Now that I can eat something again besides popsicles, ramen (I know, horrid) and saltines I am discovering something that is saving me time, money and sanity.
Monthly meal planning (or in my case, 2 week planning)
We are trying to stick to our grocery budget and this is the first month of success and I feel like we've eaten better meals.
Here were some of my hang-ups about doing this...and how I've gotten around those...
1) Q: What if I don't want to eat what I planned for the night?
A: Easy. Switch it up last minute. Most meals have been made on different nights than originally planned because what baby wants, baby gets right now.
2) Q: Do I have to fill it out on a calendar?
A: You can...like this one HERE
or in my case, I just made a big list of the meal options for the first 2 weeks (and then the second 2 weeks) and picked one per night.
3) Q: How does it really save me money?
A: For me, 80% of the battle of cooking is knowing that the ingredients are in my fridge and knowing what to make. Otherwise, going out sounds just too easy.
This kept us from going out and also helped us use almost everything in our fridge.
One other pointer-- before planning for the month, I got a few new recipes from a couple of friends. This helped inspire me to get creative in the kitchen again instead of my same old 10 meals.
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