Planning meals from our pantry
If you’re new to this series, make sure to go back and read my other three posts about how I build a stocked pantry, shop once a month, and eat seasonally!
I’ve had a lot of questions on how I plan meals when I shop just once a month so I thought I would detail my entire meal planning process here.
A lot of people assume that if I’m just shopping once a month that I must plan out all my meals a month in advance. Actually, I really only plan out about a week ahead of time, and sometimes, not even that! One of the advantages of having a stocked pantry - essentially your own little grocery store - is that you have the ingredients you need to make your normal meals at any time. Honestly, I don’t even need to plan meals - I seriously could just go day to day and pick something day of (or day before, if I needed to defrost meat).
But, because I prefer to know what I’m doing ahead of time, I do plan a week in advance. I also cook every other day instead of every day, and just double the portions. We eat leftovers for lunches.
Here’s what some of my recent meal plans have looked like:
Breakfast: I usually make one thing and we eat on it all week. I tend to do either muesli or baked oatmeal.
Tuesday & Wednesday: Poppy Seed Chicken
Thursday through Saturday: Cranberry Honey Pork Roast with Butternut Squash Casserole, Grits, and Rolls
Wednesday & Thursday: Homemade Hamburger Helper
Friday through Monday: Crockpot Baked Potato Soup
Monday & Tuesday: Tuna Casserole
Wednesday & Thursday: Strombolis
Friday - Sunday: Spaghetti Squash Tuscan Chicken
Wednesday: Pork Fried Rice
Friday: Steak, Sweet Potato Casserole
Wednesday: Bacon & Bean soup with Rolls
Friday: Tuna Sushi Bake
Monday: Hot Honey Chicken Bowls
Wednesday: Instant Pot Pork Roast, Rolls, Green Bean Casserole, Apples
Friday: Chicken Alfredo Bake
How I decide what to make
In the spring, summer, and fall, I may use the seasonal fruits and vegetables in my meal planning process more than I do in the winter. If my garden has a lot of tomatoes coming on at the moment, for example, I may make spaghetti and meatballs with fresh pasta sauce.
But most of the time, besides the fresh veggies, I tend to plan around carbs and meats, rotating them so we don’t eat too much of the same thing.
The carbs we tend to eat a lot are: potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta, rice, bread and sometimes grits.
The meats we tend to eat a lot are: pork, beef, chicken, and tuna.
Go back to read my Building a Stocked Pantry post to see what else we stock on a regular basis.
So I try to rotate carbs and meats.
Monday I might make something with beef and potatoes, like meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Wednesday I might make something with tuna and pasta, like tuna casserole. Friday I might make something with chicken and rice, like poppy seed chicken. Usually over the weekend if I need to cook I’ll make breakfast for dinner. And then the next Monday I might make something with pork and sweet potatoes.
Since we usually eat the same meals within a rotation of 30-50 or so, and I usually keep all the ingredients we need on hand, I will just sit down at the beginning of the week and think about what I feel like making and what we haven’t eaten in a while.
Then I put in my planner what I need to get done each day; for example if we are roasting a chicken on Wednesday then I need to thaw it Tuesday night. If we are having sloppy joe’s on Friday then I need to make up bread down Thursday night to bake off for our Friday dinner.
And that is basically it! To me it seems super simple; I’ve been cooking this way for years now so it’s second nature. Having a stocked pantry is SUCH a blessing - it’s so nice to not have to run to the store if I want to make something. I don’t have to plan super far in advance - with a stocked pantry, I don’t have to plan at all really!
Let me know if you have any questions about this and don’t forget to subscribe to get more posts like this one! What should I write about next?