Meal Planning....

[blndsnbrdr]

I'm going to be spending the next 3 months or so living out of a rented room during the week for work. I'll most likely be staying with a friend so its not super weird, but I don't think I'll have the luxury of spontaneously taking over her family's kitchen. So...I'm hoping to meal plan. For all meals, 5 days a week with the majority of the prep going down on the weekends.

I'm a major "I'm in the mood for XYZ" kind of eater so I've always kind of sucked at meal planning. 

Any recommendations on great places to find recipes?
What's your experience with meal planning? Any tips?


PS -- who am I kidding, there is NO way I can meal plan (and follow through) with all meals for 5 days a week...there will be wiggle room left for eating out, I just need to keep the spending in check since I am paying more for living/commuting.

[sadlebred]

Salads are good option. If you can cook chicken, salmon, or steak you could add it to the salad. Other things that come to mind are casseroles, soups/chili, and slow cooker options--anything you could freeze.

I'm bad at meal planning.

[thom]

I'm not great at this either, but like Saddle said I like to pre-cook things like chicken, ground beef, even bacon and then add to things like salads, sandwiches, or casseroles. How about hard boiled eggs for egg salad? Tuna or BLT's? Greek yogurt with fruit and/or granola, PB or humus with veggies are also easy. If I were in your shoes I have a feeling I'd end up eating "snacky" things. Which isn't too bad if they are sort of healthy & numerous enough!

Edit: Will you have access to kitchen for some heating / cooking? (I hope so!)

How far away will you be from your weekend home?

[mcc]

I second anything that can be frozen. I'm single so I cook for one and some of my staples are chicken sausage with peppers and onions and red sauce over whole wheat pasta, pulled chicken/pork, chili, and chicken breats.  For the sausage and peppers, leftovers can be made into sandwiches on a sub roll. Rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. You can stretch it by adding it to soups, put it over a salad, shred and made into pulled chicken bbq sandwiches. I buy a lot of the thinly sliced chicken breasts that I marinate and freeze and quickly cook in a pan, oven or George Foreman and add to brown rice or veggies. I also love chili. Leftovers are easily freezable or you can stretch it by putting on hot dogs (although not healthy) or over a baked potato.

When I'm cooking for one, it's important for me to get multiple meals out of meal prep so that I don't waste food.

[shauni27]

I do a lot of meal planning, but I do not do huge meal preps over the weekend--I love to cook throughout the week. I do however cook a bunch of chicken/protein and do salad prep or make a big pot of soup on Sundays and then portion them out to be my lunches throughout the week. That is where I might start??

[emuni04]

I am big on meal planning - mostly out of necessity since I have a 1 hour commute in the evenings with a toddler. Like shauni27, I don't spend the weekends doing a ton of meal prep other than grocery shopping on Saturdays. I second her suggestion of cooking a chicken and using that meat throughout the week. I also always have chicken sausages on hand because they are so versatile. In a real pinch, keep whole wheat tortillas and shredded cheese on hand for a quick quesadilla. That is my go-to on particularly busy nights.

I really love using Pinterest to help with my meal planning because it helps me to collect and categorize interesting meals on one site. Just be sure to check to make sure the recipe links actually work prior to Pinning.

[labbie]

Feb 10, 2014 22:38:05 GMT -5 blndsnbrdr said:

I'm going to be spending the next 3 months or so living out of a rented room during the week for work. I'll most likely be staying with a friend so its not super weird, but I don't think I'll have the luxury of spontaneously taking over her family's kitchen. So...I'm hoping to meal plan. For all meals, 5 days a week with the majority of the prep going down on the weekends.

I'm a major "I'm in the mood for XYZ" kind of eater so I've always kind of sucked at meal planning. 

Any recommendations on great places to find recipes?
What's your experience with meal planning? Any tips?


PS -- who am I kidding, there is NO way I can meal plan (and follow through) with all meals for 5 days a week...there will be wiggle room left for eating out, I just need to keep the spending in check since I am paying more for living/commuting.

We are a house of two, with minimal time to cook during the week. We live out of our freezer most days. During the summer we belong to a CSA so I do a ton of soups, stews, casseroles on weekends then and we enjoy those most of the rest of the year. DH is veg, so for meat I usually do a crockpot pulled pork or chicken and freeze individual baggies for myself and that works out well.
Here's a blog I've used for good frozen make ahead recipes-
joelens.blogspot.com/2007/01/freezer-friendlymake-ahead.html

For fast healthy sides I love the frozen Green Giant Steamers, the cauliflower/broccoli/carrots in light cheddar sauce- tastes very indulgent. We buy in bulk at BJ's.

[boston340]

I lived in a hotel for 7 months for work a few years ago. I ate a lot of Trader Joe's frozen meals, bought pre-washed/pre-cut veggies, and also did a lot of yogurt, string cheese, sandwiches, and individual servings of veggies.

[blndsnbrdr]

Thank you all! Loving the ideas...and looking into chicken sausage? Never had any experience with that!

thom -- During the week I'll be living right in the middle, so an hour to work and an hour to home. eh.

[mcc]

Feb 11, 2014 23:13:14 GMT -5 blndsnbrdr said:

Thank you all! Loving the ideas...and looking into chicken sausage? Never had any experience with that!

thom -- During the week I'll be living right in the middle, so an hour to work and an hour to home. eh.

Trader Joes has a chicken sausage and I think Applewood Farms does too. It's usually by the hot dogs or other sausages in the meat dept.  I love the spicy ones but they also have sweet ones like apple or whatever.  Definitely worth a shot!