Posts tagged ‘Meal Planning’
Tips, Techniques and Ideas – Common Sense Thoughts from our Website
Kitchen Notes
Ever wonder what a roux is? How about, “How many tablespoons in a cup”? What about which tools we rely on in our test kitchen?
We’ve revealed some secrets from our kitchen!
If you are asking it probably someone else has, too. To help you out, we have compiled our own Kitchen Notes tailored just for our members.
Plan Your Meal Cooking
Plan your meal cooking the way you plan your “soccer mom” driving. Assign a time to prep and cook each component of the meal. Start with the longest prep/cooking item, begin that and stage each of the other components according to cooking time to have everything finish at the same time. This is the hardest task to learn but once you master this you will find your cooking will become immensely easier.
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.
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, with unlimited downloads. 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, down-loadable anytime and as many times as you wish. Choose, size and print your shopping list. Our cost is $17.95 for a full year, a lot 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/low 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.
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.
Saving Money by Understanding Our Eating Habits – A Semi-rant
I was stunned this morning when my wife told me she saw that Americans eat 50% of their meals outside of the home. How can this be possible? I decided I would take a look at this and see where we can parley this knowledge into a plan that will save our families money and also provide healthier food. Taking into consideration the average family of four; two kids, two parents, both of whom work, the numbers are really surprising as to how few opportunities we have to gather our families around us and enjoy a good, healthy, family meal. I have chosen my timing on this to coincide with the start of the new school year… change is good!
Breakfast is a cup of coffee for the adults and maybe, maybe a bowl of cereal for the kids; probably more like a handful of overly sweet cookies and out the door. Lunch at school may provide proper nutrition depending on the local program and for us some form of fast food caught on the run at the office. So now we are down to dinner. Let’s see: soccer practice, ortho appointments, music lesson, etc. well that about shoots the week.
Where can we find the time to slow down the rat race? First stop breakfast; I know the kids barely make it to the bus on time now. Each year you receive a schedule of when the bus pickup is, so each year you are probably going through a time change anyway. I suggest you move the wake-up time 20 minutes earlier, thus providing a chance for a nutritional breakfast and perhaps a quick conversation with your kids. “Not going to happen, kids won’t get up”, are the inmates really running the asylum? Remember the purpose here is better health; make it happen.
We probably have little control over the lunch thing at school unless you pack their lunches and then you are not sure if they are eating it all or not. As for the adults this a key area where you can save calories and money . By scouting out the available food outlets and using a little will power you can come up with a better plan then the same old same old at BurgerWhatever. If they asked “would you like me to super-size you” instead of the fries would you still say yes.
Our real opportunites happen at dinner. Sure you have a very busy schedule but with a little shuffling and a little pre-planning it may be possible to have a couple of family dinner meals per week. Use this as a starting point and see if you can’t sneak in additonal meals. My bet is that once you get into proper planning habits it will become second nature and your family will thrive.
Meal Planning – Winning the Trifecta
Growing up, Saturdays were the days my father took over the kitchen. My mother cooked the meals during the week but come the weekend my father would work his magic; creating rich soups, thick stews and wonderful sauces. Anyone entering the house was treated to the smells of garlic and tomatoes simmering, meats stewing and vegetables blending into hunger-causing pots cooking for hours on the stove. Fresh rye bread from the local Polish bakery was passed around and each of us got to sample whatever was cooking by dipping the bread into the pot.
So how does this fit into the Meal Planning theme? We are all searching for a way to feed our families better, to save time in preparation and to save money. Without knowing, he was showing the way. His Saturday rituals are the basics, the Trifecta of what we need. In today’s fast-paced and rushed world we need to take time to save time.
Here is what I suggest. Make a big pot of tomato sauce, the cost is minimal when you do the math: cost of ingredients /number of meals provided. Divide the sauce into meal-size packets; freeze these for use at a later date. One night you can make spaghetti for the family; having friends in for dinner, thaw a packet, add a little cream, maybe a little vodka , if you have it and there you go: Penne Pasta in Vodka Sauce. Put some over ground beef or into a veggie combination; use the leftovers for the kids’ lunch. Please don’t feed your kids “spaghetti o’s” even if they do like them. Of course they like them, read the label. They are mostly sugar, what’s not to like for a 3 year old. You get the point; make it once, serve it many times.
As with the tomato sauce you can buy beef when it is on sale and make a stew. Soups are the same. Ask the person behind the meat counter at the grocery if they have any soup bones. They usually give them away or charge very little and this will help you stretch your budget and also make a good stock. We usually think of soups in the winter to warm up but there is something comforting about a bowl of soup, anytime.
So here it is: Stop opening cans and jars. Start making a big pot of something comforting and maybe a few memories that your kids will take with them when they have kids of their own.
I have listed my father’s tomato sauce recipe below. It calls for boneless pork. If you want to add the pork buy the least expensive piece at the grocery, don’t worry about whether it has a bone or not. Buy the canned tomatoes when they are on sale. Just cook it low and slow and wait for everyone to find a reason to come into the kitchen. Pass the bread please!
