Posts filed under 'Meal Planning'
Fond Memories of Bygone Times
I was driving to the store to pick up some chicken broth when I started to think about the “smells of the kitchen.” I know this is weird but my mind was working over the thought that we are “dumbing down” our taste buds, selling them out for convenience. It’s easier to pick something up on the way home or pop something into the oven from the freezer section then it is to actually think about making good food.
I sometimes think about those who grew up without good, not fancy, food prepared at home. I remember the smells of the kitchen when I walked in from the outside. What were we having, I can’t wait. We always had home cooked meals in our house so I really can’t comprehend those who grew up not looking forward to supper. I am hopeful that those people at least had some sort of holiday meals, whether home or at a family member’s; that they can remember fondly.
Close you eyes and remember that special Thanksgiving or Holiday meal; what it was like to ring the doorbell and then the door opens to a burst of great “smells”. Your mind begins to travel back to a time when we had the time to enjoy a slower pace and maybe a second piece of dessert.
If these memories match some of yours then why not start giving these sensations to your families? If you were not fortunate enough to have enjoyed these simple pleasures it is probably time you started some for yourself and your families. I am not advocating that every meal be a holiday meal. With a little planning you can give the present of opening that door to your family, at least a couple of nights a week. You will be surprised at how fast they get to like it and how they will look forward to a family meal. Come on, what do you have to lose, make something special tonight.
Try this one, it is very “cost effective” and easy to make; plus the smells are incredible.
Sunday Roasted Chicken
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | Mom’s Out of Town (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 6 | lb | chicken, whole, oven-stuffer |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | tsp | salt and pepper to taste |
| 2 | medium | lemons |
| 1 | medium | garlic, whole head |
| 1 | 14 oz. can | chicken broth |
| 1 | Tb | cornstarch |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Rinse and dry chicken thoroughly. Cover outside with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper over skin. Cut one lemon in half; cut garlic head in half, and place both inside cavity of chicken. Place in an over-proof roaster pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, roast chicken for 15-17 minutes per pound or until juices run clear. Place broth and lemon, cut in half, in a saucepan on stove, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove chicken from pan, place pan on top of stove. Remove lemon from broth, add chicken broth, reserving 1/2 cup, to roasting pan and stir. Add cornstarch to reserved chicken broth, stir broth into roasting pan, and cook on low until thickened. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove garlic, discard garlic skin, and add cloves to gravy. Remove and discard lemon halves inside of the chicken.
Serve with gravy on side.
Add comment October 23, 2008
The Healthier Side of Meal Planning – Could and Should be a Rant
I saw an interesting ad in the paper this morning. Tucked in with all the economic news was this statement by a leading soup maker that their competition had over 90 soups on the market with MSG added while they had 36 without. This statement hit on a topic that I have been “noodling” around in my head. I have presented the benefits of meal planning and home-cooking from an economic viewpoint numerous times; but have barely touched on the health aspects of made-from-scratch foods for your family.
Sure I have told you the food is always better tasting and cheaper when you make it yourself but let’s take a look at cooking from the health end of the business. Open a can of something and dump it into your meal and you are adding all the “extra” ingredients that the commercial makers put in. Another TV commercial shows a woman coming home and thinking, “What should I feed my family?” It goes on to say open a can of cream of something soup, add pre-cooked chicken and veggies, maybe some no-boil noodles and there you have it, a wonderful “homemade” dinner.
To make my point let’s see what “she” added to her family’s healthy diet: preservatives, preservatives and a little more preservatives, flavor enhancers (whatever they are), stabilizers, artificial color, msg, too much salt, corn syrup and a bunch of things I can’t spell nor pronounce. Yum!!! This from a family that drinks bottled water to avoid any outside contaminants.
Look, I understand time constraints, and I understand money constants but I think we can all do a better job, at least some of the time, planning meals and preparing foods in our kitchens fully knowing what we are putting into the pot and thereby into our families. Let’s try to start planning and cooking on a healthier scale, we can all benefit from it.
