Sunday, August 29, 2010

10 day meal planning

Previously we had shopped every week. I would like to push it out to twice a month, but due to the size of our fridge, it is just not doable. We were lucky to get a small beer size freezer which will add to our freezer room, but I plan to use that for meats and veggies to keep from tossing out food I do not use quick enough.
When we do eventually upgrade to a combi I think I will try to shop on a 14 day cycle, with the exception of really good sales. Actually ultimately I would like to have a well stocked pantry and only shop necessities and sale items, but that will take some time.  

As I plan meals I have found it is really hard to seek out recipes, not due to a lack of resources but just not knowing what to look for. I would end up with week with 5 days pasta, or all chicken. So I decided to create a guideline for myself. Now this is no way set in stone, it is just to guide me to various types or recipes and keep a nice variety in our diet.

So as of now my outline for the 10 day cycles is:

1. Beef
2. Chicken
3. Pork
4. Fish
5. Salad
6. Sandwiches x2
7. quick and easy/budget meals x2
8. pasta

How do you plan your meals?

2 comments:

messhua said...

I am trying to do a similar plan but I have to stick to:

Beef
Fish
Chicken

Boyfriend has decided he won't eat pork anymore and there are no frozen easy food here ...

I am really starting to lack inspiration.

Lost in Translation said...

What you may find useful is using themed days rather then just by the meat used.

Ie..
mexican
vegetarian
ect

I used to do that as my husband is super picky. Now I have adjusted pretty well to know right off hand if he will or will not eat something.

Once you venture out into new areas such as chinese foods or vegetarian you will find so many new options.

There were many times I was totally deadlocked. I even started out with just frozen foods- fishsticks, pizza.

There are some great cooking blogs for inspiration. I use ones that are really down to earth and simple, those fancy recipes looks pretty, but they scare me and I don't want to spend 30 euros on obscure spices for 1 meal.

I think I will do a post of my favorite cooking blogs, I garuntee once you get some key resources you find new ideas all the time.

And once you find one that is a hit write it down and toss it in a binder, soon you will have a small family collection to reference at any time :)

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