Meal Plans for the Non-Planner

Look, I hate planning things as much as the next guy, or maybe more. Because things are going to go all wonky anyway and nothing will go according to plan, so why even bother? Yeah. HOWEVER.

Even more, I hate the pressure of being stumped on the question of What Shall We Eat. HATE IT.

So I do meal plans so that I can have in the house ingredients for a week's worth of dinners. That's all. If things Go Sideways, I'm okay with that. The tuna in the cans will sit quietly for next week. The red sauce in the jars won't fuss about not being used on Thursday as I'd marked on my schedule. The veggies in the freezer won't storm out of the house in a huff, though maybe the chocolate chips did when I didn't make cookies as I'd planned. At any rate, I can't find them.

Everything else, though, remains pretty much where I put it. As far as meals other than dinner, I just need to remind myself to remember to replenish the oatmeal and eggs from time to time, as well as non-meal things like tea or Tang. I keep a running list on a magnetized pad on the fridge. Well, I MEAN to keep a running list on a magnetized pad on the fridge. What I mean is, I USED to have a magnetized pad on the fridge in order to keep a running list of things we ran out of (white vinegar, milk), things we needed to replenish (salsa, chicken broth, cream of mushroom soup, pasta) and things we wanted that we don't usually buy (sausage links, waffles, cake mix, lettuce). The pad has wandered away, as such things tend to do in my home.

This is an ongoing problem, a manifestation of the Too Muchness that stuffs itself into my Life. Those people who claim they 'have no life'? I wish they'd take some of mine, as I seem to have more than I can handle. I could whinge about this all day for a series of months, but even I'm tired of listening to me, so. One day, my home will be organized and tidy. Until then, I can at least make the food in the kitchen behave itself.

This week's shopping list:
White vinegar (you thought I was kidding? It's a cleaning supply.)
Eggs
Red sauce
Shredded moz cheese (remember my issue with spelling that word? ...I give up.)
Frozen mixed veggies
Frozen stir-fry veggies
Salmon
Carrots, loose if I can find them (I only ever use 2 or 3 carrots. The rest go limp, moldy or mushy.)
Onions
Ground turkey or turkey sausage
Italian loaf or maybe two
and a Wish List item is seaweed in some form.

Rough approximation of this week's Plan:

Sunday: Chicken stew in the crock pot and maybe noodles; I won't be home much on Sunday
Monday: CORN, or we might go out because it's Pugsley's birthday on Monday
Tuesday: Tuesday Surprise. I have no idea.
Wednesday: Tuna Melt or White Pasta or Salmon Cakes, depending on what I feel like cooking.
Thursday: Pugsley's Pasta Bake
Friday: Wednesday Salad and Soup (she wants to make borscht, but won't EAT borscht, so maybe not.)
Saturday: Burritos or one of the things I don't make on Wednesday.

So you see, my Plan, it's not Rules or anything. It's really more of a Guideline.

Chicken Stretch

Thursday


Let me begin thus: I don't like chicken. I don't like to eat it, and I sure don't like to cook it. Those of you who are willing to buy a lovely raw chicken and roast it yourownself have my blessing and admiration and probably three or more additional dollars in your pocket.

For me, a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket is a gift from the universe. There it is, already cooked, smelling nice, in its own little plastic capsule, ready for liftoff from the shelf, transport through the space-time continuum, landing on the dinner table to be consumed by ravenous aliens over an extended period of time.

The first night is chicken and veggies. The next night, a vegetarian meal. Another night incorporates some big-ish chunks of chicken, another  vegetarian meal, then small bits of meat, then stew, then soup.  Presto! Week of meals. This works for me, and we did it a lot when the kids and I kept ourselves to $21 a week, but I'm trying to demonstrate as much variety as possible. Also, I don't really like chicken.

Shopping went well. I made only one true 'impulse' buy, and that was Spaetzle noodles that I saw on the Aldi shelf. Sure, I could've used some of the pasta that I had in my cupboard, but I was curious.