Add comment October 15, 2008
Meal Planning – Let’s Make Two
Chicken Pot Pie
Humor me for a second…My Beloved Cubbies (MBC) are in the playoffs…thus the title of this post. For those of your who are “believers” you will see the similarity to Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks’ game-time shout of “Let’s Play Two”. Okay,, I have it out of my system now let’s move on.
One of the best ways to aid you in your efforts to plan meals is to make twice as much as you need for a single meal and freeze the leftovers for another meal. I know this sounds really logical and easy but you have to think about it before you do it, ’cause you have to buy twice the ingredients. You probably are already doing some of this now; using the leftovers from dinners for your lunch the next day.
The usual suspects for this planning are sauces (spaghetti),stews and meatloaves. I suggest you also can make Pot Pies, home-made breads and even desserts. I like to make a big batch of chicken parmigiana so that I can freeze some for later. Look, you have to cook anyway, why not just double your ingredients, not necessarily your efforts and have something good to serve when you are in a hurry or stumped or just too tired to cook. Freshen the frozen meals just prior to serving by adding a little olive oil, fresh herbs or maybe just a touch of butter.
A quick word of caution here… if you are watching your weight, if your significant other doesn’t know limits or if you are feeding teenage sons, put half the dish aside. Hide it if possible because the two-fers only work if you don’t eat all of them at once.
Add comment October 2, 2008
e-Mealz vs. www.emealsforyou.com
There is some confusion in the marketplace revolving around our meal planning website www.emealsforyou.com and one called e-Mealz. While both sites provide meal plans we think you should have the facts before you decide.
e-Mealz:
It is our understanding that e-mealz is a subscription service that you sign up for and download a weekly Adobe pdf file based on what that individual grocery store you picked has on sale that week. The service charge for this is $15 per quarter ($60 per year), automatically charged to your credit card until you send them a note to stop. You receive, depending on the plan, either 5 or 7 dinner meal ideas and a shopping list for these meals.
The upside is you are able to plan your meals for the week and save money as the ingredients are on sale. The downside is that you have to like the recipes they send you and use the ingredients they recommend; including many canned soups, sauces and ingredients. Meal plans fall into two categories: Family – 7 dinners for 4-6 people and Regular – 5 dinners for 2 people. e-Mealz provides only the prescribed meals per week; no substitutes, if you don’t like one or two, they tell you to simply cross those ingredients off the shopping list. More importantly if your kids won’t eat what they suggest, you are right back to where you started from: planning several meals without help. There is no opportunity to change the meal plans or to pick meals and desserts other then the dinner plans they provide. Based on the Internet comments regarding this service many become bored with the meals and feel locked in to what e-Mealz thinks they should be eating.
emealsforyou.com is a subscription meal planning service; providing a variety of recipes and meal plans (hundreds to choose from) along with shopping lists based on your choice of recipes and meal plans. All of our recipes and meal plans are scalable (just pick the number of people you are feeding 1,2,4,6,8,10,12) and we will automatically scale the recipes and ingredients for you. If you are having more or less people for the meal; simply scale that meal to suit your needs. Put the meal plans or recipes in your Favorite Box and you can save them and also create shopping lists unique to your choices. We have hundreds of recipes and meal plans to choose from, with no additives or preservatives, and also have a very easy method to create you own meal plans and print a shopping list. Our members have reported savings of 10-20% on their groceries when they shop using a shopping list. With www.emealsforyou.com you are not limited to dinners but have everything from appetizers through desserts; plus special categories for special needs and no limit on the number of meal and recipes your choose..
emealsforyou.com has recipes and meal plans covering a large selection of health and happiness conditions. You simply choose the ones that work for you. While e-Mealz provides 7 or 5 recipes you have signed up for; we allow you to choose recipes and meal plans that you like. Why let someone else tell you what to feed your family? We offer you the choice of over 500 great and easy recipes and meal plans. Choose, size and print your shopping list. Our cost is $36 for a full year, $24 less expensive then e-Mealz; with no automatic plan continuation hitting your credit card. emealsforyou.com brings you an easily downloadable Weekly Meal Planner with a 5-day meal plan complete with recipes and shopping list; thus giving you the option of a 5-day suggested meal plan and the ability to choose your meals and create a shopping list. Our Quick Meals Planner/Weekly Meal Planner provides 20 easy and complete 5-day meal plans. Pick the meal plan, scale it to the number in your family, print the shopping list, now that’s easy!
