I typically do my meal planning and shopping close together. This round I was coming back from being away on vacation and didn’t have as much of my typical pantry items. I suppose this is because up till now I really didn’t need to replace pantry items.
I had a ton of issues with this round of meal planning and follow-through.
Thankfully, I had plenty of prepped meat on hand. However, I’d managed to run out of at least one key pantry item for every one of my typical meals. This is where you’re meal planning and grocery list are supposed to save the day.
Here’s what really happened:
I planned out my week of dinners and even lunches. I wasn’t overly aggressive with the types of meals and had plenty of reuse in leftovers for lunches. It’s definitely key to look over all food inventory before planning. All is going well.
I planned to get groceries Monday, which is a little later than I aim for because I know I can’t do much if any, batch cooking during the week. BAM! I get a migraine. Okay, no driving and no grocery store. Think. What can I do to stay on track with meal planning? Instacart delivers the same day. Go!
After several rounds of medicines, I settle in to make my online list from my meal planning grocery list and the list I’ve made on my fridge. So far so good.
Making the list:
I added some new marinades and only one new recipe. I also included snacks that I often can’t get and extra stashes of soda and the things I tend to buy in vending machines at work. It’s crucial that I keep it easy if I’m going to be replacing breakfast and lunches at work.
I can’t say that I understand how Instacart gave me gluten-free/soy-free/GMO-free bread as the default option though I may have been searching under soy-free (none of these things are that specific). The app replaced a ton of my orders but with other services, if you don’t list a replacement, they will deduct it and bring you nothing.
Grocery Services:
Tons of items were replaced, all with my approval. Most of the swaps really didn’t matter. It’s a real issue for me that I often can’t see ingredients online and they don’t even take a high-resolution photo of the ingredients on the box, so if I don’t already know the brand and name that it goes by, I can’t find custom options for my specific dietary needs.
Thankfully, since I’ve done this so many times now I know many brands that will be okay. The delivery was timely with real-time updates. I didn’t have anything frozen delivered though I had several refrigerated items. I also didn’t buy any raw meat. It’s not that I wouldn’t have as much as that I didn’t need to.
I used a coupon so delivery was free. I don’t know if the fee would be worth it but grocery delivery is a big thing with those of us with brain injuries. It’s very overwhelming and therefore taxing to grocery shop. The lights are bright and flickering, the lines are long, there is so much to look at, and the noises are sharp. Then there’s the lines and all the lifting.
So for me, this price for shopping really might be the more fiscally wise decision. Otherwise, I tend to resort to one-time meal delivery services and spend $1000 on food. Not the best plan.
I just saw Frugal Fit Mom’s post in 2019, about feeding her family on $200/month! I did a challenge to feed just myself with very similar techniques on $400/month and failed! Yikes!
The problem with these challenges is that doing it one month is much easier due to the stock you have on hand, but then in the next month, it may shoot back up. She and I had very similar general approaches to that challenge and she’s inspiring me to try that again. I’ll still keep it at $400 until I can achieve it though!
Following the meal plan:
I mentioned above that I had a migraine that first day of my plan. I hadn’t expected to have new groceries till the evening anyway, so the first meal of the day was a prepped one from the freezer. So far so good.
Even supper I had planned to be light. I generally don’t cook complicated meals around the same time that I grocery shop. I’ve learned that the grocery store takes everything I’ve got so meal planning needs to be very easy that day. Even last time I’d done this I prepped the stew beef to the freezer because I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to actually make the stew.
Day 1 was fine and on track because I opted for grocery delivery.
On day 2, the migraine came back overnight. Down for the first day that I’d planned to really make foods. Additionally, I had another bad couple of days later in the week. As the days were going I was scratching off meals or moving them around to try and adapt to bad days, but ultimately I had so many that I just couldn’t compensate.
Certain meal preps just had to be done on a full day that I felt well. Trying to cook a new recipe with a migraine is a recipe for disaster! Though this would have been a good opportunity to use some canned soups. My digestive system also takes a hit so I need to know the foods I’m resorting to are safe.
Unfortunately, by mid-week, I was sorely overdue to replenish my frozen meal stock. Then it took all my energy just to get work caught up and sleep. That week I didn’t start taking lunch to work and I didn’t bring breakfast or snacks to work either.
Now as I write this, I am in the following week with no meal plan. I’m getting some items stocked in the freezer, but I’m not getting things thawed to use in time or even following a plan at all.
The plan in front of me says Week of 1/2/2022. The weekday names are crossed out and new days are written below. Some days are crossed out entirely and arrows are drawn all over to push meals around.
The other wrinkle:
I’d managed to plan meals that I was missing key ingredients for. I was missing noodles for the pesto and beef for the tacos. The tacos were added so that I could try some version of a 7-layer dip to take to work for a cold lunch. I tried a new marinade but didn’t fully figure out what my layers were going to be so I didn’t have those ingredients.
I was distracted and distressed by the idea of new recipes and even though I went back to some simpler ones like grilled cheese instead of a Monte Cristo, it still lingered as guilt that I’d bought so many ingredients specifically to try these things.
I was managing to find my way through and around the challenges of having migraines because I had groceries. This is a huge win.
However, not figuring out all of the details of a meal and putting on the plan anyway created too much chaos in the schedule.
Meal Planning and Meal Batching:
So using a meal plan to make your grocery list for meal batching is fundamentally flawed. I know the idea is that you make the meal and have it the first night then divvy up portions for following lunches or into the freezer for much later, etc. I’m pretty sure it even works for me, but when I was only looking at the meals I had on this week’s plan, I missed the items I needed to check and restock for batching.
The items that always needed to be replenished were fine, but the ingredients like frozen cheese stuffed pasta or frozen wide egg noodles were not. The only type of noodle I had on hand at that point was spaghetti and I used it.
Changes for next time:
I think I need to set my re-order point for the freezer stock meals. Perhaps at one. I don’t want to end up with too much inventory but I need to do the batch item grocery list first.
Then snacks. I consumed too many snacks too fast but I’m not used to having any on hand and they really did help me avoid stress eating over the fear of not having anything to eat.
Then I’ll add in the meal plan ingredients I need.
Lastly, is the issue with new foods/recipes. I think taking food to work is enough of a hurdle that I need to not tackle anything new for it yet. Our work lunchroom is still torn apart so there are no counters other than tables and that’s why I wanted to bring cold lunch, but I need to start with something. Anything at all. So before I go ordering new foods for lunch, I want to simply bring lunch to work.