their own meal planning, that don't involve take-out.  Fresh 20, e-Meals, and Menu-Mailer are all paid-for weekly menu plans that include shopping lists and recipes. Or, there's also the concept of Entre-Vous or Dream Dinners; better yet, if you're in the vicinity of Wilmington, Raleigh, or Chapel Hill you can take advantage of the awesomeness that is Custom Fit Meals.


How do you plan your family's meals?

-JS