Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

How I Plan a Meal And Why It Works

 

 

Life is the ultimate teacher. As Alanis Morisette aptly remarks: “You grieve, you learn; You choke, you learn; You laugh, you learn; You choose, you learn; You pray, you learn; You ask, you learn; You live, you learn.”

 

I am fortunate to live my childhood years in a Communist era. Why do I consider this as a fortune? And what this experience has to do with my meal menu planner or list of grocery? – you may wonder. Here is the answer.

There was one common, determining aspect of those times: nobody had wealth. We did not have selection to choose from. Consequently, we appreciated what we got and we learned how to live on budget well.

My family’s meals were based on the ancient verb: “Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a prince, Dine like a pauper”. We had big slices of toasts with butter for breakfast (nothing fancy but I still love it), hot food for lunch (the whole school was going to a restaurant where we were served the menu of the day) and not much for dinner.

Today I live in a wealthy country. I can afford to eat as many times a day as I wish. Still, I plan my family’s menu weekly or bi-weekly and I always take a list for grocery shopping. This way I can keep an eye on my expenses on food and save a lot of money by that. (Statistics show that those who buy their groceries without sticking on a planned list, intend to pay a lot of money on products they don’t even need.)

I passed the ancient tradition on how to eat our meals to my own family too. I prepare my recipes for lunch, not for dinner. I put all the portions in the fridge the night before so that we can take them to work and school. At the same time, our meals for dinner are light i.e. salad, yoghurt and fruit. This is not only a healthy way to eat but also a big help in sleeping well at night, not going to sleep with a full stomach.

My childhood experience of being poor turned into success in my life. I learned the smart way to plan my menu weekly or bi-weekly and I taught my kids to appreciate food. We share Franz Kafka’s view: “So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.”

What’s your childhood experience about meals? Please share and comment.

I found an interesting article on budget grocery shopping and shopping healthy by Colleen Langenfeld. She raised some questions that made me think:

- Is convenience food really convenient? Does it mean shopping healthy to purchase them?

- Is it actually good for us that the marketing campaigns change our thinking?

- Is that really a budget grocery shopping to read savvy labels and clip bonuses?

 

Colleen also has a lovely style in her writing that amuses me. Check it out:

 

Something that has not changed in this fast-paced technologically advanced time we live in is the simple need of most families to save money on their monthly grocery bill. But grocery savings in your grandma’s time and even in your mother’s time were not necessarily the same as grocery savings today.

How does such a fact impact you, today, in your quest for a lower monthly grocery bill? Simple. If you were raised by your mother (!), then you are probably still using her methods of saving at the grocery store.

Now you’re paying attention.

In the last twenty years several things have changed in the way we shop for our groceries. Convenience food, once that little-used novelty, has morphed into, quite simply, the way we choose our food. I think my personal favorite in this category (I’m being a bit sarcastic here) is the friendly fruit snack. Don’t get me wrong, we buy our fair share of fruit rolls, fruit chew-y things, and fruit-stretchy-pieces in our household. But let’s be honest here. The grocery industry started with a highly nutritious and CONVENIENT food (a piece of fruit) and, well, changed it. Somehow along the way, we as consumers have begun believing this ‘change’ is more convenient (huh?), more tasty (yum…added sugar) and better for us all around (now we look for percentages of fruit…instead of a piece of fruit…which is one hundred percent fruit).

Now I know it’s no accident that our thinking as consumers has changed when it comes to a piece of fruit. Huge amounts of money are spent every year through marketing campaigns to convince us to change our thinking.

And that’s something that has changed quite a lot since mom and grandma’s day in our friendly grocery store.

What used to be gentle persuasion is now serious business. Your grocery store wants your business so badly that your whole shopping experience is manipulated from the moment you walk in the door. Personally, I don’t think this is such a bad thing. Grocery shopping has risen to the level of art in many stores, providing the consumer with a quite pleasurable experience.

Nonetheless, as an adult in charge of your family’s grocery budget, you had better be paying attention or you can kiss all grocery savings goodbye.

I know my mom would’ve laughed at the idea that she was supposed to hand over extra money because someone had repackaged a piece of fruit. But then my mom cooked, too. She worked full time and came home every night and put a complete meal on the table.

What she didn’t have to contend with was long commutes, rampant amounts of afterschool activities and a culture which was telling her kids daily that fast and yummy beats nutritious and cost-effective every time.

Today’s mom is fighting an uphill battle if she wants her family to eat together more often than not and if she wants that food to be healthy and fit within her food budget. (If you would like more strategies on grocery savings, see the resource box at the end of this article.)

My mom gardened, froze and canned food. Today’s mom needs to be a savvy label-reader and able to discern when ‘convenience’ means buying pre-packaged or when it is really more convenient for her to cook her own meal. Both can be true in our current food economy.

So…if you’re still clipping coupons because your mother did, better get out a calculator and a clock to see what you are really saving on your groceries, and if it’s worth your time to do it. (The answer is, it depends upon your buying habits and your family’s eating habits.)

Today’s consumer has to think on her feet and be aware that she is a player in the grocery game, whether she wants to be or not. It is not difficult to maximize grocery savings for your family, but you’ll need to have the knowledge and resources to do the job. In addition, you need to give yourself permission to learn a few new tricks that can get your monthly grocery shopping done more efficiently plus save you money at the same time.

