I have never been a fan of meal planning for each and every meal of the week. For me, it’s mostly because it’s hard to figure out how much quantity exactly my family will finish for a certain meal. Most days, it just depends on everyone’s appetite that day, or how popular that meal is. I have felt I’m not a good judge at that. So I always tend to cook in slight abundance than just enough for 1 meal, especially with a family of 10, where it’s much more challenging to gauge how much will be consumed. Thus I tend to make dishes as and when the need arises.
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I usually end up cooking only once in 1-2 days. There are lots of families where meal planning for a whole week works very well, or where it has been lifesavers, and I am in no way trying to undervalue meal planning. If it works for you, please go for it! I’m simply elaborating what works for me without an official ‘meal planning’ session.
Another reason I don’t officially meal plan is that is once I start searching for recipes every week, I find myself wandering away and getting distracted by the numerous wonderful recipes out there, that I can spend a whole day browsing recipes and going back to ground zero.
So how do you plan meals without meal planning?
The number one secret is to have a good number of meal ideas that you are able to make with stuff you already usually keep in the freezer or pantry. Of course, once in a while, it is good to try out new recipes and experiment and broaden that list.
We have home cooked meals 90% of the time. In our family, there are certain meals we continuously have and alternate that we don’t tend to get tired of, and some others we have occasionally, that in itself provide a good variety. For us, I feel ‘meal planning’ itself is a big task to do, but rather it is much easier to have a list of recipes with ingredients we already have at hand, in a recipe binder.
I don’t cook every day. I make for more than for 1 meal, but I usually try to rotate things I make, so that there will be some variety. We have Indian food about 70% of the time. Our staple backbone diet is parboiled rice with 1-2 vegetable dishes, 1 meat or fish curry, and yogurt. But once a week, I also make baked chicken, chappati (indian flatbread) with curry and either a pasta dish/ pizza, and rotate, so it won’t be the same thing for more than 2 consecutive meals. We also regularly make grilled pork ribs, grilled chicken, biriyani, fried rice, tacos, fajitas or other variety of food that I come across. Once in a while, I experiment new recipes, in which case I prepare a shopping list if it has things I don’t normally keep in my pantry or freezer.
First, I’ll need to elaborate on how we shop. The only weekly items we shop regularly is for perishable items such as fruits, veggies, milk, bread. All other things will also be bought throughout the week, but not because we need them that week. It is mostly things that come on sale, or have store coupons, that we buy to stock on. Also, whenever there’s something that is running out, or we need to buy, I update it in our Cozi app (iOS app). I love Cozi, which is a shared family app, that can be used to maintain grocery lists. We keep several lists in it, for things we need to buy from specific stores, or to buy soon. That way, we can avoid a lot of texts/calls. My husband does all the grocery shopping on his way back from work, so he can just look in the app and know what needs to be bought, as soon as I update. Eg, If I open the last bottle of cooking oil, I immediately put it in the Costco list, and he knows we need to get it next time he goes to Costco. This is how we maintain a constant supply of grocery related items even though it may not be something we need that particular week. Basically, we never ‘run out’ of things since we buy up front, and this gives a lot of lineage when it comes to planning meals, as most ingredients will already be at hand.
Most things, we tend to purchase only when they are on sale. We never go for full price. When it comes on sale, we buy several quantities of the same item, depending on the expiration date. Example, cereal, meat, cheese, crackers, etc. This way, you not only have a constant supply of food at hand, but also save tons of dollars. We buy large quantities of meat on sale, and my husband cuts/ chops them up and we freeze. So when it is time to cook, it is much easier. Just need to plop one packet in the sink for defrosting. One added advantage is it saves time when you cut/ chop in bulk, as anyway you’ll still need to sanitize the area and cutting board. We also stock on pantry supply, flour and spices also.
We eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as part of our diet, but we only buy seasonal fruits and vegetables that come on sale. The only fruits we buy year round for the most part, are apples and oranges. All the rest will be whatever is on sale that week.
By shopping responsibly, not only is it very easy to save money on grocery, but you will always have a ‘constant supply’ of staples that you rarely end up having to buy something last minute at full price.
Since we have a constant supply of food at hand, it takes away a lot of the stress of planning. If I know there’s already cut chicken in the freezer, I can simply put one out to defrost, before even deciding what to make with it, as usually I’ll be having all ingredients I need. I decide by atleast the noon of the day I am to cook dinner. That way, there will be enough time for any slow cooker meals or any other more complicated meals that consume time. My Instant Pot, which is basically an electric pressure cooker that has a host of other functions, has become a huge life saver, as I know that there will be something I can make in it if I am running short on time. You can read all about why I love my Instant Pot, here.
As regards to vegetables, we maintain a vegetable garden. All kudos to my husband! Kids help whenever needed. In summer, we have a continuous supply of vegetables, that we don’t need to purchase any from the store. When the supply is low, we buy as needed, depending on what’s on sale. I usually cut up the vegetables on the day I make the dish, but once in a while, I have the kids cut them all up on a particular day, and freeze some uncooked cut ones for later use.
Another thing I do is to batch cook some chicken curry (around 40 lbs. In a family of 10, it doesn’t take long to go through 40 lbs!) and freeze in small ziplocs, so we have some backup just in case things go crazy and I couldn’t make anything. Chicken curry is always good to go with some chappatis. We keep a store of chappatis in the freezer. So this will be our go-to emergency meal, along with a quick vegetable dish. Just knowing that there is an emergency backup makes planning meals much less stressful.
So basically, the steps I use to cut out the stress of planning meals is:
- We have a stocked pantry of staples, as well as a stocked up freezer with raw meat.
- I have a list of recipes that we usually make, that can be made with ingredients we constantly have at hand, in a recipe binder.
- I have a small stock of cooked emergency meals in the freezer.
Using just these 3 tips, I usually don’t end up finding myself spending hours trying to decide what to make each week. I hope this will simplify the way you also plan for meals if you already don’t have a system in place.
I would love to hear small tips from you guys too! How do you plan meals?
If you are interested in meal planning, you may want to check out the Healthy Meal Planning Bundle below, which is a collection of digital resources..
