Some people may be able to do several days’ worth of my meal planning method in one day. That’s not me. At least not right now. The grocery store is my nightmare. It’s torture. Before 2020, I had my groceries delivered, but where I moved it took them hours to deliver so now I mostly go to the small neighborhood grocer.
Like most people, I too have spent tons of money on food that I had to toss out later. Check out my challenge to cut my food budget in half for a month. A large part of why this happens, for me, is because of poor awareness of how long it would take me to consume each type of food. I would buy three weeks’ worth of vegetables and I wasn’t good at incorporating and snacking on vegetables to get them used up before they went bad.
The second major reason food would go bad was that I would buy foods I didn’t actually know how to cook or what to serve them with. In other words, my fantasy self would want to make super healthy meals that were more than half vegetables.
A third reason is that I wasn’t planning meals as much as courses. I would buy fish with no idea what I would serve with it. Or I would buy green beans because they were fresh, but I wouldn’t buy the main course or at least wouldn’t have a plan for what I could cook with it.
My reality check: I cannot make multi-course meals in one day except on the weekend and less than 1 every other week. I just don’t have the energy. Maybe that will change. I hope it can as I get better at this but right now I cannot. Secondly, aged food is dangerous (due to MCAS) so having less inventory is important. I can only buy as much meat as I can process on the same day I shop and I can only buy the fruit and vegetables I feel like eating now. Same for dairy.
So, Day 1 is evaluating what I feel is not safe to eat anymore. It’s important to recognize what you will not eat, either because it was an experiment gone wrong, you don’t like it, or what’s most important for me: I don’t trust it’s safe to eat anymore. Since incurring a TBI, I can’t remember if I made a meal days, weeks, or even months ago. Months and years ago are the same as well.
For the above reasons, I keep my fridge pretty empty. I freeze more things than I refrigerate. I also put fruit right in the fridge to slow the histamine growth. It’s important to note that most people are not this sensitive to histamine. However, it’s critical that I keep it frontmost in my mind with food prep and storage. I’m also working on ways to label food I make with dates. See some examples below.
STEP 1: Remove foods you won’t eat or have gone bad
The most obvious are foods that are smelling, oozing, or have visible mold. It’s important to check eggs. The weight can often give away if they are still good. People have also recommended floating eggs to test them. Honestly, I just lift them, if they are too light or if there are too few I buy new eggs. I have let eggs sit for potentially half a year and they were basically empty shells.
Lunch meats and oil-based dressings or butter can be the trickiest to determine. They often won’t put more than a Best By or Sell By date on them. Lunch meats can last a long time but they start to smell a bit before they have visible signs of issues. This is where if I feel iffy about it I may just throw it out. If I don’t feel iffy about it but know I’m not going to eat it soon I transfer them to the freezer.
Butters and oils in the fridge don’t tend to smell but will taste off when they are liquified. I’ve cooked with rancid oils and butter too often. It’s a guaranteed way to ruin a meal. In order to avoid them going bad, I now cook with just Olive Oil and unsalted butter. It’s a personal choice. I buy the Olive Oil in a small bottle and I transfer some of the butter sticks to the freezer to avoid them going bad.
Day 1 is the time to look over any partially opened butter sticks. I might taste the oils but generally, I will try to use the Best By date as a guide. If I’ve been keeping it in the fridge from the beginning I will generally trust it for up to a year later.
Be honest about what you will eat.
I have to do this a lot. I’ve been experimenting with egg bakes for breakfast but may often use an ingredient that didn’t cook right or had gone bad when I made it. When I tried it the first time I was like YUCK, but either by habit packed up the leftovers or I had meal prepped them and packed them before I tried it. It happens a lot. I’m trying my best not to keep the leftovers in the first place. I won’t eat it. This is also why I prep only a few servings at a time.
STEP 2: Identify foods that you will need to eat soon
Look for foods that you want to freeze or from the counter that you want to refrigerate to preserve longer. For example, moving apples to the fridge because they are starting to go bad. You can also just move them to a more visible spot. For me, they have to start in the fridge.
After I go through the fridge, I will then go through the pantry items. I’m generally looking for seasoned pantry items. They tend to go bad first. I’ll often buy these thinking they will simplify my life and then often forget them. They will last 3-6 months usually. Generally, the risk is that the flavoring decreases so I do eat them after their Expiration Date. However, at this time I’ll pull them forward in the pantry or to the counter so I can work them into my meal plan.
STEP 3: Meal plan
In order to make a grocery list, I have to know what I want to eat. First I will identify what I want to eat. For this particular series, these are the meals I’m making.
Meal list:
- Tacos
- Tilapia (spontaneously selected at the grocery store)
- Beef and noodle soup
- Stir fry or fried rice
I had already prepared meat for stir fry and a couscous mix that I could pair with a fish. The green onions had gone bad so I needed to replace them for stir fry/fried rice. I purposely selected somewhat generalized meals because I can turn my stir fry meat into beef and broccoli or fried rice very easily. This way I can see what vegetables are available at the store. I buy and keep a selection of frozen veggies to add and will often add one or two fresh ones based on what looks good in the grocery store.
Some of my staples are quinoa, white rice, Italian spice, ground beef, frozen soup noodles, mixed veggies (without soy products), Colby jack/cheddar cheese, Nitrite free sausage, eggs, butter, olive oil, fresh garlic, ginger root, frozen kale, and frozen cauliflower rice. I am now buying a flat iron or flank steak to cut into strips for stir fry. I don’t have to buy these things on most trips so I just check the level and add them to the list as I use them. Not everything we use up should go back on the list but I know these are my staples.
STEP 4: Transfer the information determined in Step 3 to a shopping list.
Then based on the meals and the inventory I add to my list. I always do the shopping on a different day. Sometimes I will buy things after work to fill in for the week but I don’t like to buy meat prior to the weekend because, in most cases, I don’t have time to process the meats during a workday evening. I’ll cover this in detail on Day 2: Shop and Meat Preparation post.
Don’t forget to add snacks. Be realistic about how much you can use up before they go bad. I aim to have 4 days’ worth of fresh fruits and milk products as snacks. The grocery store is about 1 block from me, so I’d rather go to the store for more snacks than to have the extra stock going bad at my house.
Next we’ll cover Day 2: Shopping and meat preparation.