If you would like to see the Recipe and Meal Plan categories on emealsforyou.com click here .
To use your local grocery stores’ sales fliers to save money at the grocery stores while using emealsforyou.com follow these easy steps:
Get the sale fliers from the groceries in your area. Go through them and see what food appeals to you. Log on to www.emealsforyou.com and go to Recipe Finder. Choose those foods that appealed to you and see the recipes associated with them; i. e. choosing chicken breasts showed over 50 recipes including many healthy and low fat/carb recipes. Choose those recipes, send them to your Favorites Box, scale them, and using our easy shopping list function, print the list. This allows much more freedom of choice; why limit yourself to only one grocery store. Our members report shopping with a list has saved them 10-20% on their grocery bill; easing their mind and saving them money, plus they have a happy family.
For those of you who choose to have e-Mealz select the meals for you and become bored and want to switch to the emealsforyou service simply send us an email to obtain an additional discount.
Save Money! Save Time! Save $5.00! Enter EMEALS-24 when you register for emealsforyou.com and receive $5 off the subscription price. That’s 1 FULL YEAR of meal planning for only $31.00.
Add comment September 23, 2008
Change of Seasons – Change of Meal Planning
Change of Season
I can always tell when it is time to begin to leave Summer behind and move on to Fall. Suddenly mums appear into front of the fireplace; signaling the changeover from the hot, sticky weather to more comfortable sweater weather. My wife buys some mums for outside but just happens to bring a few inside to look at… as we won’t light the fireplace for a while yet, they are the perfect way to segue and add some color at the same time.
Fall is my favorite time to cook. While Spring signifies a new beginning each year, Fall brings back all the old favorites. The smells of stews, sauces and long-cooking meals permeates the air. It is during Fall that we mix old favorites and new recipes. Time seems to move just a little slower, maybe the kids appear out of nowhere to see what’s for dinner. I highly recommend you take advantage of the change of seasons to change your eating habits… more importantly your meal planning habits. Why not use this period to establish a family night at home policy. Start with one night a week and you will see that soon it will become more than a single night to gather with your family. Who knows, you may find the cooking slow and easy and the family payback huge.
Add comment September 18, 2008
Even Meal Planners Get Stumped – Another Semi-rant
Chicken Piccata
Even people who actually plan meals for a living hit the wall sometimes. I say this not to justify my current brain freeze but to say, “It’s all right to not be able to decide on what to make for dinner.” After several weeks… seems like months… of planning special meals for friends and family I find myself all “cooked out”. This is not to say we didn’t enjoy the company; just that we are no different from anyone else… the dreaded Planning Fatigue has set in.
It is precisely for these occasional timeouts that I try to keep some of the basics around: chicken breast in the freezer, along with some homemade soups and sauces; salads in the frig and of course I can always turn towards my endless supply of frozen desserts to make an ordinary meal better. And yes, we do burgers, we are not effete snobs who always have special meals. That said there is no excuse to give up on a meal and just throw it on the plate. Try to have a couple of comfort and comfortable meals in your repertoire that you can turn to when the “freeze” hits. Sorry, I don’t count Mac and Cheese as a staple.
So here is my GO TO meal, it is quick, easy, cheap, make that not expensive, restaurant-quality and your family will love it.
Chicken Piccata
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | We’re Talking Chicken (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 4 | medium | chicken breasts, boneless, skinless |
| 4 | Tb | rice flour |
| 1 | pinch | salt, kosher |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | Tb | lemon zest, finely chopped |
| 2 | oz | mushrooms, sliced |
| 1 | medium | lemon, juice of |
| 1 | 15 oz can | chicken broth |
| 1 | Tb | cornstarch |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Pound chicken breasts in zip-lock baggie to 1/2” thickness, add flour and salt, shake to coat. Heat oil in pan, brown chicken; add zest, mushrooms, and lemon juice. Cook for 3 minutes, add chicken broth, reserving 2 oz. Cook for about 7 minutes, until chicken is done. Add remaining chicken stock to corn starch, add to pan, stir. Salt and pepper to taste.
