The Meal Planning Experiment

I spoke in an earlier post about trying to feed the Hubs and I like my mother fed us when I was a child.  I decided this week that I would employ her method of shopping so on Wednesday, Hubs and I visited our neighborhood Sprouts

This is a photo of our actual neighborhood Sprouts

to see what I could do.  So, I had some things in my head -- should have been on paper -- but I managed to pull together about a weeks worth of meals.  I even managed to check my freezers to see what I had on hand -- enough meat for about four meals and a few frozen veggies.  So, starting with that I purchased a nice roast, some chicken thighs for soup, some pepperoni for pizza that will be having tomorrow night, some bacon to put in the zucchini I bought to make calabacita.  Tonight we will be having spaghetti to use up the left over spaghetti sauce that I had from Monday's pesto chicken.

When I decided to try my mother's approach to shopping it seemed easier to me.  Meal planning is not my forte! Of course, the bill rose a good deal because I had Hubs with me and he had to have his snacks and cheese.  He doesn't like Kerrygold cheese though because he says it tastes like grass.  Imagine that.  Anyway, he chunked a few things in the basket but I can't begrudge him as I chunked in a new Mineral Fusion lipstick so it all evened out.

Of course, the day of the shopping ended with us going out to dinner! Muaaahhhhh (she laugh maniacally).  But, we were in the vicinity of his favorite hamburger place -- Chaps -- so I decided to indulge him and stop there for dinner with the idea that we would eat the tacos the next day that I had been cooking the meat for all day in the crock pot.  So, last night we did just that and I heated my tortillas a new way (well, for tacos, anyway) and it all turned out just fine. 

So, tonight it is spaghetti, tomorrow night homemade pizza and Sunday it will either the roast or a chicken I have squirreled away.  I have sides to go with all the meals and I think I did a pretty good job! Maybe doing it this way will make me dread grocery shopping less.  I can only hope.  

Random Rant aka Meal Planning Blog


I don't care for cooking.  I like my own cooking better than anything else but my husband isn't a fan.  Due to lots of circumstances, we have taken to eating out almost every night and it is spoiling my husband for restaurant food and I am getting tired of it.  So, I have been giving a lot of thought to both of these situations and have come to a couple of conclusions.

First, my husband needs to get over it.  He is diabetic.  The restaurant food isn't good for him.  He has been eating my food for almost 42 years.  Zip it, Hubs and sit down and eat.  Plus, I just have to accept the fact that he is never going to enjoy broccolli. 

Second, I need to get a grip and face the resident evil head on.  When I think about meal planning I morph back into Home Ec at Mark Twain Junior High School.  I think "meat, a starch, two veggies and fruit".  I try to plan meals around that paradigm and therein lies the problem -- we just don't eat like that anymore.  I can make a mean roast with potatoes and carrots but that generates leftovers -- Hubs won't eat leftovers.  I blame that on living with his mother who actually cooks for leftovers -- a weeks worth of yellow squash.  I can see the problem.  He doesn't care for fish and he isn't a a fan of chicken, especially boneless, skinless chicken breasts that come in large bags with several pieces --you know the ones, you get them in the freezer section at the store.  Yep.  Not his thing.

He says I need to plan meals which is great except he can't tell me anything to put on the list.  I thought about why we can't plan a weeks worth of meals and it dawned on me that I am planning meals which are fine but they aren't what we eat.  If I want to plan meals, I need to look at what we actually eat.

Ok, so here is what I want to do -- I want to plan meals for home, that I cook, like the ones we eat out.  There, I have said it.  I think this is the only way I am going to solve the issue.  If I do that then maybe we can quit asking each other " what do you want to eat" -- and I will spend less money at the store because half of what I buy we don't want to eat.  I am trying to be good about it but I think I have to face the fact that our eating habits aren't great but maybe I could make it better by doing it at home but in the same vein as what we eat out.  Maybe I am just bored.

So, I sat about trying to figure out the best way to plan the meals which was going to result in the purchase of a notebook, page protectors, paper and the time to pour over books, magazines, etc.

Then I ditched that idea.  I have a little white board on the side of my fridge with a section divided off for each day.  I am assigning a "theme" to each day - i.e.  if you ever went to public school in Texas and ate in the cafeteria, you ate Mexican food.  Since that was our life for twelve years, we are stuck in the "if it's Wednesday, you eat Mexican food" mindset.  So, Wednesday will be Mexican food day.  See where I am going with this?

Then, I am going to have to figure out what I can do in the crockpot as we are gone every day of the week and what I can cook ahead and freeze, if I need to.  Bread, cornbread, biscuits, etc. come to mnd.  I am thinking about making a tossed salad at the beginning of the week for several days or as long as I can keep it fresh and then fill in with REALLY simple food. (Steamed yellow squash?) I think I can do it.

