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Meal Planning

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socialone74
socialone74 Posts: 85 Member
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What do you do that helps you with meal planning? Recipes with same ingredients, large volume of one item, online resources, etc?

This is where I am not doing well.... eating out and frozen dinners are items I need to limit and seem way too easy to do.

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  • abbyjane81
    abbyjane81 Posts: 51 Member
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    I know how important meal planning is, and on the the rare occasion I follow through with it, it is well worth it!
    Picking one day a week to prepare meals is the best way for me to keep on track.
    Even just having healthy snacks prepared- hummus, cut up veggies, batch of 'energy balls',

  • abbyjane81
    abbyjane81 Posts: 51 Member
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    I sort of trailed off from the question in your post, lol

    Pinterest of course is helpful.
    Planning meals with similar ingredients,
    Making things I can freeze in containers in portion sizes that I can take to work and heat up.
  • betsysjl
    betsysjl Posts: 175 Member
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    When I first started in January, I was very gung-ho with meal planning. Now it is much harder, and I find I am eating out more. When I put the effort in, I do the following:

    Slow cook chicken breasts in the crockpot and then divide it up and freeze it.
    Cook a bunch of ground turkey with garlic, onion, salt and pepper and then portion it out and freeze.
    Prep veggies, weight and portion.

    I recently made a large pot of spaghetti sauce from scratch and portioned that out and froze it. It is really yummy, and low in sugar and salt compared to the pre-made jar sauce.

    Right now, that is the extent of my meal prep. For awhile, I was working with a local group of women and made freezer meals. We would each make on dish (8 sets) and then freeze them and exchange. You got 8 different meals out of it and only had to make one large one. However, the group I was with wasn't concerned with calories or fat at the time so it make it easier.
  • aSearch4Me
    aSearch4Me Posts: 397 Member
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    Something that has really helped me with the meal-planning aspect these past few months, is that I found a couple of local grocery delivery services that are reasonable (1 that is mainly organic produce/dairy, and 1 that is organic pasture-raised meat/eggs from a local farmer). I have set deadlines each week that I have to think about what I want to add to my order, which makes me think about meal planning for the next week. The great thing is that I'm now saving at least 1 hour a week on grocery trips, which is like free work-out time :smile: . I still have to go to the grocery about once a month for pantry ingredients & to restock on things like toilet paper...but I'm a huge fan of the delivery groceries in our area.

    The shocking thing is, that I'm actually saving money this route than I was before. When I factor out the "impulse purchases" (that were mainly junk or processed foods that were a "good deal") at the grocery store that I would make on a weekly basis, and what I am saving by packing my lunch instead of going to the often-gross & overpriced work cafeteria...I ran the numbers at the end of last month, and I'm saving >$50-100/month on our food budget...

    As far as resources for the actual planning, my husband & I are both the type of people who don't like repetition in meals (so the freezer meals & stuff don't work for us). I make a list each Friday evening that has 7 bullet points for dinners + 2 for lunches (weekends), and then when I make my grocery list/orders for the week, I plan out the meals. I then start the week with the list of meals, and make whichever sounds good for that night (or prep the crockpot for the next night, etc). Does that make sense?

    I find that the strict plans i.e. Monday= chicken, Tuesday= lowfat tacos, Wednesday = pot roast...etc type plans don't work for me/us at all, and then we're more likely to say "eh" and go get Chinese food...lol.
  • socialone74
    socialone74 Posts: 85 Member
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    @abbyjane81 what are Energy Balls?
  • RENAEJAE
    RENAEJAE Posts: 1,136 Member
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    When I'm on a roll I generally decide on 3 meals for the following week, shop and cook over the weekend then we have choices of prepared meals for 3 nights and the other 2 nights are left overs or salads with grilled chicken. There are also certain things I keep in the freezer or pantry so we can whip up a mexican dish or grill a steak. I also like to make mini quiche so those are available for the mornings, but lately I've been drinking a protein shake for breakfast. Lunches are salads or lite sandwiches. I keep veggies and berries cut and ready in the fridge also.

    I wish we had a grocery delivery service around here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE that. I dislike grocery shopping and when I send DH he buys what I like to call his 'man groceries' then the house is full of junk again.

    Energy Balls? Please share that recipe!!

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