Molly Cookie

Creating a healthy weekly meal plan that saves time and money: part 1

Jan 3, 2011 Food Things, Tips and Tricks

I decided to take my blog’s advice . Those were some pretty good suggestions, and I’m ready to start all of those things. The first request was that I share with you how I plan my meals for the week. I plan to do that immediately… as in right now.

I want to start off by saying that I don’t think I’m an expert by any means in creating a healthy meal plan, but it is something I spend a lot of time doing and I think it might be helpful to share what I do with everyone. Putting a little time into planning can ensure you eat a LOT healthier and that you ultimately save money by only buying what you need for the week, not what you think you might want to eat. Also, having a plan will decrease the chances that you will get lazy and stop at a fast food restaurant for lunch or order pizza for dinner after a long day. You won’t have to go to the grocery store every day after work because you will already have everything you need, including a recipe, for a healthy meal. This really is one of the best things I do to keep Brian and I eating right.

I’m going to break it up into two or three separate posts because I think that will make it a little easier to follow. This one will focus on the choices you make to create your weekly menu. Next time I’ll give you some tools to start creating your own menu for yourself. I’ll share my menu with you for this week, and over the course of the week I’ll post about the recipes I made so if you want to ever use any of them in your own plan you can do that.

I think for most people, the problem isn’t that they don’t know what is healthy, it’s that they don’t think they have time to prepare healthy meals. Some people think that it is too expensive to buy and cook healthy food, and that it takes a lot longer than preparing fast microwavable or frozen meals. I would say that it does take some extra time to plan healthy meals, but it doesn’t necessarily need to much more expensive than “easy” meals. When you plan all of your meals in advance you can shop one time a week, and by not making multiple trips to the grocery store you can save time and money. It takes a commitment to cook every day, but I’ve found that there are lots of easy, fast, healthy recipes out there if you know where to find them.

So, this is what I do every Saturday. I sit down, decide what Brian and I are going to eat during the week, make a shopping list, and go to the grocery store. There are some rules I follow when I’m making decisions, but I get to be creative and plan on cooking things that are both fun and delicious.

Here are some Rules that Alton Brown uses for himself. Whatever your reasons or goals, you can set goals for yourself that are going to help you do your shopping.

Here are the rules that I came up with for myself. They aren’t all necessarily rules for healthy eating, but some are money-saving or time-saving rules.

My Rules:
1. Never buy Doritos

For you this may be pop, cookies, dip, ice cream, or candy, but for me Doritos represents the one food that I can’t say no to. I love Doritos, and if there are in my house I will eat them fast. I don’t miss them when they are gone, but when they are near me I can’t stop thinking about them, and when I open the bag to eat just one then all of a sudden half the bag is gone. It’s a terrible, terrible thing! So, as a rule, I never, ever buy Doritos for my house. I let myself have them when they appear in everyday life, like if I see some at a party or I pick a bag of chips to go with a sandwich at Subway. I eat enough Doritos to keep myself satisfied, and I really don’t need them in my house. It makes sense when you go to the grocery store to buy foods you like, but sometimes it’s smart to NEVER buy some things that you love.

2. Use what you have in your house first

I always do a little inventory before I plan my meals so I can see what I have. Using what you have saves money, and using fresh ingredients up before they spoil saves food and money. It’s amazing how much fresh food can go bad if you don’t plan correctly. Look at what you have, and choose recipes that use those ingredients.

3. Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.

This is actually a philosophy I stole from Michael Pollan. It is a lot of rules in one, actually, but I’ve found that following it is really the best way to eat. It says to eat REAL food, and I take that to eliminate pretty much all processed foods. I don’t like to buy things that don’t include chopping up vegetables at some point in the process. It also says to eat “not to much”, which is pretty self explanatory. Making dinner for two is hard because there is always a lot left over, even if we cut the recipe in half. For us, it is easiest to eat the leftovers for lunch, which makes me want to make even healthier dinners that I don’t mind eating again the next day. The third rule, to eat “mostly plants” is easy for me, but I know it’s hard for a lot of people. I have found a few chefs that are really great at making meals that involve a lot of vegetables and grains. My favorite chef for home cooking has got to be Rick Bayless. He uses has created Mexican dishes that use very minimal cheese, sour cream, or other “non plant” condiments (if they use any at all) and that have lots of fresh vegetables and meat. I love Rick Bayless. Mark Bittman is another great option if you want someone who uses a lot of vegetables and limited meat and cheese.

4. Make things that sound good.

I’ve discovered that when I have to cook something that doesn’t sound awesome, then I dread making it. Cooking has to be fun and the result has to be exciting for me or I will probably avoid cooking it. I’ll push that dish back to later in the week and hope that maybe we don’t have to eat it. We always do. So, the trick is to pick recipes that sound good and that you are excited about eating, and then you won’t mind cooking them as much.

5. Create space for fun eating

Once a week I create a time when we will eat out, whether it be for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. When we go out we don’t try to eat healthy necessarily, we go to a place that sounds good and fun to us. In the weekly eating plan I generally leave a few open spaces because over time I’ve found that life happens every week, and we don’t always cook everything we plan on if we make plans for every single meal. Friends or family might ask us to come over and eat, Brian might have to work late one night, someone gets sick, etc. Having a few open spaces saves money too because things always fill up those spaces.

Now that you’ve seen some examples or rules, come up with some rules for your family. Maybe you want to make a rule that every recipe takes 30 minutes or less. Maybe you want to never buy red meat. It might be that you want to try to go vegan this year. Whatever your rules, make them ones you can stick to and that will motivate you. Tomorrow I’ll give you some downloadable tools to help you plan meals and create a shopping list.

Tags: cooking at home, healthy eating, healthy eating plan, how to eat healthy, how to plan meals at home, mark bittman, meal plan, Rick Bayless, saving money by cooking