That’s something I’ll bet your mom would be delighted for you to learn.

Colleen Langenfeld has been parenting for over 25 years and helps other moms enjoy mothering more. Get free grocery savings strategies at http://www.paintedgold.com/Organize/grocery-savings.html .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colleen_Langenfeld

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/463359

 

Veronika’s comments:

After reading this article, my thoughts on my own questions above are the following:

- Purchasing convenient food does not equal shopping healthy. Unfortunately. I looked it up, according to Cleveland Clinic: “Most convenience foods on the market today are laden with saturated fats, sodium and sugar and provide little to no nutritional value.”

- Colleen doesn’t mind marketing campaigns changing our thinking. My first reaction to “marketing campaigns” was resistance. I don’t want someone else to tell me what I like or what I want. But now, considering Colleen’s opinion, she’s right. There is a good side of these campaigns too: turning shopping into art, providing us pleasurable experience. Just think about the nicely placed, shiny fruits, the colourful labels and packaging, the bright light, in some places the music.

- I noticed that the “discounted prices” are quite often not even real discounts. We just think that we do budget grocery shopping… One has to track grocery prices from week to week to be able to tell of a discount if it’s real.

 

What do you guys think of this article and these questions? Please share and comment.

There are several strategies to create a menu and grocery list planner. Some people like to cook every day, others every other day. You can also cook once a week for the whole week and freeze your meals. What common in these methods is to sit down in your spare time and give it a few minutes to think over what you’re gonna cook in the next week or weeks.

 

 

Below is a great article I came across which walks you through an effective way to set up a household’s menu and grocery list planner:

 

Becoming that little bit organised by executing a weekly Family Meals plan will potentially save you money, time and effort. A meal plan can offer your family a different variety of meals for the week and it will allow you to decide what you need at the shops before you go. This will mean that you can avoid those unnecessary and sometimes unhealthy impulse buys once you’re there.

Grocery shopping turns into a piece of cake as you confidently stride down those aisles locating and ticking all the items on your shopping list. The short period of time it takes you to plan out your family meal times is really well worth it because it takes the standard “what am I going to cook tonight?” pressure off since you will have a pre-planned weekly menu at the ready as well as the ingredients you need to be able to cook everything on your plan.

(Veronika’s comment: here comes my favorite part; tips on how to set up your own menu and grocery list planner)

Ideas to set up a household meals weekly plan:

1. Once a week on a day you prefer, take a moment and write some ideas regarding possible dinner ideas that you could prepare that week

- Try and incorporate several family favorite dinners that you know the family members will love

- Pick out several new dishes to try; Do this by reading through your own personal cookbook collection (if you have one) or perhaps start looking online at cooking websites or even ask your friends and family to show you a few of their own family favorite recipes

- Try and vary the dish varieties through the course of the week i.e. incorporate a pasta recipe, a chicken dish, a red meat dish, a grain recipe etc to ensure a well balanced and wholesome meal plan

- Try and double the recipe for at least one of the recipes to enable you to enjoy one dish across 2 evenings and/or freeze the meal for another day

- Add in one freezer meal throughout the week that you can simply remove from the freezer and set straight inside the oven

- Allow yourself a night or two off from cooking where you can either leave the house for an evening meal out or simply get takeout

2. Use a Meal Planner template to write out your program for the week

Once you have chosen several different meal ideas, look through your family’s weekly activity schedules and start allocating the meals for each of the evenings using the template. If you know there are a busy few days then keep the double up recipe and also the freezer dinner for those times. When you have a little more time on other days, those can be great times to experiment with your new recipes

3. Use a Shopping List template to write-up a food checklist of those things you require from the supermarket.

Depending on how often you like to visit the supermarket throughout the week (not that much I bet!), be sure to stock up on the necessary groceries for your planned recipes in advance. Many people like to do a single main shop every week as well as 1 or 2 smaller sized shops in order to stock up on perishables such as milk, bread, fruits and vegetables. Regardless of how you prefer to go shopping, always take a look at your weekly meals plan at least two days beforehand to ensure that you have on hand the ingredients that are required for the upcoming days. In the instance that you need to pick up anything from the grocery store then this provides you with more time to obtain the item compared to it being a rush at the last-minute

4. Keep the plan adaptable.

Understand that unexpected things do come up at the eleventh-hour and sometimes your weekly plan will need to change so be sure to remain flexible with it.

In summary, the minimal investment in time that it’s going to take you to complete a weekly meal plan is well worth it. A plan means that you can incorporate a mix of tried and tested meals in conjunction with a number of completely new recipes. This allows you to continue to enhance your cookery repertoire not to mention keep your household content at evening meal times.

Click on the links to obtain a free Meal Planning Template and Shopping List Template and to access even more high-quality Family Meals ideas, articles, great tasting recipes and cooking tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Mundell

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6494798

 

Veronika’s Comments on this method of menu and grocery list planner:

I found this article very helpful in determining how to include my family’s activity schedule into my menu and grocery list planner. By this I mean how to plan easy to make recipes on busy days and new ideas to try on more relaxed days.

What do you think of this article? Do you have your own strategy of a menu and grocery list planner you want to share?

Please comment.