How I am able to meal plan

I have tried several different methods of meal planning and grocery shopping and have finally figured out what works for me.

First, I don't check the sales. If meat is on sale, I will stock up and freeze it. Trying to plan around weekly sales was not working for me.

I buy the bulk of our groceries at Aldi's and that list is pretty consistent. 

I buy our chicken and ground beef from Fresh Market on $2.99 Tuesday's. It is $2.99 a lb for the meat. It isn't organic, but it is fresh, never frozen, and antibiotic and hormone free.

Then there are a few items I have to pick up at Whole Foods or Trader Joes.  We have a Costco membership and I shop there every month or two.

Okay, now on to meal planning. I wrote down all of the recipes we use on index cards. Each color represents something. Pink is chicken, blue is soup/crockpot, yellow is fish, purple is red meat, and green is turkey or pork.

On the front of the index cards, I include any special notes about the cooking process. Things like if something needs to marinate or go in the fridge before cooking. On the back of the cards, I noted if there is anything that needs to be cooked or prepped beforehand. This includes things like a salmon cake recipe that needs a cup of cooked sweet potato or if I need to make mayo. I abbreviate the source of the recipe and the page number on the front of the card. On the top card in the photo below, it comes from Zenbelly cookbook, page 200.

Making these cards did take a few hours because I had to sort through all of my cookbooks and pins, but it was worth the time. Now when I sit down to meal plan, I have all of the recipes we enjoy right in front of me.

Having each meat as a different color is helpful too. It helps ensure that we don't eat chicken every night. :)

When I meal plan, I do 2 weeks at a time. I take stock of what we have in the fridge and freezer and make sure to use some of the frozen meat. Then I pull out 12-14 cards for dinners. I don't usually plan on a leftover night because we eat leftovers for lunch. We try not to eat out more than once a month and we plan it.

Once I have two weeks worth of recipe cards pulled, I then arrange them in an order I like. This helps ensure that we don't eat the same meat several nights in a row and breaks up the cuisine choices. You know, so we don't eat Italian food 3 nights in a row.

Our sides are almost always the same: sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. Every now and then I will do something different, but I have found that this works well for us. I wash and cut the veggies on the weekend and dinner prep is much easier.

This is what a weekly meal plan looks like:

I write down the recipe source and any special notes from the front and backs of the cards.

Next I make my grocery list. One of my friends likes to tease me for my "professional shopping list," but it works for me. I divide my list by produce (the largest section), meat, dairy, and grocery. I go grocery shopping once a week and try to go on the weekends. I try to limit going to Whole Foods and Trader Joes to every other week because I always find things I "need" there that weren't on my list. When I make my list, I do it for a week at a time per list, but do the 2 weeks at a time. I go through my cookbooks and Pinterest and make my lists. Doing 2 weeks at a time helps me save time.

For lunches, we tend to eat leftovers or the kids get what they want. Breakfast is usually oatmeal or eggs for the kids and I have the Against All Grain Banana Nut Porridge.

This is the method that works for me and allows us to eat healthy, whole foods on a $125 a week budget. 

What works for you?