Money is tight on my maternity leave budget, but I'm always up for a challenge. In an effort to save the almighty dollar, I started creating menu plans. Meal planning is easy on my wallet and has made sitting down as a family a lot easier. Henry is eating solids now and it makes me feel good to be able to provide him with well-rounded, nutritious meals throughout the week. Our family likes to cook local food that is in season. We shop at our
local farmer's market and we always buy organic milk (meat too, when it
is on sale). I enjoy taking out my cookbook and trying new recipes. Grocery shopping goes a lot faster now because I know what I need and I stick to my master list.
We had a meal making party on Saturday afternoon. Mike and I made two pots of chicken stew, two pans of vegetable casserole, one shepherd's pie and two dozen cookies. Music filled our kitchen and we enjoyed a couple of drinks as we whipped up dinners for the rest of our busy week. All we have to do now is pull a frozen meal out the night before, put it in the fridge and toss it in the oven the following evening. It's so convenient!
What are you having for dinner tonight?
I definitely want to start doing this before mat leave is over, it would be nice to have one less thing to think about after a work day! And to answer your question, we're having rotisserie chicken from the grocery store because we had a new countertop installed today... but I could have saved myself the $$ if I had a good freezer meal :)
ReplyDeleteIt will definitely make the transition easier Nadine! We should swap recipes :)
DeleteI totally swear by pre-making meals, especially for handling food allergies at our house. We usually have pre-portioned bundles of rice/quinoa/mung beans/barley...slap them into a bowl with frozen veg and microwave.
ReplyDeleteDo you plan menus weekly or monthly? I'd love any tips!
DeleteI love doing this sort of thing... but I have found that most of the freezer meals (besides soup, chilli, things like that) are more pasta dishes. Not good for my weight watchers diet :(
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to lose weight too, so for the pasta dishes I take a small portion and then fill the rest of my plate with salad!
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