And now I don't need to buy Spaetzel again. Nobody loved it.

All the other 'non-list' items I purchased were on the 'wish' list.

Oh, and when we went to Big Lots! for toilet tissue, there was a jar of Not-Tella (fake Nutella) for $1.00, so I bought it, even though we weren't out of it.

I haven't done pretend shopping yet, though. Maybe I should wait and post all my pricings together?

And now I have done pretend shopping. The Shoppers in my neighborhood has had a facelift, and it looks nicer, and it has a lovely assortment of international food staples, but it's still in the same crappy neighborhood (mine) with the same trailerpark patrons, so not really much of an upgrade, in my opinion.

Item, Estimate                 Aldi                           Costco                             Shoppers

chicken, $5                                                              4.99                                   6.49
milk, $3                                                                     2.99                                  3.99
cheese, $3.80(16oz)                                                  5.60 (32oz)                       8.99                    
eggs, $4                                                                    4.69 (3doz)                        6.78
fruit                                2.49(bag of clementines)                                                3.99
cocoa                                  1.20                                                                         1.49
white beans                          1.18                                                                         1.54
chili beans3.60                     3.60                                                                         6.00
green beans x3                    1.50                                                                         2.10
corn x3                                1.50                                                                         2.10
cream of chix soup               1.18                                                                         1.78
frozen veg$2.30                   2.20                                                                         5.00
sour cream, $1.50                1.29                                                                         1.59
taco seasoning x2                   .70                                                                          1.80
Saturday cereal, $2                1.89  (frosted flakes)                                                2.50
buttery crackers, $1.80          1.80                                                                         2.39
biscuit mix, $3                        2.00                                                                         2.79
Spaetzle (impulse buy)            1.99                                                                         2.49
bread, $1.50                          1.30                                                                         1.89
tortillas, $2                             2.00                          Big Lots!                                 3.20
Hazelnut Spread                                                          1.00                                     3.79(Nutella)

Totals:    
  Aldi, Costc & Big Lots!: $47.11                    Shoppers Total: $72.69*
Stupid Lunch Date:            $ 3.00
Total Food Spending:        $50.11

Stupid Lunch Date is Gomez and me going to the 'restaurant' area of Costco after we've shopped and buying a hot dog & soda combo for $1.50 each. The sodas include free refills, the dogs are all beef, and you can get sauerkraut with them if you ask for it.

* I'm not sure it's fair to include the real Nutella in the Shoppers' total, as I'd never have bought it if it hadn't been only $1. If we disallow it, the Shoppers Total becomes $68.90. That's a $21 difference, but ~$70 is still pretty good for a week of groceries that feeds teenagers & a truck driver.

Dinner on Wednesday evening was lovely: I used 1 1/2 bags of the frozen California Medley, 1/2 bag of Spaetzel and some of the chicken. We will count the whole prices of All The Things, and the rest of the week, those things count as Free!  Chicken, $5. Pasta, $2. Vegetables, $2.40. All told, $9.40 for a meal that gave dinner to 4 of us, and lunch to 2, which breaks down to ~$1.60 per serving.

And we still have chicken for the rest of the week.

Premise #4: No Food, Only Ingredients

Wednesday

I stole that phrase from a young friend of mine, who was quoted by his mother. He wanted frozen pizza. She had cheese and tomato sauce. He wanted chicken nuggets. She had frozen chicken breasts. He wanted hamburgers. She had ground beef. He complained, "Mom! We don't have any FOOD in this house, only INGREDIENTS!"

Which, so, okay. I mean, yes. We like the convenience of hastily prepared meals, like frozen burritos, frozen fish sticks (I'm afraid I can't even TYPE that phrase without thinking of South Park and snickering- sorry.), pizza kits (Ah, Joe Corbi! How I miss thee!), packaged cookies, sliced cheese, Lunchables... but we begin to wander into the territory of what Michael Pollan refers to as "edible food-like substances".  Some of these (cheese puffs? Velveeta? Slim Jim?) I'm not sure even rate the term "food-like", as they really are not. I do not kid myself when I'm consuming half a bag of puffed corn product covered in orange dust that this is "food". It's not. It's cargo, and I'll be carting it around or physically offloading it later.

