Meal Planning The Easy Way

Last updated on June 22nd, 2021 at 04:43 pm

With homemaking comes meal planning.

When Joe and I were dating back in the Philippines, we’d go to a local place that serves purely Filipino food, and he eventually had his personal favorites. By the time I moved with him to Harrisburg, we established our staples well, go-to Vietnamese, Italian, Thai, and American fare places.

Currently, we are a small family of 3, and it can be quite tricky. I’m Filipina, my husband’s American, and our son is well, basically, half and half. 🙂 I’m in charge of our monthly groceries.

My husband has always been easy to please, for the record he can actually eat one meal and have it for the rest of the week (ugh). I grew up in a bigger household and was used to cook every.single.meal from scratch, but personally can’t live without rice. And then there’s our little guy who has a switching interracial palate every day. Cooking 3 different meals will be ridiculous (that’s unheard of in a Filipino household– I can imagine my Inang screaming “I’m not a short-order cook!” as I’m typing this). Moreover, there are certain ingredients and flavors that can only be as authentic as I can find for my taste but can be expensive if I don’t plan accordingly.

Over the years I have adjusted and adapted to a certain standard of meal planning that saves time and energy. Moreover, with the pandemic, my choice of staying home, and a husband working from home, has also helped us save money, pay off some debt, and actually build a small food stash.

Sharing some of the things I’ve learned to keep your budget at bay for meals at home that can entertain your cravings, your friends, and your kids, too!

1. First, THE Budget. It has to be realistic. (Let’s pause for a moment and cringe if you feel like it).

Okay, so having a 2 culture household comes with its challenges. Took me some practice to get used to the country’s currency value (how much is a good deal or not), food products, and portion sizes. Finally, I came across Jordan Page and found her tips to be applicable and useful.

If it makes you feel any better, before I learned how to budget our groceries, we used to rack up at least $500 a month on food and household products. When I started looking at my previous purchases, yes, I cringe. A lot. She recommended $100/person/month, starting at $300/month. It does depend on where you live and the actual cost of living in your area. With the help of her course, we have kept our food budget in control for 2 years now, despite the price changes, visitors, picnics, potlucks, and yes, birthdays included (uh-huh, read that again). Start looking into your budget and find out what works for you.

2. Clean your fridge and freezer regularly.

We’ve done this when growing up in the Philippines on a regular basis, once a week. Here, given the ginormous space and size of everything, I don’t stress and just do it every other week, or right before I do a big buck haul. It’s easier to come up with meals knowing what you have or need to use up, at the same time lessens or eliminates waste from the chances of food going bad.

3. Practice Shelf-cooking!

Now added in the Urban Dictionary,

“Shelf cooking describes the act of making meals starting First with ingredients you already have in your fridge, freezer, or pantry. You only buy ingredients from the store to supplement those meals-Not the other way around!”

I am ashamed to tell that it took me a loooong time to revive this habit even though I knew and did this way back. I grew up in a then remote area of Victoria Homes (early 90s) where butchered meat is only available every Saturday, the nearest market is an hour and a half away, and you tend to borrow oil and seasonings from your neighbors and ‘return’ the amount used the week after.

Fast forward to U.S. living when all it takes is a store run for that one ingredient that you fancied from a Pinterest recipe and walk out with a cart full of other stuff you ‘think’ you need or don’t have. Ugh.

It takes practice, and effort. It doesn’t need to be a change overnight, but try it and you’ll be amazed on how much stuff you actually have to start with.

4. Write it down!

When Vince was born I was always tired that the last thing I want to be asked for is “what’s for dinner?”. As much as I love cooking it somewhat became a source of anxiety at times. So we put a magnetic board on our fridge and started writing it down. I also put out a separate sheet for breakfast/lunch ideas according to availability, so when mealtime comes we just look at it and we know what needs to get prepared and expected.

5. Preparation is key!

I am now proud to say that I don’t cook every day. Yes, it sounds lazy, but hear me out. Not sure why but I guess mom’s life, in general, is fast-paced. And loving cooking doesn’t necessarily mean living the rest of my glory days in the kitchen (unless I’m getting paid for it, ha!) So I learned to prepare some meals, or even just ingredients, ahead of time. Pre-cut your snack fruits and vegetables, and put them in a decent spot in your fridge for easy access. Set a snack basket for the family, and pre-packaged to-go snacks (drinks too!) for outings. It saves a good time (and sanity, yeah) and gives more time to have fun out and do some other activities.

6. Don’t forget your leftovers! (Tagalog – tira (tee-ruh))

In our house, we started calling it “Leftover parties” (this name has a fun history, maybe in another post) where we just pull out everything from the fridge and heat up what we want as needed. My kid gets excited with this because he gets to choose which food he wants to eat. Kinda cool, right?

7. Schedule eating out.

Even though we plan our meals most of the time, it doesn’t mean we don’t eat anything out of the house, at all (that would be weird, no?)

There will always be those days when you feel so exhausted and then you start making excuses not to make the meal as planned and getting lured to order the fastest pizza you can get delivered. (hands, anyone?)

The Solution: Scheduling our eat-out days.

Each household will have different scenarios and reasons, but here’s a real-life example:

We only eat out when:

• we’re driving home late from a trip
• there’s an event going on and absolutely no time to cook
• something needs to get done that’s time-pressing and cooking time will have to be given up.
• we intentionally do it to support a cause. 🙂

Talk to your partner and set your boundaries for falling off the wagon once in a while. It’s okay, no one will judge you. But just like a true blue workout, we have to stick to it as often as we could.

Hope these helps.

What are the other things you do to keep your meal planning a breeze? Let me know.