(from the Chicken Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Add comment September 5, 2008
The Meal Planning Game (Part Three) – Let the Games Begin
Successful meal planning requires some form of all three parts of The Meal Planning Game. Without an understanding of the meals and recipes you have available to you there is no way you can reach your goal of saving money, time and feeding your family better. This is the final installment of this (we hope) helpful toolset that should set you on the right path… it all becomes just so many words on a page if you don’t use it.
There are several ways to go about meal planning depending on your level of competence in the kitchen, general ability to plan and your desire to succeed. For the purpose of this exercise we will assume that you will use the tools we have provided… many of you do some or all of this from memory; just follow along and plug into the toolset wherever you need it.
Let’s start by getting out your calender and deciding the number of meals you need to plan; pick some of the meals you have on your meal spreadsheet and place them on your calender. You may wish to check out what is on sale at your grocery so that you can take advantage of any money savings. If you can’t decide, you may simply place numbers in a hat, these numbers will correspond to the numbers beside your meal plans on your spreadsheet. Pick a number and you have a meal plan. If you have young kids you may want to have them give you a number and this becomes the Meal Planning Game. Another way to get your kids involved is let them pick a favorite meal from the meal planning sheet… when kids get involved with the planning you will find them much more interested in the food.
So we have our meals scheduled; let’s bring out our recipes and write down what we need to shop for. We suggest you make your list based on how your grocery store is set up. Make a section on your paper for meats/seafood, one for veggies, one for frozen foods and another for dairy. Put down all the ingredients that you need; combine any “like” items; i.e. 2 chicken breasts, 2 chicken legs and 2 chicken thighs becomes 1 whole chicken. Also delete any items that you have in your pantry, frig or freezer. Finally put any other needs on your shopping list, print the list and it is off to the store.
Remember your goals: to save money, to save time and to feed your family better. When you go to the grocery only buy the items you need… these are the things you decided you needed to make the meals you have chosen. DON’T buy things you don’t need. DON’T give in to the urges to buy junk food at the grocery. DO give the method some time to work; chances are it may take a time or two to get the hang of it…when you do you will reach the goals you have set out and be happier and healthier, and your kids may look forward to family meals again.
P.S. Send us your comments of how this works for you and any suggestions you think might benefit others.
Add comment August 28, 2008
The Meal Planning Game (Part Deux) – Creating Your Cookbook
Now that you have your spreadsheet of the meals you will chose from (The Meal Planning Game – Overcoming Our Aversion to Planning ); it is time to get a little more organized. Look, most of us hate to spend the time to organize and plan but if you take it little by little, eat the elephant one bite at a time as they say, you may find yourself in good shape without much pain. Okay? deep breath…better…let’s get started.
On a separate sheet of paper or file card, take the first meal on your spreadsheet and write down the ingredients, the amounts and how many servings the recipe or meal plan is for. This is important as you progress to developing a shopping list for the meals for whatever period you are planning. Don’t try to do your entire spreadsheet at once or you will overwhelm yourself. You have spent this long without planning so a few more days won’t hurt anything. Now repeat this procedure with the rest of the meal plans on your spreadsheet. It may be helpful to number all of the recipes on these sheets and match them with numbers on your spreadsheet to avoid confusion down the line. Remember, you are doing this to save money, feed your family better and save your sanity…keep this in mind and push through.
Congratulations, you now have your own, personalized cookbook and a spreadsheet to assist you in making meal planning decisions. Next up…Making a Game of Meal Planning.
Sound like too much work? Remember we do all of this for you on www.emealsforyou.com… only $31 for a full year of membership. Use EMEALS-42 for the Sponsoring Identifier on the registration form to get the $5 off the price of $36.