What was my point, here? I'm distracted because the kids and I were talking the other day about food tax. Which items do we tax? I'm in favor of a soda tax, and a tax on chips and cheese curls. So we were talking, the kids and I, about how food is currently not taxed, even the dubious food-like products, but dog food and baby wipes are taxed. So where's the line? Pugsley said "prepared foods. Like Lunchables should be taxed, but not lunch meat."

"From the deli counter, right," I agreed, "but what about, say, tuna salad at the deli counter? Clearly, we don't tax tuna in a can, but tuna salad at the counter, is that taxed?" Pugsley thought it ought to be. "It's prepared," he said.

Where's the line? Do we tax pastries, but not bread? Or do we also tax bread, but not flour or yeast? Do we tax crackers, pudding, yogurt? I see where legislation could get very sticky, and Nabisco has plenty of lawyers to tie the whole thing up for decades.

Here's my shopping list for the week:

Aldi                                                              Costco
                                                                          astronaut chicken*
                                                                           eggs
                                                                            butter
                                                                          milk
fruit
apple juice
cheese x2
cream of chix soup
frozen California medly veggies
sour cream
tortillas
canned beans: 1 white, several chili
canned veggies
biscuit mix

Wish list: Yams, crackers, piecrust, cocoa powder, saurkraut, hot chocolate, Saturday cereal, peaches, shaky cheese, salmon, tuna kits, pesto sauce,  pineapple and cottage cheese

*This refers to a rotisserie chicken, already cooked and packaged like an astronaut in a plastic capsule. I wish I'd come up with the term, but it was Stephen King in Duma Key. I must content myself with having coined 'snowceries'. It'll catch on, I'm certain of it.

"So what did you have?" I asked my friend, owner of the 'no food, only ingredients' offspring. "Pasta," she said, "like we usually do."

Pasta. Yep. Brown that ground beef, dump a can of soup on, open a can of green beans, boil the pasta, call it done. Boil the pasta, heat the sauce, top with shredded cheese. OR... and we've done this... take the Ingredients, warm them and serve them together like a meal. OF COURSE you can. I have baked sweet potatoes in the microwave, heated a can of corn and a can of black beans (separate pots), spiced up the beans with some pepper and cilantro, dropped a generous pat of butter on each finished potato, and served up plates of sweet potato, black beans and corn to happy eaters. It's a warm, nourishing, comforting colorful meal that is always more filling than I remember- I usually have something left. I have been known to give cinnamon toast and half a yam as breakfast, with no complaints.

I may drop Saturday Cereal from my list this week and buy raisin bread instead. French Toast is food, you know.

Price Comparisons

Thursday

I promised to pretend shop for my groceries at 'regular' stores, because there are people who have no access to budgetary godsends like Aldi and Costco. What is a realistic amount of money that someone without Costco or Aldi might spend?

We shall find out. Meanwhile, I have done sufficient comparison shopping to implore you to never ever ever buy groceries at Wal Mart unless it is an urgent situation (like Snowfall! Accumulation! Scary! on the news), because Target has some actual competitive prices on food items, but Wal Mart is another story.

And this is another situation in which You Need Less Than You Think can be useful. How much DO you spend on groceries every week? Do you even know? I didn't. When I checked my checkbook register, I was regularly spending more than $100/week, with the occasional $300 week. Now I look at those totals and think, WHAT was I buying?

Do you know the price of a gallon of milk? Dozen eggs? Pound of butter, bag of sugar, box of cornflakes? When you start paying attention to what each of your food items costs, you can know for sure whether the Great Value! sign is lying or not.

