I have to say when I hear the words meal planning, my heart sinks and my appetite kinda wants to run off screaming 'where's the fun, improvisation and excitement in that' (my appetite has quite a lot to say generally). But, I say to myself (and my appetite) it WORKS. Its certainly helped cut down the food spends and whilst I think I'm quite good at stopping food actually hitting the bin, it does stop food waste too. So I think about it each week, although I loathe and despise it, I generally participate whilst dragging my heels like a sullen child enroute to the dentist.
I've discovered of late that I can make a compromise by having a 'rough' meal plan, i.e. having a list of 'tea' type options on no fixed days and allowing myself a bit of flexibility. As we've a generous stocked store cupboard it allows the evolvement of most type of variations of a main ingredient without too much bother. It also allows for the flexibility that 'reduced' shopping bargains often require, as finding goodies often means there's a bit of shoogling of a weekly plan required to compensate for a bargain. And, finally it seems to allow my appetite to sulk less when I tell it there's the prospect of 'several types of tea' each week rather than 'stew on Tuesday, baked tatties on Wednesday' which quite frankly would see it marching off in protest at such structure.
So it's all about compromise and flexibility if you ask me. And, with that in mind I took myself off to the stores/freezer/fridge to peruse this weeks 'options' and to gauge how much grub we'd need to buy to make some tasty treats this week. In the mean time it's coffee and a homemade flatbread stuffed with scrambled eggs to soothe me. Local of course. And if I'd not been planning ahead, I wouldn't have made extra breads for brekkie would I?
Until next time, do have a think about meal planning, on the one hand dull as dishwater but on the other more time to obsess about food and make the most of those pennies! Or maybe you do it already, if so lob some tips my way! And, as always a nicely stocked larder makes for a so much more simple life and plenty of choices!
Happy Scoffing!
I do agree. The other thing I found with a strict meal plan was to never admit it to the family or you get complaints and requests to change it!
ReplyDeleteah, never show weakness Pat - otherwise they gang up on you - well my lot do! I mind on fine the days when I cooked three teas cos of the pickiness of the peedie ones, thankfully I saw the light on that one before they started school, dark days they were.
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I loathe the idea of "it's Monday so it must be cold meat and veg" - being able to tell the day by your food must be SO boring! I have a roughly 5-week plan - and the meals repeat here and there but there's masses of changing around with days etc. When you're out of the house best part of 12 hours a day it's a bit vital to not be opening the fridge when you get home and wondering what to cook...!
ReplyDeleteAs always you're right - not knowing what's for grub after a hard day 'oot' would indeed stress me more. :) I like the idea of options and a bit of shoogling. Although a 'five week plan' is impressive - it takes me to think passed 5 days :)
DeleteThis is why your food shopping is so impressive too I'll bet!
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PS lots of my mums friends had a meat on monday, chops on tuesday, etc etc etc and lots of my chums at school had that - in some ways I longed for it bieng a gannet I then knew what I was going to eat, but now I'm glad I'm not that routine'ish :D each to their own eh?
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