Part of me wants to say that I’ve talked about this before, but that feeling may stem from wanting to do it since Matt and I started living together back in 2007. Wishful thinking for so many years, but finally, it looks like we’re going to start to plan our meals!
While I hate to admit it, Matt and I are kind of… wasteful when it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables. We buy things in anticipation of making something, typically on a whim, then we never make them and the food is left to sit around and essentially rot. We’ve wasted so much food and money over the years, and I’ve been hounding him to do a meal plan to help this issue.
Of course, an idea is never good unless it comes from him. So the other day, when he admitted that we have a problem with food (and financial) waste, it was decided we’d start meal planning. I’m typically irritated because shit, it was my idea first, but at this point, I’m glad the idea’s back on the table (HA, pun!) at all.
Thing is, he doesn’t really want to put the work in to get it done, so the onus is on me. Frankly, I don’t care; whatever I make, I know he’ll eat, so I can plan out the entire week and he’ll be happy so long as food is put in front of him. This is going to be incredibly helpful next month in particular, when I embark on the vegan project that I told y’all about.
So! That all being said, starting each Sunday, I’ll be posting a meal plan for the week, including links to recipes (either through The Coexist Cafe or found on the internet) and helpful tips that I hope to learn along the way. Let’s get started with this week, which of course is thrown a huge curveball as Matt is doing a local audit and we’ll both be getting home late three days this week.
Nothing like starting a new project with a roadblock in the way, right?
Monday: Chock-Full-O’-Veggies Lasagna
Tuesday: Matt’s audit — leftovers
Wednesday: Matt’s audit — leftovers
Thursday: Matt’s audit — eating out
Friday: Stir-Fry Tofu (the recipe for which I’ll post later!)
Saturday: Taco Pizza
Sunday: Cheese”steak” Travesty
This sounds like a fun way to try out new stuff, too, like the Taco Pizza recipe found on The Pioneer Woman. I’m hoping this can keep some variety in our diets while also achieving the goals detailed above.
How many of y’all plan out your meals ahead of time? What was your motivator?
Stephanie Fox
I used to get some of everything and end up throwing a lot of stuff out, but in the past couple of months we’ve started doing the meal planning thing. For one thing it stops all the waste food, for another thing it’s easier when you have two people in the house who eat totally different things. It usually works, though there are the odd times when meals get switched around because plans change or whatever. It’s definately cut down on the food waste though!
I’m totally anticipating switching things around once in a while, depending on our moods — cheese”steaks” might be done Friday instead, and the tofu stir-fry would replace it on Sunday, or whatever.
So long as we use whatever we bought that week, I’m happy!
How do you prepare your own meal plans? I’m using Pinterest to save recipes that look good and inserting them into the week, but I’m really new at this, so I could use help from a veteran, even one of a few months!