Spaghetti Sauce
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | The Other Meat Entrée |
| Meal: | Dinners for New Parents ( leave behind food to feed the viewing public) (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 3 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | lb | pork, boneless roast |
| 1 | large | pepper, green |
| 1 | large | onions, diced |
| 7 | 20 oz can | tomatoes, whole |
| 2 | 16 oz can | tomato, paste |
| 6 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 2 | Tb | oregano, dried |
| 2 | Tb | thyme, dried |
| 4 | medium | bay leaves, whole dried |
| 2 | Tb | salt to taste |
In a large, heavy saucepan put enough olive oil to just cover the bottom. Heat until just beginning to smoke; add pork and brown. Add onions, pepper and sauté until softened, put tomatoes in blender, blend until smooth and then into pot. Add paste, garlic and spices/herbs. Add salt and simmer uncovered over low heat for several hours, the longer the better. Stir every time you pass the pot. Pull pork from sauce and shred with forks, return pork to sauce. May need additional salt to taste May need additional salt to taste.
This recipe makes enough sauce for several large meals.
Freeze in plastic containers for individual use.
From: Dinners for New Parents ( leave behind food to feed the viewing public) (Share-a-Meal Plans) at emealsforyou.com
Meal Planning – How to – Step 2
Now that we know what is in our freezer and pantry (see Why Meal Planning – The First Step) it is time to begin to put together our weekly meal plan. A quick note: not all budgets are equal. Some have tighter budgets than others. This Sample Meal Plan is meant only to give you an idea of how all this goes together. Realizing that many are really squeezed financially we are making efforts to get more low cost recipes on the www.emealsforyou.com site.
Grocery shopping with a shopping list has two great effects: you know you will have what you need when you are preparing the meal and you will save money as you only buy what is on the list. Working with the local grocery sales sheets I have put together the meal plan for 7 dinner; using the techniques mentioned in Feel the Power – Weekly Meal Planning- Save Time and $$$ choosing meals that are fairly easy to make and pleasing to your family. In the interest of space on this blog I have created a separate file:Feel the Power – Meal Planning – How to Step-2 – using the emealsforyoucom site to show you the meal plan and the shopping list created by www.emealsforyou.com so that your trip to the grocery is both quick and economical. You will also see that it is possible to add items to the shopping list not called for in the recipes but needed around the house. The entire process took roughly 15 minutes to complete. You may do this same function without using emealsforyou.com. You just need to gather your recipes, compile a list of all the ingredients to include amounts and then off to the store.
Remember the reason we are meal planning is to save money: buy just what you need, not all the costly extras and feed your families better meals. Better being better tasting, better for them and maybe more, “this is good mom” for you.
Why Meal Planning – The First Step
So you know you should plan a little better; for a couple of reasons. First there is the, ” I really should give my family better meals” thing. Then, and this should not be minimalized, there is the, “times are tough and I should try to save money where I can” thought. Using www.emealsforyou.com will help you plan better, feed your family better and feel better about yourself. From picking recipes and meals your family will love; to printing the shopping list designed to help you get through the grocery faster and with fewer unneeded items in the cart, we give you that “warm fuzzy” that you are doing something to help. Think how easy it would be to save just $3 per month, that’s the cost of a membership to emeals and as they say, “the rest is gravy”.
Okay, enough of the sales pitch; let’s move on to the First Step in Meal Planning. this one will take a little work but it will pay off in the long run.
Step 1 – Get to know the bottom of the freezer and the back shelf of the pantry. Sounds easy enough. Take a piece of paper and write down what is, or what you think it is, in that frosty baggie way back there. Make a note of what spices you have, what can goods have been sitting there waiting anxiously to please your family. Side note: now would be an excellent time to clean out all those jars of salad dressing with 1 inch of dressing in the bottom on the fridge door, you know, the ones with an expiration date of 3/2004.
Step 2 – On another sheet of paper write down all the pre-prepared foods you consume in the next two weeks. Include all the snacks the kids eat as well. These are NOT GOOD for you, don’t believe me, take a peek at the ingredients; plus they are consuming your budget. Don’t go “cold turkey” on the kids stuff, but see where you can cut back; where you can change some eating habits for the better.
Pat yourself on the back, you have started the process. Now that you know what you have you can start to figure out what you need. One final thing: start an “on sale” fund. We will use this to stock up on food, when it is on sale, that you will build your meal plans around. We help you with this as well. Our Recipe Finder let’s you plug in ingredients and see what you can make with them. Once you get the hang of all of this your will find how easy it really is.
Feel the Power – Initial
“Feel the Power”; a quick guide to using the emeals site in planning. Using the meal planning and shopping list functions I was able to plan, shop and prepare a formal dinner party of 9 and a formal buffet for 35 with just a single trip to the market.
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