Monthly Meal Planning: Part 3

This is the final post in the Monthly Meal Planning series (read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here). 

In the past two posts, I shared my heart and reasonings for monthly meal planning. In this post, I want to be super practical. Thinking about what would be the most beneficial tools to begin meal planning, on any scale, I have included some recipes, best prices, and questions I've been asked during the time I've meal planned. Enjoy! 

Make-at-Home Recipe Favorites

I used to think that buying everything pre-made was easier and saved time and money. Now that I am more budget-conscious and actually have started to enjoy making things from scratch, I have found that there are many things that are cheaper (and most of the time healthier, since you know what you put in it...) when you make them yourself. While this isn't possible all of the time, there are a few recipes that I go back to time and time again.

Here are a few of my favorites (thanks to my friend Shanna for the starter ideas!):

Sweet and Sour Stir Fry Sauce 

1/4 cup broth (I use chicken)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (there are several options for GF soy sauces, Whole Foods carries several)
2 tablespoons balsamic or rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (you can add more or less depending on preference)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 clove garlic, minced

*Combine all ingredients and pour over stir fry veggies once they are nearly done. Let simmer for remainder of cooking time and pour excess sauce onto rice/quinoa when dishing up.

Tomato Pasta Sauce 

1/2 cup olive oil
6-10 cloves of garlic, minced
6 28oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
Seasoning of choice (Italian Seasoning is what I've used but you could use whatever you'd like)

*Puree tomatoes with immersion blender until they have reached your desired consistency (I like some tomato chunks in my sauce, so I pureed 5 of the cans and left one can diced). Head large pot over medium-high heat and add olive oil. When oil becomes hot, add garlic and stir for 1-2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the tomato puree to the pot and cook 1 minute. Add remainder of puree and simmer on medium-low for 4+ hours, the longer you simmer this, the thicker the sauce will get. This makes at least 7 dinners, so freezing this is ideal. If you find you want the sauce to be thicker when you defrost the sauce later, you can either simmer it longer or add a bit of arrowroot powder to thicken it up.

Crockpot Pinto Beans

2 1/2 cups dry pinto (or black) beans, rinsed
3 garlic cloves, minced
4-6 cups of water
1 bouillon cube (or equivalent broth)

*Combine all ingredients into crockpot and cook on low all day. Check occasionally and add more water if needed.

Best Prices

There are many places to find best prices around the Seattle area for the foods that my family uses frequently. About a year ago, I started taking a small notebook along with me when I grocery shop to write down prices of foods we typically purchase and compare prices among the stores we frequent the most. One thing to note though, especially at Costco, items that are on this best price list may not stay in stock for long, and products will cycle through sales and availability more often than not. If you find a better deal, post a comment and I will add it/edit my list! Also, this website has a bigger list of Costco items, but I am not sure if they are still available/priced the same. 

Costco:

Organic Short Grain Brown Rice - 12 pounds for $13.49
Organic Coconut Oil - 78 ounces for $21.99
Organic Pure Maple Syrup - 1 liter for $13.59
Organic Raisins - 4 pounds for $8.49
Organic Quinoa (Pre-washed) - 4 pounds for $11.69
Organic Applesauce - 4 jars of 47 ounces for $9.69 
Frozen Stir Fry - 5.5 pounds for $7.49
Eggs - 2 dozen for $3.19
Kerrygold Butter - 3 8oz sticks for $6.99 
Salsa - 2 38 ounce jars for $5.39
Almonds - 5 pounds for $12.99
Gluten Free Bread - 2 loaves for $7.99
Gluten Free Flour -  5 pounds for $12.69

Whole Foods (Winco is actually a bit cheaper, but I have noticed the quality of Whole Foods is worth the extra few cents, as well as the convenience of being able to walk there):

Pumpkin Seeds - $4.99 a pound
Dried Black Beans - $1.89 a pound
Dried Pinto Beans - $1.99 a pound
Dried Kidney Beans - $1.99 a pound 
Split Peas - $1.39 a pound
Sunrise Red lentils - $1.99 a pound

Meal Planning FAQ

How do you know what to get at Costco if you only go one time a month?