Item Estimate               Aldi                    Costco                    Giant
Milk, $3                                                      2.95                           3.99
Frz Veg, $7                                                 6.70/80oz                  7.17/106oz (32oz bag x3)
garlic bread, $4                                           3.99(olive cibiatta)       2.50(Italian loaf)
granola bars, $12                1.98               12.70(didn't buy)            2.49 (bought)
tortillas, $2                         1.98                                                      4.22
beans, $2.40                      2.38                                                      4.00
cheese, $7.20                    7.16                                                     10.76
salsa, $1.80                       1.69                                                        2.89
taco spice, $2                    1.05                                                        3.00
fruit, $4                              6.04                                                       5.69
red sauce, $2                     3.60                                                        4.00
Ovaltine                                                                                            3.99 (bought)
cream, $2                           1.49                                                       2.39
sour cream, $2                    1.29                                                       2.10
crackers, $2                         1.69                                                      2.69
yogurt, $2                             1.99

Totals:              Aldi                   Costco                                    Giant
                        27. 77                       $13.64                                  $61.88
                                                                                                          $6.48
Weekly Grocery Total: $6.48
                                         13.64
                                         27.77  =   49.88
  
There's a very good reason that this experiment was begun in March rather than earlier. December is holiday foodstuffs. January has family birthdays at each end. February is Pugsley's birthday month, and I will tell you that I spent $60 at the Italian pastry shop because he wanted a surprise assortment from Pedigrota rather than a cake. So it's March, and other than the odd wish to cook corned beef and cabbage in my slow cooker this Sunday (odd because I'm not Irish, and Gomez, who is, isn't fond of corned beef OR cabbage), there's no holiday food purchasing to be done. Oh, wait... When's Passover?

Hm. Better budget for some matzoh.

Premise #3: You Need Less Than You Think

Wednesday

You Need Less Than You Think proved itself to me over and over.  Until we tried an extreme eating plan (for example, $21/week for three of us), we really had no clear idea how much we usually consume. Nor how much we consume because we need it versus how much we consume Because It's There. In just the two weeks we've been at this so far, we've carried over AT LEAST one planned meal from one week to the next. This means fewer required meal purchases for THIS week, leaving us room for a 'luxury item", like the round buttery crackers instead of salted squares, or (in my case) a quart of cream.

Three dozen eggs have lasted four weeks. One gallon of milk (usually) is enough for a week; sometimes half a gallon is plenty. If we're not baking, we usually don't use more than one stick of butter a week. Two cans of black beans with rice serves 4 people, or three for dinner and two for lunch the next day.  One box of Saltines usually lasts two weeks. One can of peaches can be divided into two (generous) portions, or stretched to six, in wee containers. The box of pudding that 'serves 4' usually gets me 6 wee pudding cups, (though I'm not yet convinced this is a moneysaver when I can get a 4 pack of pudding for .90 cents; the math escapes me) and a box of instant oatmeal may last a month.

A word about portion sizes: When you make a limited amount, everyone takes less . If each person gets one decent sized serving, it's enough. I have been know to offer to cook more when there was only Enough, and almost always been told, "No, that was fine. Really, it was." Impressed? No? But what if I remind you that this is from the mouth of a 17 year old boy, how about now?

When you're eating simple, good food, less is more filling. Sure, a second helping is nice, and I usually try to plan for second helpings AND leftovers to be lunch, but it's not REQUIRED. Most of us are putting into our bodies a lot more fuel than our bodies will burn. Many of us also regularly consume empty calories, and those aren't fuel, they're cargo to be carried as extra pounds.

When I make burritos, if it's just the teens and me, I can get away with using only one can of beans and half a block of cheese. This makes 5 burritos. If the kids are very hungry, they'll eat 2 each, and I have one. Usually, Wednesday wants one, Pugsley has two, I eat one, and there's one left that I'll divide in half for their lunches the next day. When Gomez is home, I double everything, everyone eats as much as they wish, and I usually still have one or two burritos left.

