Meal Planning is for the Birds

I really like the idea of meal planning. I’ve tried it, but it just doesn’t work for me at all.  I really can’t plan even one week in advance because something always happens to mess it all up and then I forget that I had a meal plan in the first place. 

What I do know, which I recommend to others who are as put off by meal planning as I am, is just make sure you buy things at the store that you regularly eat.  Sounds so simple right?  It took me a while, but I finally have a list of things that I make sure to always have in the house based off of the meals we eat most often.  This means I always have the ingredients for dinner at hand, but I don’t have to diligently stick to a strict plan.

Here is an example of dinners we eat:

Lots of combinations of meat, starch, vegetable.  (grilled chicken breasts, spinach, rice, etc.) 

Chinese food (stir fry, egg rolls) 

Mexican food (tacos, burritos, rice)

Pasta

Lasagna 

Turkey burgers

Based on our dinners, this is what I make sure to always have on hand:

In the freezer:

Chicken breasts

Ground Turkey

Some kind of fish (usually tilapia because it’s pretty versatile)

Big bag of frozen stir fry veggies from Costco

Frozen spinach

Frozen broccoli 

Green chile

A few quick and easy frozen meals for lazy days

In the fridge:

Bell peppers

Every color of onion (green, red, yellow, white)

Garlic

Potatoes

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Jalapenos

Zucchini

Squash

Chicken broth

Beef broth

Teriyaki Sauce

Soy Sauce

Stir Fry Sauce

Salad dressing

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Cheddar Cheese

Tortillas

Bread

Milk

Butter

In the Pantry:

Rice

Pinto Beans

Refried Beans

Black beans

Corn

Green Beans

Quick Recipe Wild Rice

Variety of Pastas (lasagna, penne, linguini, spaghetti) 

Peanut butter

Honey

Soup (for lazy days)

Cereal, of course

Crackers

Snacks

In my lazy susan:

Sugar

Flour

Brown sugar

Baking soda

Baking powder

Vegetable oil

Olive oil

Vanilla extract

Cocoa

And of course, all your standard herbs and spices. 

I have a fairly small kitchen and limited pantry space, and I still manage to fit all this food in our house.  As long as I have these standards, I can easily make a huge variety of things we like to eat. 

Of course, even with all this food in our house, sometimes we just stare into the kitchen and say, “There’s nothing to eat, let’s get Dion’s.”