How Meal Planning is Changing My Life

Hey Good lookin'
What's cookin'?

Beware, here comes another motherly-inspired blog post.

Although this post will seem very 'family'-esque, and you may not be at that stage of life, read on. I think there's still a real benefit in meal planning, whatever your circumstances.

I recently bought the book Parents Need To Eat Too. While I've struggled to make some of the recipes in there because they are very.. well.. American, the approaches to baby friendly meal time preperation that author Debbie Koenig writes are valuable!

Getting all teacher like, using a white board

I had heard about people meal planning but had never tried it myself. I decided that if I was going to attempt some of Debbie's recipe's I was going to need to plan it out strategically, especially as I was going in blind with all these wonderful new ingredients. While we have now adopted meal planing weekly, I have heard of people doing it monthly. In fact, someone I was talking to yesterday was saying how they do a big 'cook up' once a month. We can't do that because our freezer is too small to store stuff, but I also enjoy cooking as a bit of a past time, and I like eating fresh. I'm trying not to bake because I end up eating a whole cake or batch of cookies by myself.

This is how meal planning is changing lives in our house:

Saving money
I used to go out to Coles every day as an excuse to go out of the house. While that's a great idea, I would always end up buying more than what we needed. Since meal planning we have compared the bills - we have saved money and long term, it will pay off. Hopefully meaning hubby will buy me flowers more often!

Strategic Shopping
We often shop at a local fruit and veg market for cheaper and fresher produce, and then buying the other groceries either at Coles or Woolies. We tried Aldi but didn't see much of a difference in price or quality and ended up being just one more place we had to drag Luke along to. Aldi is a bit of a hoarders paradise with lot's of tempting cheap things to buy that I don't need, so I'm trying to avoid it if I can. When I have planned meals for the week I try and work out which place has the best specials suited for our needs - although regularly we just go to wherever the car is parked closer to at Fountain Gate.

Sometimes dinner is as simple as
crackers, dip, cheese & salmon.

A sense of achievement
Not having a 'career' I'm working on anymore, it's good to feel like I have achieved something. It has also been a chance for me to try out new techniques in my cooking, and learning about new ingredients and how they are used. It's kind of like an unwritten professional development.

Less Hoarding

Have you ever bought stuff just because it's on special, only for it to be stashed in the pantry and found when it's out of date? (And I'm talking about something that has a 3 year shelf life. And let's not talk about the spices from 1991). I'm infamous for having a lot of nothing in my bursting-at-the-seams pantry. I've learnt to buy what I need, week by week. I've also learnt not to get sucked in to buying 2 to get a cheaper price either. Unless I need it, I'm spending more money than I need to. The same goes for buying in bulk. While it's cheaper to buy so much per 100g if you buy more of it, if it's going to go stale or you'll throw it out, it's not only bad for the environment, but it's also bad for your pocket. Be aware! Things like spices and staples like rice and pasta are okay to buy in bulk if you can fit them and use them! No more buying for the sake of buying in this house!

"Heathers Spanish Tortillas"
from Parents Need to Eat Too

Less Cooking
I only cook three times a week, max. I usually choose meals that will last two nights. This is strategically planned around personal training on Monday & Wednesdays and small group on a Tuesday when Hendrik is left to battle solo. Sometimes I can make enough to give to the neighbours or freeze for a rainy day!

Luke included
Planning means I can think about how the now solid-eating Luke can be included. He is generally pretty fussy and only will eat what we eat about 20% of the time, but we're getting there! He loved my chowder the last few nights. Even if it did make him fart lots.

Meal prep while catching up on TV
under the aircon in the lounge

Healthier options
Meal planning means that I'm not 'living in the moment' of how I feel, but actually thinking about what I want to buy and how that impacts my health. And as I'm not going to the supermarket on a daily basis the temptation of the half-price-chocolate-bar isn't there.

Calmer house
Knowing what I'm going to cook every day eases the stress because I know what time I need to have Luke fed and napped so that I can start cooking. There's less panic of "ohmygodwhatamIgonnacook" and I find that we are all generally happier. Not to mention Hubby - food is the way to a man's heart, you know.

So, want to come over to dinner? You're most welcome. Just let me know a week in advance, so I can plan!