Thinking more about yesterday’s post there’s two concepts I really want to highlight.
1. There is budgeting for your groceries and pre-planning your meals.
2. There is budgeting your time and pre-planning your activities.
Planning things in advance really helps. While there are many sites that will tell you to pre-plan your menu for the week when you shop for groceries, in truth, all of that will fly out the window when your kids tell you they hate what you’re making or you are really doggone tired from working that day.
If your time-budget isn’t set, you are going to end up with a lot of wasted food that week no matter how well you’ve planned your meals.
Some things to move your cooking along:
1. Prep your food. Generally speaking, your cut produce will last three days in the fridge. So you can cut up your veggies in advance. You can freeze the veggies yourself instead of buying bags of pre-cut veggies if you need them to last longer than 2 days.
2. Keep your meals simple, meat, vegetable or two, starch. The more courses you add, the more time you have to spend cooking. Obviously, tossing a salad is pretty easy if you have pre-cut salad greens on hand. (I initially wrote ‘bagged’ but you can pre-cut your own a day in advance, but no more. Greens spoil quickly.)
3. Save new recipes for the weekend. Really. Thursday nights are not the time to try out something you’ve never made before. That’s the fast route to ordering a pizza for dinner that night.
4. The freezer is your friend. If you package your meals and freeze them, no worries! I had a professional chef chastise me about storing cooked food for more than 3 days in the fridge. So if you think you can’t eat it in 72 hours, into the freezer it goes.
I don’t cook for days and weeks in advance very often because I usually let my boyfriend cook dinner for us, but when I have the time, I will cook up a storm and it’s easy with the right tools. (Sharp knives, bowls for mise en place, tupperware in various sizes.)
Try it out sometime. You really will save money cooking at home.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
We try to get 2-3 meals planned ahead. Since it’s the two of us, the meals are usually big enough to last two days. I agree, if I have to come up with something quick, it’s usually pizza or sandwiches.
I have a really hard time planning meals. I get cravings each day and just follow those, mostly. Also, my boyfriend cooks most of our meals so we have meat just about every night. I fully agree, you “will save money cooking at home.”
I’ve started meal planning to cut down on extra trips to the grocery store. I’ve found what works for me is having a list of:
Meals
Quick Meals (20 minutes or less)
Sides
Lunches
I always make sure to have 3-4 quick meals for when we don’t feel like cooking. I also plan more meals then days in the week. That way the next week is half done! And if we don’t feel like having something we have plenty others to choose from.