What are you buying that you don't need to buy? What are you eating that you don't need to eat? How many things can you not keep in the house with little to no impact?


So it's Shopping Day, and I need to make my list. I need to make my Meal Plan first, though. Before that, I ought to do Inventory, except what with last week's Whoops Snowceries and so on, I have a pretty good idea what I have.

One thing I have is the makings of Mock Beef Stroghanoff, which I put off making twice last week, so there it is. That's tonight.

I also have in the freezer many hot dogs, ground beef and at least one piecrust. The fridge has a bit less than half a gallon of milk, one block of cheese (not cheddar), half a block of cream cheese, plenty of Romaine, half a loaf of bread, most of one celery, a bit of leftover red sauce, a fresh bottle of Caesar dressing, half a jar of salsa, almost no sour cream and one (maybe) glass' worth of apple juice in a giant bottle.

When I made Psyche last week, Wednesday was disappointed. She wanted Beanie Weenie. That's a can-do. Gomez is sad if he doesn't get to eat spaghetti at least once a week, so that's a third meal. CORN is a fourth, and since I've explained about the burritos, I'm suddenly sort of craving them. That's five. Six could be quiche (I even have 2 slices of bacon left from Giant Snowday Breakfast), and I've just heard a request for soft tacos. (I asked Gomez what he'd like this week, and his first two requests were spaghetti and burritos.)

Meal Plan
Wednesday- Mock Beef Stroghanoff and green beans
Thursday- Bean & Cheese Burritos
Friday- {Pugsley may be going to a party}Quiche
Saturday-{morning tech duties, evening poetry reading}Spaghetti- sauce in the crock, salad & bread
Sunday-{friend's home for party, may not even need dinner}Soft tacos
Monday- CORN, or Stupid
Tuesday- {teach class downtown} Beanie Weenie in the crock pot

You see already that I may be planning more meals than are necessary.

Shopping Lists

Aldi
tortillas, 2 pkg,          $2                                          dog food, $9
beans, 4 cans,           $2.40                                      yogurt,     $2
cheese, 4 blocks,      $7.20
Salsa, 1 jar,              $1.80
Sour cream,              $2
Cream,                     $2
raisins,                      $2
taco seasoning,         $2
fruit,                         $4
red sauce,                 $2
TOTAL                              ~$22.00


Costco
milk, $3                                                                                       cat food,$12
frozen mixed veggies, $7                                                            cat litter,   $15
granola bars for lunches, $12                                razor blades for Gomez  $30 (?)
bread for garlic bread, $6
TOTAL                               ~$28.00

If my estimates turn out to be a bit high, I want to also buy crackers, graham crackers and bagels.

But I don't NEED them.

Whoops

Last Week:

Tuesday evening, I picked up the kids from a school function and brought them home. Because only Pugsley and I had been home to eat Sunday night meatloaf, and Monday was CORN, we had Meatloaf Redux on Tuesday evening.

And then the news came on. It was channel after channel of Snowstorm! Accumulation! Be Frightened!

So, okay. Wednesday is my usual Shopping Day, and I hadn't really planned my week, but we slapped together a list so that Gomez and I could go out Tuesday night, Just In Case We Couldn't On Wednesday Because Of The Snow- I believe it was past ten, and we needed cat food, so really Wal Mart was the only option.

We did not do great shopping that evening. In fact, what we did was buy (and I've coined a new term here) Snowceries. Yes, not groceries, but snowceries. Snowceries are what you buy when the forecast makes you suspect you'll be housebound with the people who know you best and don't bother to wash their feet or brush their hair for you. For many people, this includes giant packages of toilet paper, three or more loaves of bread and four gallons of milk. Everyone's needs are different. Our family requires bacon, cocoa and cookies, apparently.

Our list included milk, breakfast goodies (bacon, cinnamon rolls, cheese, something like that), Saturday Morning Cartoon cereal, cat food, cocoa, sour cream, cookie ingredients, laundry soap and apple juice.

