Meal Planning

Several people have asked how we pick our meals, how we open up our cupboards look around and come up with a fabulous meal. The answer is, we don't. I sit down about every two weeks and browse through cookbooks, and recipe websites such as allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com. From there I pick between 6-10 recipes. The amount of recipes depends on the serving amount, and how many times we will be dinning at home. I try to pick recipes that serve at least 4, not only providing dinner for Miata Guy and I but also for our lunch at work the next day. After picking the recipes, I make a list of the ingredients the recipes call for and from there make my grocery store list. A little over a year doing this method and we love it for several reasons. When shopping at the store we know exactly what we need and are less likely to buy what we call spurge items. By purchasing only what we need we prevent duplicating items already at home, thus saving money and preventing spoilage. Before planning, we would get discouraged looking through cookbooks, for we would always be missing a key ingredient or two.  From picking meals to making my grocery store list it takes around 30-60 minutes.  Miata Guy and I decided never to have the same meal twice. While we may have the same dish every few months we try to change up the spices or sides. We are slowing creeping into trying different ethnic foods besides American, Mexican, and Italian.

If you don't want to plan meals, try having a fully stock panty to give you lots of options to choose from.
Here's what is in our pantry at the moment


- Alcohol (red and white dry wine, rum, beer...... yes some recipes call for beer)
- Balsamic glaze
- Breadcrumbs (plain and panko)
- Broth (chicken and beef, both low sodium)
- Beans (canned black, kidney, garbanzo, navy, and chili)
- Chili pasta and sauce
- Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
- Cooking spray
- Extract (almond, vanilla, maple, banana, anise)
- Grain (oatmeal, quick cooking barley)
- Honey
- Jellies and Jams
- Ketchup
- Mayonnaise
- Mustard (plain, Dijon, and whole grain Dijon)
- Nuts (almonds, walnut, peanuts, pecans, hazelnut)
- Oil (canola, olive, vegetable)
- Pasta (spaghetti, lasagna, leguine, orzo, penne, and rotini)
- Pesto (basil)
- Relishes (dill and sweet)
- Rice (white and brown)
- Salad dressings
- Sauces (BBQ, chili, soy, Worcestershire)
- Spices (too many to name)
- Tomato products (crushed tomatoes, diced, paste, sauce)
- Vinegars (balsamic, cider, red wine, sherry, Marsala)

As far as fresh ingredients, it depends on the recipes, but usually we have

- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Garlic (minced)
- Lemons and Limes
- Butter (Imperial and non salted)
- Cheese (depends on what the recipes call for, but we usually always stock cheddar, Mozzarella, and Parmesan)
- Milk (skim, half and half, and light whipping cream)
- Sour cream
- Plain Yogurt
- Eggs
- Meat (depends on the recipes, but we usually always have chicken, hamburger, pork, and salmon or tilapia in the freezer)
- Frozen fruits and vegetables

Hope this helps!