Author | Nicole Hostetter
A brown paper bag full of Indian food arrived at my front door the other night.
And even though I’d ordered it, this small mid-week miracle — appearing like magic just as my kids were starting to whine in tandem — I felt a bit guilty as I spread the bag’s fragrant contents out on the table. We had plenty in the cabinets to throw together 3-bean chili, or pasta with simple
tomato sauce. Why had I chosen to order out and spend half a week’s worth of our humble grocery budget on one dinner’s worth of food?
The answer was simple: I didn’t meal-plan for the week. And when I found our family nearing dinnertime on this particular day, I‘d scrambled to answer the question of all questions: What’s for dinner?
With nothing up my sleeve, my cravings got the better of me, and takeout was the answer.
Meal planning keeps things running smoothly in our household, and on the weeks I shirk it, for whatever reason, I pay dearly. Both in money spent on takeout orders, and in my health, because if I’m honest, I never order a salad when we get takeout (I salute those of you who do).
So what does meal planning look like for me? In our house it consists of “The 3 Ps”:
Planning
Purchasing
Prepwork
I have to admit that I had help getting into this routine. A little over a year ago, I subscribed to Vegan Family Kitchen as a birthday gift for my husband. He wanted to eat more vegan meals, and my gift to him was a year’s worth of support by way of cooking for him (because I love cooking, and I love him), something I couldn’t have done without guidance and explicit instructions.
For $98, it felt like a steal once I began receiving the plans Brigitte Gimme, the Vancouver-based mom and food consultant behind VFK, sent out every two weeks. Meal plan overviews for each week, along with grocery lists, and step-by-step recipes gave me everything I needed to be successful. And the year of following her plans (which I now keep in a binder and refer to often), trained me on how to rethink my time in the kitchen, and the food I prepared for my family.
I’m not saying you need to subscribe to a meal-planning service. I’ll try to provide a foundation here to get you started. But looking at different recipe subscription services (which differ from meal-in-a-box kits as they don’t send you the ingredients and tend to cost much less) can be a wonderful way to explore new recipes and streamline your kitchen. And if you’re really struggling with getting into a planning routine, having some detailed help can really jump start this positive habit.
Planning
On Friday night or Saturday morning, I look ahead to the next week’s meals. In general, my meal plan follows this format:
Monday: Cold salad with grains/veggies (like a quinoa salad or couscous with pre-roasted vegetables)
Tuesday: Crockpot meal (chili or stew)
Wednesday: Pasta
Thursday: Soup
Friday: Veggie burgers or homemade pizza
Saturday: Order out or leftovers
Sunday: Sandwiches and popcorn
I always make enough to ensure there are leftovers, which we eat for lunches and on the weekends when sometimes we might get takeout, or just have popcorn for dinner with PBJs.
As I look over the week, I compare my usual format to our schedules: On days when there might be late evenings for one of us and only one person will be with the kids at dinnertime, I’ll prepare the crockpot meal. Now that fall is upon us, and as more of us are working from home with easier access to our kitchens, more days than not might have a stew or soup simmering on the stove all day.
For everyday life, it’s not necessary to comb through cookbooks and find elaborate meals. It’s pleasurable to cook this way for a time, but as the weeks wear on it’s hard to keep up. I know, because before having kids and changing my process, that’s how I cooked. I have more than 150 cookbooks in my collection (can we say habit?), and I’d be leafing through them every night, picking whatever caught my eye. It got expensive, and it got exhausting.
These days I know what I can cook easily and well, and I’m content to have the old standbys around each week, and add in something new if it’s a special occasion. Think of what you can make easily and what you love to cook and eat. Using these classic recipes makes life simpler, and isn’t that something we all want?
Purchasing
Once you sit down, look at your schedule for the week ahead and think about your culinary repertoire, you’re ready for the next step.
We humans are really good at filling our lives with clutter. And our diet. All day long we’re tempted by treats and cravings, and avoiding them is hard if you don’t have a plan. There’s no place this plays out quite like the grocery store.
I love the grocery store. I love slowly walking the aisles, reading labels, finding treasures. All the beautiful fruit and vegetables and their rainbow of colors. Foods from around the world. Deli spreads with fresh cheese and other tasty treats. It’s just my wonderful happy place to be.
But when I began reluctantly shopping online after my son was born two years ago and I couldn’t enter a grocery store without having a panic attack thanks to debilitating postpartum depression, I realized that ordering online not only saved me money, but allowed me to be right where I needed to be when I shopped: My kitchen. I grew to love opening my pantry and fridge and comparing what I had to what I needed.
It just makes good sense to do it this way, especially in a pandemic, and especially if you are on a tight budget, even if it means giving up control over how yellow the bananas are.
