Meal Planning with a Shopping List

Are you an impulse buyer? Do you find you get a lot of food waste or look in the cupboard with no idea at all what you are going to cook?

Hopefully, this post will help you get organised, buy what you need and avoid duplicating the same old foods over and over because you don’t know what you have in.

Shopping and planning

For some people, it is about being organised whereas for others it is more about cost and avoiding waste.

When you go shopping always go with a list and always know what you are going to use the chosen items for. Buying random foods with no idea what you are going to create with them is often an expensive mistake.

Can’t resist a bargain?

If you see the food you normally buy reduced or at a very good price it could be worth you buying it now. When something has a reduced sticker on it or is on promotion it may actually be a good investment for you as long as you don’t suddenly go way off of your planned menu.

If I do this I put the food straight in the freezer as soon as I get home-often splitting packs into useable portion sizes. I will then use this food in a future meal plan.

Knowing what you have in your cupboards and freezer is important so that you buy what you need and don’t duplicate food you already have.

Make an inventory of your freezer.
Make an inventory of your cupboard items
Make a meal plan
Check ingredients required for each of your meals, marking off those items you need to buy and those you are running low on.
Always make sure you have a supply of basic ingredients such as:

Shopping list

Pasta
Rice
Potatoes
Tinned tomatoes
Tomato puree
Kidney beans
Baked beans
Onions
Stock cubes
Minced beef or lentils
Eggs
Cheese
Milk
Oregano
Chilli
Garlic
Curry powder
Flour Plain and SR
Vegetable oil
Sugar-white sugar is fine

Prepare for tomorrow

These are just a few of many items you could add but are some of the things I find to be most useful.

Try not to run out of them. You will see from the recipe ideas on this website that most of the recipes require these items.

When you get home, unpack any fresh vegetables from their polythene bags and get them in the fridge. I also put potatoes and onions in the salad drawer.

Now run through your meal plan for tomorrow. Do you need to get anything out of the freezer to thaw? This is the most overlooked step of all time.

Tips for meal planning

Aim to use up ingredients in the meals you plan for the next 2 or 3 days
Make sure fresh ingredients are included first in your plan. Don’t forget them
Portion and freeze any fresh items you believe will not be used within 3 days-except for potatoes and onions
Be prepared to have one day here and there where you are just using up leftovers.
There are many ways of using leftovers. It could be just eating the oddments as they are, or making a soup or a quiche.

Work on your portion sizes

Food waste if often a result of not knowing how much to cook or how much to serve. Knowing your portion sizes is a great way of reducing food waste as well as saving money. Nobody wants to work to put food in the bin.

The main foods I used to cook too much of were potatoes, rice and pasta. I now always measure the rice and pasta. A starting point would be 70g dry weight per portion. You can adjust it from there. Your kitchen scales are your best friend here. I actually have two sets. One traditional for the larger amounts and a digital scale for recipes requiring small amounts of foods. This also ensures you use the correct amount of ingredients in your recipes.

For potatoes, I prepare them and put them in portion-sized piles as I prep them, on my worktop. Then I add a couple more.

I never get wasted with these foods now.

Another thing I see wasted a lot is milk on cereals. Many people put on too much, leaving an inch or so of milk in the bowl to feed the drain with.

Learn how much you actually need. to start with, try putting 180 ml in a jug and pouring it on your cereal. You can always add to it. Just pour on what you need and see if there is any waste. If you find there is a waste with this just use a little less next time until you get it right.