Practice #13: Meal Plan
As I’ve said before, one of the key components of living less waste is being organized. Take it from someone who is a natural Type B personality, I know what a headache this can be. But, I have also found that the more our lives become organized, the more Type A I become. At first, I didn’t like the person I was being (I mean, who has a checklist of “supplies” they take to the grocery store?!) but then I just embraced it because it makes our lives run smoother. And don’t worry, if you are missing my Type B, feel free to glance into my car.
It seems everyone has their own way of meal planning. And whatever works for you, DO IT! But if you happen to be floundering, or thinking about what to make for dinner sends you into a cold sweat, or you’re finding that the system that worked for you before no longer works now because you just had a baby or started a new job, etc., then let me offer you to take a peek into my meal planning life.
First of all, do yourself a favor and go to your local library and check out the book Dinner:A Love Story along with it’s followup book Dinner:The Playbook. (or if you don’t want to do this, which I think is a mistake but to each her/his own, pull out one of your favorite cookbooks.) The reason I use cookbooks and not the internet is because I found that I would end up spending what seemed like hours on the interwebs just trying to pick out 3 meals! Frustrating and a waste of time! So on a Tuesday night, with cookbook (and drink) in hand, sit on your couch and using your phone, take a picture of 3 meals and 3 sides (See Dinner:The Playbook for a fantastic list of super easy sides). Thursdays are always leftovers, Fridays are Homemade Pizza night and Saturdays are usually some kind of take-out after church. Hence, only 3 meals. After you have taken pictures of your recipes, set your phone aside, take a victory sip, and crack open the latest issue of This Old House. Or is that just me?
The next day you have to think about meal planning is Thursday. (I like to take Wednesday off 
) On Thursday, grab your phone (and drink?), sit on your couch again and flip through your recipe pictures to write out your grocery list. (or if you really want to be less waste, use the voice to text feature on your “notes” app and just speak the ingredients into a note) That’s it for Thursday!
And then, from there, all you have to do is grocery shop. Pick any day/time between then and Monday to do it. Oh! and make sure you have assigned which meal is being cooked when. That’s what my weekly plan board is for. (see picture)
Since I have not been sleeping through the night since May, (Thank you, Annora!) I have found it’s best to have one freezer meal or crockpot meal per week. So for that, I have printed out my favorite 15-20 recipes and have put them into a binder and use this in tandem with the cookbooks. (I realize I have created more waste by printing them out but I used both sides of the paper and the little waste I used, i.e. a few pages of paper and ink, are sacrificed in order for me to create a lot less waste, and frustration, elsewhere.)
You will find that when you meal plan, however you decide to do this, your fridge will be full on Monday and by Sunday evening, it will be just about emptied out with very little, if any, food wasted. And because you were prepared ahead of time, you were able to much more easily make less waste choices at the grocery. And maybe even make the extra effort to go to a grocery store that you know offers more food with less packaging because you only need to go to the grocery once this week.
Another long post, oops! Sorry about that! Hope this is as helpful for you as it is for me! Ahead this week is a post on our homemade pizza nights and a new place to BYOC!