I have actually just started going to Costco once a month recently, and before that have been going twice a month. I decided to go once because I tend to buy more things when I go twice - 'great sale' items that we really don't need but I feel compelled to buy because it's such a good price. It has taken me about three months to solidify what we go through a month on average from Costco, and this allows me to buy what we go through, rather than what I think we may use. I started writing down what we buy from Costco in a notebook, and then putting dates by each item whenever I bought it again. Over the past several months, I began to notice trends such as we buy brown rice every other month and stir fry once a month. Now, I can have a pretty good idea of what we need each month and just buy those items. It really does sound like a lot of work, but honestly it takes just a minute or two to check off when I've bought items in the notebook and knowing how much of an effort it takes to go to Costco with a small kiddo, it's worth that to me! 

What happens if plans change during the week and dinners you planned won't work?

This is something that so many people have asked me since I have been meal planning. They see the calendar up and menu written out for the week and it seems far too rigid for the average family, especially with crazy and unpredictable schedules. The best answer for this is that within the week, and month actually, there is much flexibility. For me, planning out monthly (or even weekly) allows me to spread out the more costly/time consuming meals, but it doesn't mean that I know exactly what we are having November 20th for dinner. I have a plan for the 22nd (chicken with loaded avocados actually)  but that is mainly for me to have a better strategy for grocery shopping. Without knowing what I will be making through the week I will spend more time and more money at the grocery store (there is a trend of this apparently...) than I really want to. I have all of the ingredients for a week's worth of dinners each Monday, and then can change things up if I need or want to throughout the week. For example, if I was planning a more time intensive meal on Tuesday, but had a rough day and didn't feel up to it, I would swap that meal for another one. I also have a couple of quick meals on hand for weeks when everything hits the fan and we really have no time/ability to cook the meals that were planned. Some of these are rice and Indian Fare (from Trader Joe's), stir fry, and pasta with marinara sauce. Basically, the biggest thing is to make it work for your family. If that means you plan out three days a week worth of meals, then great! It's not a comparison or perfect plan by any means. 

How long did it take to move from weekly to monthly meal planning?


I did weekly meal planning for about a year and a half before I switched over to monthly. Like I've said before, I initially scoffed at monthly meal planning, and actually remember rolling my eyes when I had seen monthly meal planning calendars on Pinterest a while back. I thought it was overkill to plan a whole month, but I think this was because I really didn't know the flexibility and ease that it can bring to meal planning. One of the other things that had to happen before I made the switch to monthly meal planning was having a base of good recipes that were tried and approved of in my family. If you start monthly meal planning and create new recipes every other night, it will likely be overwhelming and costly at best. Having that go-to base of meals allows me to spread out different types of meals (rice based, ones that include meat, soups, etc) and not feel as though I need to buy all new spices and ingredients for every meal. For me, it also makes trying new recipes more enjoyable, knowing if it's a flop, tomorrow's dinner will be something we know we like. 

                                               _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

It's been great to be able to think and write through the processes that, until now, have been just in my head about meal planning and food budgeting. Being able to actually see what I typically do each month has allowed me to see things that are in definite need of change, and gives me fresh motivation to keep going! One of the things that I am learning though is that meal planning is so far from law. I tend to think that I can only be a "good" wife/mama/homemaker if I do certain things and do them in particular ways. This causes so much stress and needless anxiety. God is teaching me through monthly meal planning not only to trust Him alone with my family, but also that I am invited to hold my schedule and plans with an open hand (I say invited because ultimately He has control over it all, but fighting that leads to such a different relationship than willingly trusting and opening my hands) and He loves me enough to know what's best for me. That may be that my meal plan works out well and we come under budget, or that could mean everything goes sideways and I have to pray for my daily bread more literally than the month before. I do want to love and serve my family through meal planning, but more importantly I want to worship and glorify my Savior through it. 


Until next post, 
Sola Dei Gloria