I've gotten a lot of questions on my facebook from friends who are interested in how I do my food for a week. I'm taking the time to explain my process and what works for me. I will say that this how to does not come with the
time to do it... you will have to use your own to do it. You can't make time, or find it, you have to use yours :)
I first start off by gathering different recipies throughout the weeks prior, I use my Rachael Ray magazine and lately, pinterest to find some fun recipies and "spice" up our regular menu. I usually will stick with one or two new recipies and the rest are good ole regulars that I usually have something on hand. The week before I will take an inventory of what I have in the cupboards. If I know I have some frozen leftovers that need to be used up, I write it down, if I have an idea of what I could make with what I've got, I write it down. This is the start of my meals list. See photo of meals list:
After I have my meal list, I write down my shopping list. I have been trying to keep an ongoing list throughout the week for staples that I'm running low on. So I add to that list and make sure I have all of the ingredients for all of my recipes. Here are the notes to my list above: Chili- has been thawing in the fridge since wednesday, it was on the meal list last week but we didn't eat it, so it made it to this week's list- we ate it for lunch today. Ziti- a weight watchers recipe that I wanted to try. It was hard to fit it in this weeks budget though, the ingredients were expensive! I did have lots of leftovers in the freezer though if I couldn't fit it in. Pizza lasagna- we love pizza casserole and this is basically the same thing, only in lasagna form. Easy enough. Chicken nuggets and french fries are what Jake and the kids eat every wednesday night while I'm at weight watchers. He loves this tradition. He also thinks it is amazing once he started watching portions how slowly we go through a bag! Buffalo chicken- a crock pot recipe I saw on pinterest and it is perfect for Jake to take in his lunches. Fish- we have had his walleye from Canada in the freezer forever, I think I'm going to simply add some parmesan and a bit of butter to make a delicious meal! Pizza- our staple for when we just don't feel like eating something else and we are tempted to eat out... we make ours from scratch (can you say 47 cents a bag for dough!?).
So now that I have my list of dinners, my shopping list for that, I see what else I need for lunches. Lunches come pretty easy, I usually want a salad or leftovers. Jake eats a sandwich or leftovers. We have yogurt, lettuce, bread, sandwich meat, and slices of cheese as staples. We also love the salad dressing from Olive Garden and I stock up when I'm there. A salad is more fun to eat when you have a good dressing! I add to my shopping list any salad toppings or lunch staples or sides that we need. Really though, looking at my meal list this week I know that we will have LOTS of leftovers from the casseroles and Jake will have the buffalo chicken, so we are pretty set for lunches.
Alright- I mentioned once about our budget. We have a pretty tight budget for food. Why? Because we don't EAT as much, therefor we don't BUY as much! You can't eat if you don't have it right? It seems that once portions got in control, our spending got in control as well. "So what is our budget?" I'm guessing is your next question. Well, we make our $100.00 a week span across food and household items (toilet paper, paper towels, baby wipes, and formula etc.). I do clip coupons, ONLY on the food and items I am buying though and if it is still more expensive to buy name brand after the coupon, I go generic. This is major savings in my eyes... this is a tight budget, but it works well for us and we don't have to worry about throwing out our money on food we don't eat. We also eat out a lot less because we are prepared for when we don't feel like figuring out what to eat. As for the kids- well, we either have them eat what we are eating, or we warm something up from the freezer of leftovers that they will eat.
Ok- wow this is becoming a long post! I will state right now that all of these things that I do have been
small changes that occur over
time. We have worked our way to where we are now and it still doesn't go like this every week, day or whatever, but we do what we can.
Ok, so after I buy what I
need, I spend some time during the weekend getting ready for the week. First priorities? Lunches. I don't want to have to use my time in the morning getting my lunch ready. I will end up not bringing one from home and eat out, which isn't what I'm working towards. So anyway- I start on the lettuce, I get it washed up and separated into containers. I then cut up the toppings that I will use. I usually like cherry tomatoes and string cheese (it looks awesome if you break up the cheese into 1" bites). I also do onion, I love onion. So after the salad and toppings are done, I start on the produce. One thing about being on weight watchers is that everyday I have to try to get to 5 servings of fruits and veggies. This is a lot, and being prepared helps make it easier. People ask for advice on how to eat healthier, here is a start - try to get 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day. A serving is usually one cup, or one whole fruit- with the exception of bananas, I use 1/2 of those as one serving. So, like today, I got prepared a cantalope that just ripened and I bought last week, grapes (Hunter helps me get these prepared), and strawberries. Not to mention the lettuce and tomatoes I've already gotten prepared, it is now a weeks worth of fresh fruit and veggies available on demand. I also keep our "staples" of fruit stocked, bananas, apples and sometimes oranges. These are what I keep in my purse to stave off the hungry moments I'm tempted to eat something worse (don't worry though... I'm better at buying a candy bar than eating that orange... I'm only human :) )
So now that I'm done with that portion, the meals are really all thats left. This week I took a large portion of my Sunday and actually prepared the casseroles up to the point that they should be put in the oven. This makes it easy on week nights when we would rather be spending time with our kids, we actually can! It also helps that since these were recipes I wanted, and Husband is usually the one to start dinner since he is home 30-45 minutes before me, he doesn't have to worry about figuring out what it is he is suppose to do, and the notes on how to heat it are on it already. I actually have the points figured out for weight watchers on them as well so I don't have to think about it that night.
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| The new recipe I wanted to try! |
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| Getting ready for pizza lasagna- weighing out the ingredients and counting up all of the points! |
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| The grapes waiting for Hunter to come help me |
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| Fruit in individual 1 cup servings, the casseroles ready for the week, the rest of the lettuce in the spinner |
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| prepping the salads for the week |
This is a lot of information... again, if you break it down into small, easy to change habits, you can figure out what works for your family too. We don't always stick to our weekly menu plans, but it is easy the next week to pick up where we left off and start again. Let me know if you have questions- I get excited about being organized in certain areas of our lives!
