Menu Planning - Does It Work For You?

Source

On my last Food Budget Update, Kicking Carbs asked me:

Do you menu plan for 2 weeks or the month?
I am starting to think I can save more money if I go for the month.

Wow - now that's a loaded question!  I know of many bloggers who plan their meals down to how much ketchup and mustard they need, and then use that menu as their shopping list.  They swear that this saves them lots of money and time.

I, on the other hand, do not do any sort of menu planning.  Don't get me wrong - I've tried to in the past and it just doesn't work well for me.  My meat and produce purchasing revolves around what's on sale, and as you know, there are some weeks there aren't any good sales.  Also, my schedule changes on a daily basis, so it's hard to tell one or two weeks in advance if I'm even going to be home...never mind what I'll be in the mood to eat that night!

Instead I do the "stock the house and see what happens" method.  I stock the freezer when meat and chicken are on sale and buy enough fruit and vegetables to get us through a week or two. I also try to have the pantry and fridge stocked with the veggies, spices, and other ingredients I need to make the "default" side dishes that both the kids and I like.

Every morning, after breakfast, I go spelunking into the freezer for a dinner protein.  As I peruse the selections, I ask myself, "What's in here?, "What's in the fridge?",  "Any leftovers that we need to eat?", "What did we eat the last couple of days?", and most importantly, "What am I in the mood for?".  Once the protein is selected, I pick a couple complimentary sides and (TA-DAH!) dinner is planned.

Yes, there are those rare times where the morning is crazy and I forget to take something out.  Those are the nights we have "breakfast for dinner" (eggs, sausage, and fruit) or one of our "emergency meals" (frozen leftovers).  Thankfully, those moments are getting more and more rare as dinner prep is now part of my routine.

So, what about you?  Do you menu plan?  How do you do it?  Does it save you money and time?

Link Love - Men's Journal Article

Here is another article about nutrition I found through my Low Carb Forum:

Everything You Know About Nutrition Is Wrong, from Men's Journal.

By the way, that same Low Carb Forum has a Paleo Board.  Come join us!

Don't waste it! Blanche it!

In my weekly grocery shopping spree, I ran across a great price on fresh broccoli crowns.  In my haste of taking advantage of the sale, I didn't listen to the logical of my brain that was screaming, "STOP!"  It wasn't until I got home that I realized the truth - the three of us couldn't eat all of that fresh broc before it went bad.  *smacks forehead*  Duh!

So, I decided right then and there to do the next best thing to eating it fresh - blanch and freeze.  (You can find instructions on how to blanch and freeze broccoli here.)  After an hour of work, I had 7 lbs of chopped, blanched and individually-bagged servings of broccoli waiting to go into the freezer.  Yum!

Since I had the hot water boiled, I flash-blanched a couple bunches of asparagus.  Now, all I have to do is quick fry them in some butter before serving along side tonight's dinner.  Double yum!

My Food Budget Update 2011 - Feb Update

My household food budget remains the same for 2011 - $200 to 225 a month (the extra $25 is for when I find a great deal on protein or other bulk items).  I thought I'd periodically post my expenses throughout the year of 2011 to show that yes, it is possible to eat Paleo on a Budget.

Today's goal was to go through all of February's grocery receipts and see where I stood financially for the month.  I had been dreading this for the last week - I had a feeling I was really close (or maybe a little over) on my budget, thanks to a chicken sale at Lucky's last weekend. 

Here is the detailed information I entered into my budget doc this morning:

Writing this all down, I realized something - the kids eat a lot of bananas and our selection of vegetables are limited, to say the least.

Sprout's vegetables prices are outrageous right now - they claim that the recent freezing temps and storms have ravaged their suppliers, so their prices are up.  I've been resorting to buying our vegetables from the Asian market down the street where I can get broccoli crowns for 99 cents a lb and all types of cabbage for .99 cents and under, along with a few of our other favorites (carrots, celery, cucumber, onion, etc.)

No one is complaining in the sudden drop in variet.  You'd be surprised at what you can do with cabbage.  ;-) Thankfully, my son, Mr. "I-don't-like-anything-green", has developed a sudden love for broccoli and stir-fried cabbage and onions.  It makes dinner a heck of a lot easier.

I have to clean out the freezer this weekend and take stock on what we have left.  Once side is finally empty enough that I can start to buy frozen vegetables again (that will help add to the variety) but of course, that means we're getting low on meat again.  Taking inventory will let know what to keep an eye out for when I'm grocery shopping.  We can't let the beef/chicken supply dwindle...not in this house!

***Edited to add - 2 seconds after I hit "publish" my logical side popped on and I realized why my numbers didn't look right - stupid excel.  It's fixed....and everything is 100% correct to my knowledge.

Gary Taubes' Interview on Dr Oz

Please excuse the silence here - I'm working on a couple other side projects that require my full attention this week.  I can always tell when I get caught up in a project - my Google Reader has a 600+ backlog of blog entries and my podcast queue is piling up.  Maybe some day I'll get caught up...

But until then, I wanted to share a link that was posted on the lowcarber forum I frequent:

Gary Taubes' Interview on Dr. Oz's Radio Show - Part 1

and

Gary Taubes' Interview on Dr. Oz's Radio Show - Part 2

I don't know how long these will stay up, so go have a listen when you have a moment...