I was able to shave about $50 off my shopping trips each week by doing it online. $50 worth of impulse buys like cookies, or chips. Some of that savings can go toward supporting local farmers at the weekly farmers’ market, or into savings.
My pantry and fridge always contain the following ingredients (adapted from this New York Times Cooking list), and are restocked as needed. I then add whatever I may need for the week’s meals, plus perishable staples like milk, eggs, fruit, cheese, etc.
Baking Staples:
Old-fashioned oats
All Purpose unbleached flour
Whole wheat flour
Bread flour
Granulated sugar
Confectioner’s sugar
Brown sugar (light and dark)
Salt (kosher and
Active dry yeast
Baking soda
Baking powder
Raisins
Vegetable Oil
Cornmeal (for cornbread)
Cinnamon
Vanilla extract
Honey
Maple syrup
Molasses
Chocolate chips
Cocoa powder
Peanut butter
Nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans)
Pantry Staples:
Olive oil
Vinegars (white, balsamic, apple cider)
Polenta or Grits (coarser ground cornmeal)
Rice (brown and white)
Pasta (long and short)
Other noodles (egg, rice)
Tortillas and tortilla chips
Bread (wheat and white)
Plain breadcrumbs
Crushed tomatoes
Diced tomatoes
Tomato paste
Canned or dried beans
Chickpeas
Black Beans
Pinto Beans
Kidney Beans
Cannellini Beans
Onions (yellow and red)
Garlic
Potatoes (sweet and an easy baking potato like Russet or Yukon Gold)
Stock or broth (bouillon cubes or boxed)
Mustard
Mayonnaise
Ketchup
Soy sauce
Hot sauce
Salsa
Pickles
Canned tuna
Fridge:
Lemons
Limes
Parsley
Cilantro
Whole carrots
Celery
Spinach and other leafy greens
Apples, bananas, and berries (frozen and fresh)
Scallions
Ginger
Plain yogurt
Cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, feta)
Dairy and non-dairy milk
Butter
Eggs
If you were to only buy these things each and every week you would be able to make the following:
Homemade granola with yogurt and honey
French toast with berries
Many baked goods: scones, biscuits, coffee cakes, muffins
Spinach salad with apple slices and candied walnuts with balsamic dressing
Noodle soup
Black bean quesadillas with salsa
Bean burritos
Pasta with tomato sauce
Risi al pomdoro (rice with tomato sauce)
3-bean chili
Cannellini beans with garlic, oil, toasted breadcrumbs and fresh herbs
And the list goes on.
Planning and purchasing are the two most important parts of getting yourself in a routine. As Americans, we love to eat different food and follow our culinary taste buds wherever they may take us, but embrace simplicity to free up income and time by adapting a set of meals that you know, love, and can prepare without thinking at any moment for your loved ones.
Prepping
The last piece of my meal-planning process is the prepwork.
On Sundays and Mondays, I try to do a little bit each day. Whether it’s baking bread or granola for the week, or cutting up and roasting vegetables to tuck away in the fridge, these two days allow me to get ahead of the cooking so during the week things can be as easy as reheating a soup or combining things from the fridge in a bowl to make a healthy dinner. Look over your menu for the week and identify what you can do ahead of time.
Some prep tips we use in our kitchen to make the most of our time:
Washing, chopping, and then storing vegetables right after you buy them makes it more likely you will use and eat them. I love to keep sliced bell peppers, chopped onions, celery stalks that have been cut into thirds, and cut broccoli crowns in the fridge.
Buy dried beans and grains, like rice, in bulk. Instead of cooking just what you need for one recipe, cook the whole bag and freeze out 1-2 cup portions. All you have to do is thaw and reheat a bag of each — beans and rice — add some pantry staples like salsa or some good olive oil and fresh herbs, and you have dinner in a pinch!
Make soups and stews on the days you have off. Set them in the fridge and reheat when you need them.
Roast batches of vegetables on the weekend (cubed sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, cauliflower florets, chickpeas, etc.) and keep them in the refrigerator until you need them for a dish, or a snack! Tossing these onto couscous or putting them in a wrap makes a quick and easy.
Keep your pantry and fridge essentials stocked, and dedicate a few hours each week to relaxing in your kitchen and creating something fun with what you have. Or just revel in the simple joy of knowing you have all you need.
The more consistent you are about what’s in your pantry and fridge, the more you can be confident that you have the ingredients needed to make a staple dish when you want (granola, cookies, pasta and sauce, chicken thighs and rice, etc.). And this is the essence of meal planning — predictability and preparation, which you undertake each time you refill your kitchen with the items you need and use.
So, sit down and get comfy. Planning a successful set of meals for next week is easy if you follow the three Ps. And remember, it doesn’t have to be fancy — keeping things simple allows you the time and energy to cook with love and intention. Those you feed will thank you!