So, that is what has been playing in my mind for the last 48 hours.  I don't like to cook but I don't think I like to eat out so much anymore either.  It has become a chore in and of itself.  Besides, I like my own cooking such as it is.

I have to ask -- how do you eat?  How do you plan?  I need hints and tips!

Meal Planning 101


I have been doing some considerable thinking about how we handle things here at Brinkley's Place and I am really up for some changes.  In the last two weeks I have heard several news stories about people returning to using cash instead of debit cards, checks, or just good ol' plastic.  Of course, Dave Ramsey is all for this and I have a feeling with Bank of America now charging folks for using their debit card a lot of people  are going to be rethinking  the virtures of cash -- I mean, think about it, what could be more convenient with less chance of identity theft!

I realize that, in order to operate primarily with cash, I need to know how much I spend on certain things.  The first thing that comes to mind is groceries.  I am ashamed to say but I really have no idea how much money I spend on groceries because we are always running to the store for this and that -- example, I went to Target today  to pick up a prescription and a few other things but got home and realized I needed milk as well which will require another stop and I can guarantee  I won't buy just milk.  So...you see the problem.  Clearly there needs to be a list and a plan.  Last night I considered all the options to creating the plan and this is what I came up with.

Growing up, my mother -- a most excellent cook -- had a plan.  We didn't have a car so she went shopping with my grandfather, her sister, my cousin and me, in his Studebaker Champion -- I am not sure how we all fit in there with three families groceries as well.

My father got paid every two weeks so she shopped for two weeks.  If we ran out of basics, like milk, she walked to one of two convenience stores a block from the house --  Zim's to the north or Thompson's to the south.

I liked the way my mother planned our meals.  The first of the week -- usually on Sunday, we had a big meal.  Then we had leftovers.  The rest of the week went the same way with a meat, a starch, two sides and a salad -- sometimes vegetable sometimes fruit.  We didn't have desserts often but she would buy cookies and make pudding and once in a while a cake with Swell frosting.  As she worked closer to payday the meals got less fancy and finally, the day before she shopped again we had what she called a "poor" meal -- usually a pot of beans with cornbread, salad and....always....a pie! That made it less "poor".  I actually thought that, much of the time, it was the best day of the two weeks.  She was always particular about presentation and worked to make our meals attractive and, believe it or not, she used some of the recipes she had learned in her jr. high school cooking class at the same school I went to (see yesterdays post) and....here it comes ... with the same teacher that I had.  Odd little woman named Birdie but I digress.

So, going on that same premise and with the knowledge that my husband has certain likes and dislikes I have devised the plan.  I am assigning a meat to each day of the week -- ex:  Monday -- beef.  This will allow me some room to serve stuffed peppers or steak -- flexible, I believe.  Growing up in San Antonio, Wednesday was Mexican food day in school -- all schools -- and we still think in those terms.  So, Wednesday is going to be Mexican food for us. The other days will be either chicken or fish, one a meatless meal that could be soup and sandwiches, the aforementioned pot of beans or breakfast-for-supper food.  I think that will at least take the chaos out of the planning.

One of my blog friends suggested that I blog my menu so I would have a permanent record of it rather than keep a notebook and I think that is a stellar idea and I will probably do it.  However, I need a visual for me to see on a daily basis to keep me focused.  While at Target today, I was searching for a dry  erase board and came across this.

Hmm..the photo is sort of small but you get the idea.  I wish Thrifty Thursday was going on, even though it isn't Thursday, because this would be a great thing to mention -- I got it for 50% off which came to $2.50.  I also bought a magnetized grocery list tablet at the dollar section -- it has Snoopy on it -- who can turn their back on Snoopy? So, that is my springboard for getting control of my groceries.  I will start tomorrow since we will probably hit the grocery store in the evening.  I am going to try to be very exacting so I will know how much I need so possibly the NEXT week I can go with cash.

I read an interesting post from a woman who went with only cash for two weeks and I was surprised at her comment that she felt "poor" while digging through her wallet counting out ones and change.  I don't feel that way, I feel empowered.  It feels good to use real money and not be frightened that by swiping the card I am possibly jeopardizing our entire financial security.  I don't know if it is the wave of the future but I think it might be the wave of MY future.

Does anybody here use cash primarily?


BTW -- the clip art at the top of this post came from http://americanwomendidntgetfat.blogspot.com.  The young woman who hosts that blog also has a great blog about how American women of the 40's and 50's didn't gain weight and why.  She also posts an old MetLife weight chart which I final fascinating -- it is what I grew up with being the standard for weight concerns.  It is an interesting read -- give it a look!