Our cart included those things, plus a bag of cheese puffs, a package of Chips Ahoy! cookies, mini marshmallows, corn meal and a bag of tangerines.  And came to $50, not including the cat food and laundry soap.

See? Snowceries.

Premise One: Planning Saves Money, Reduces Waste

It's Wednesday, Shopping And Errand Day. I've done my steps in the wrong order. What I should have done was:
1. Take kitchen inventory
2. Make Meal Plan for the week
3. Make Grocery List
4. Shop

but I didn't. I made the meal plan first, based on what I REMEMBERED. Bad idea. And then I was going to shop, but fortunately discovered I didn't have my checkbook, therefore had to go home before shopping. Based on what I found, I had to do some revisions. My memory was slightly better than I usually credit it with being, and my cupboard more full than I imagined. I did not need tortillas, onions or pasta.

Now I've taken Kitchen Inventory, so that I don't buy more of what I already don't need, and if I have ingredients for meals I ended up not making last week, I'll bump that meal along to THIS week. Savings! This prevents the things I bought last week being shoved to the back of the pantry, forgotten then rediscovered three years past their Sell By date (I'm not even kidding.).

This is not to say that you shouldn't stock up on canned, boxed or frozen items that you use regularly, if they are on sale, or deny yourself an occasional impulse treat that isn't on the list. By all means, do both of these, if they are within your budget, or only slightly beyond it. You might give yourself a $10 or $20 limit on stockup/impulse purchases. I mean, what the hell possessed me to buy eight cans of sardines? (They were on sale, and the cans were lime green and hot pink, plus I hadn't had sardines in more than a year, that's why.) It took me 2 years to eventually eat all of those sardines. No one else in the house likes them.

Knowing what you have results in using what you have. I'll get back to this.
Inventory:
note: this is not a COMPLETE list of ALL the food I have in the house; hello, four (really? yes) bottles of molasses, two jars of remoulade, partial jars of wheat berries, blueberry syrup...you get the idea.
Left from last week-
2 rolls of refrigerator biscuits
3 romaine lettuces
package of celery
white sauce, olives, artichoke hearts
pinto beans, pineapple
2 containers diced tomatoes, 2 containers each with 1/2 an onion
most of a large package of kosher dogs, frozen

In freezer, pantry or refrigerator-
2 packages of tortillas
2 cans chicken breast meat, 2 cans tuna (no salmon)
4 cans of red beans (but no black beans AT ALL)
1 can beef broth, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 block + 2 lumps of cheese
Townhouse crackers (but no Saltines)
2 dozen eggs, 1/2 jar salsa,
1/2 loaf of bread, 1/2 gallon of milk
1/2 bag of frozen mixed veggies
2 sticks butter
1 box mac & cheese
2 packages cheese tortellini
many cans of crushed, diced or stewed tomatos
1 jar red sauce

Meal Plan for the week:
Wednesday: Burritos
Thursday: Large Veggie Mac casserole
Friday: Tuna Melt
Saturday: Psyche Casserole
Sunday: Crock Pot Meatloaf
Monday: Clean Out Refrigerator Night (CORN), or soup and sandwich, if there's nothing
Tuesday: White Pasta
Wednesday: Beef veggie soup

Grocery List:
Aldi:
Black Beans     $2.50                                   Costco:
Soups                 3.50                                             milk $3, ground beef $14, butter $8; $25
Taco sauce mix   2.00
Saltines               1.00                                       (additional money on fuel card, SAM-e; $75.00)
3 Mac & Cheese 2.00
Ground Turkey    4.00
tuna                     5.00      wish list: croutons, ceasar dressing, fried onions- but these can wait
bread                   2.00
oatmeal                2.00       (plus dog food & toilet paper, $15)
fruit                      4.00      
cheese                  5.00         Total Estimate $28, plus Costco $25 = $53.00

We shall see how I do. Update later!