Add comment August 21, 2008
The Meal Planning Game – Overcoming Our Aversion to Planning
I have written several Meal Planning post on this blog dealing with the methods and the reasons behind planning our meals. ( see Meal Planning Category ) Yet still many of my readers have a hard time getting into the habit. If we look at my website:www.emealsforyou.com as the easiest method; completing the meal planning function for you as the top level we should also create an easy, free and comprehensive method as well. In this and the next posts I will introduce The Meal Planning Game… a way of encouraging you to begin the planning function and involve your family to help you. Using this method we will teach you to create your meal worksheet; the place you go to get meal ideas. Next we will work on creating your own “cookbook” for these recipes; providing a source for your personalized shopping list. Finally we will put it all together and you will be amazed at how easily you will “slide” into meal planning and enjoy all the by-products of this: saving money, saving time, feeding your family better and stressing out less.
Step 1: Completing the Meal Sheet.
Our first step is to sit down and write a list of our “usual” nightly meals. Here is a worksheet to assist you (Meal Sheet); I also have this in an Excel format, see the note at the bottom of this post to obtain it. Simply put down your Meat/Fish (protein), any starch (Potatoes/Pasta and any Vegetables you usually make with this meal. Don’t worry substitutions will be allowed later. If you typically tie one meal into the next, via the leftover route, simply put the meal on one line and then the leftover meal on the next. Later on, when we begin to choose meals you will place these meals on your meal plan on consecutive days.
You are probably saying I don’t have any “usual” nightly meals; you certainly do and I think you will be amazed once you take the time to think about this just how many you really have.
Okay, so now we have a list of Meal ideas, from this list we can create a Special Meal, a weekly menu, or any number of weekly menus. Next week we will discuss how to set up your “personal cookbook”.
Note: to obtain the Meal Sheet in an Excel format simply send me a message including your email address and I will forward the file to you. Also, please, please send me comments and questions. I truly want this to be a useful product and without your feedback I may miss something important. Remember, if you don’t want to have your comment posted simply tell me in the comment field, I read each one before deciding to post them and I can delete your comment without posting it. You may also send me an email for a personalized and private response.
Add comment August 14, 2008
Meal Planning – A Rant About the Cost of Laziness
Years from now when the social-anthropologists look back and try to determine when the decline started, they will settle on Bill Cosby and Jell-O pudding. Some of our moms made pudding from scratch; some from a package labeled instant…but the downfall can be traced to the advent of the ready-to-eat pudding cup. In our lay-the-blame society, you know the one without mirrors; it’s easy to say that is when kitchen laziness began.
It all gets back to- how much does it cost? For those few people who can afford it, kitchen laziness must be a very nice thing. Our society rewards kitchen laziness, the inability to push ourselves beyond opening a package to provide food for ourselves and our families. We have a whole slew of businesses designed to prepare our meals, actually just the entrées, in nice little freezer bags so that we won’t have to overwork ourselves in the kitchen. On a diet, not to worry, just order up from the Internet…Get 6 weeks of food for the cost of 4. Let’s not even get into the fast food route.
First let me attack the Diet Plans. Let’s look at what’s missing besides the vegetables, salads et al that you have to provide on top of paying “only about $10 per day” as the ads say. We are missing the self-discipline to use portion control… to limit our daily intake of calories and carbs. Will we stay on these pre-arranged diets forever, how will we learn to push ourselves into better physical shape if the only way we can diet is by checking off a list of meals on a menu? Besides diets don’t work; unfortunately we’ll need to change our lifestyle to really make the difference we are looking for.
Now about those Meal services, Dream Dinners, My Girlfriends Kitchen, etc. What are we really getting for our money? We have ourselves convinced that they are just like going out to dinner only cheaper. Surprise, you still have to cook them, still have to come up with sides or salads to go with them. Just what have we gained except less money in our checking account and bragging rights at the PTA meeting? Come on… take some time and plan you own meals. You will find it refreshing to have control over what you want to eat and not what they have on the menu for that week.
Look, I don’t care how you plan your meals; use your recipes, get recipes off the Internet or cookbooks. Like the Nike phrase, JUST DO IT! Show some discipline. For those who say they can’t plan meals I say bull. The only thing between your family and good meals is your laziness. Get over it. Don’t you want your kids to look forward to good meals at home?
Add comment June 12, 2008
