A fresh look at meal planning
Oct 31st, 2008 by Dani
Traditionally, I have been a devoted meal planner. Since I have been working harder to eat increasingly seasonally and locally, I’ve fond this harder to do. My meal planning method was generally to flick through my recipes and see what took my fancy for the coming week. The problem with this method is that it leads to unseasonal cravings and of course so many recipes appear seasonal but include rogue ingredients that I don’t already have in the house. In recent times, this method has been combined, week about, with simply flying by the seat of my pants and making up a meal on the fly from what is in the house. That method can be lots of fun if I have the time and I’m in the mood but it can be a real drag on a rough day too.
I potentially had a little epiphany today. I did my supermarket shop during the week as normal. The reality is that I don’t buy a lot there. The bulk of the food I need to make a meal plan work comes from the farmer’s market. The beauty of this being, if it is from the farmers market, it is both local and seasonal. I know how much food I need to bring home to feed us for a week. So all I have to do to ensure a local, seasonal meal plan is to combine my two methods. I will buy a week’s supply of fruit and veg at the market tomorrow, then I’ll come home and recipe surf and write a meal plan based on what I have already bought.
It seems so obvious, I can’t believe it only just occurred to me. I guess it so easy to get bogged down in the methods and habits of 20 years that it is difficult to imagine another way. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
I’ll update tomorrow and let you know how I went.
have fun! I’ll be interested in what you come up with…
I do our fruit and veg shop first, then a meal plan and then a supermarket shop over the next day or two. We spend most of our money on fresh food and buy less and less at the supermarket.
Pennis last blog post..Handing Stuff In
Me too Kel! I’m putting it together now.
I have to do supermarket first Pen. Otherwise I’d be there on the weekend and that would make me cry. I love spending less and less there but at least I have a good independent so I don’t feel bad about what I do buy there.
That’s what I’ve been doing for about a year now, kind of by accident (since the Bloke took over the shopping).
I used to do what you do and create a meal plan and then follow it by the shopping, but now I have less control over the process and often get a few surprises with what the Bloke brings home - which is whatever is available/in season. So I go from there. It can sometimes be a real challenge to come up with something! Would help having yummy vegies growing in your garden.
Docwitchs last blog post..On Being a Mean Mama. And a Chocolate Cake Recipe Request.
Wow. I just this second left a comment on your blog Docwitch. Freaky. I think the Bread Winner would stand on his head and whistle the Hallelujah Chorus from his rear before he would do the food shopping. Which is fine by me. I like to at least control the incoming ingredients if I have to then write a meal plan around them.