Guest post: MealMixer.com Marianne

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Please to welcome Marianne.  She’s a lifer up in herre and without her comment’couragement Im not sure Id still be blogging.

For reals.

Hello, and welcome to MY kitchen.

There’s food here, LOTS of food.  I cook for my 2 sons (11 & 13) and husband.  I’m not a big fan of packaged foods, and 9 times out of 10 I get sick after eating at restaurants.   Today’s guest post is about meal planning, why it’s important now, and why it’s important for the future.

The “now” part is easy.

By planning meals there is always something healthy on hand to eat. I don’t care if the meal is as simple as a head of romaine and a can of tuna, if I haven’t planned for it and it’s not in the house, I’m going to be forced to make a choice, and chances are it won’t be the best choice.

I took two days and wrote down everything I ate, one day just grabbing, and one day being mindful of balance. Check out why I’m now defending a low carb diet.

From an economical stand-point, meal planning makes sense.   There’s no point buying something when you don’t have a definite plan to cook it.

When my friend moved last year, I cleaned out her freezer, and it was filled with frost covered food that she never really needed.  Probably $100 went into the trash—freezer burn is forever.

Plus, when you have a plan, you don’t go to the superstore every other day.  Let’s be honest, those people who put up the sale flags have our number and they can make us buy – avoidance is our only hope.

Cooking at home can be very satisfying, you just need a good collection or recipes; they don’t have to be super involved.  Chicken can go from Italian to Mediterranean just by varying the spices and herbs.

When you enjoy eating at home, going out becomes a treat rather than a fall back.   The rant about high prices at restaurants when they load us up with cheap empty cards must be saved for another time…

About the future?

We’ve talked about diabetes in the comments before.  Eating well now – either making drastic changes, or being on the road to permanent changes in eating habits, can make a big difference in whether we use or retirement funds (yeah, I know) for medical care or living it up.

Marianne is a survivor of the 1970s packaged foods assault.  Growing up on a steady diet of Dinty Moore beef stew, Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese, and Libby’s Fruit Float, she took over the job of family meals upon learning that real ham did not slurp out of a can in a scary pink teardrop.

Meal Mixer is an attempt to bring real food into the kitchen, while realizing that sometimes real life requires a can opener.

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Comments

  1. I also prefer eating at home these days. Not only do I know EXACTLY what goes into my meals, but my own food is just more satisfying and economic! Nice to meet you, Marianne!

  2. My fridge broke this past Saturday and we had to throw everything away. There was a lot of crap in the freezer that I forgot about months ago and would never have eaten anyway. And I thought I had mastered the art of the Grocery Shop???

  3. Planning is key to both meals and weight loss! In losing my 150 pounds I discovered I actually liked to cook and restaurant meals weren’t nearly as good as I previously thought they were.

    Now, with seven children, planning is absolutely a necessity. In fact, when one of my little guys saw the McDonald’s arches he said “What is that store?” I said, “It’s a restaurant.” He said, “Like inside Sam’s Club?” I looked at him and realized he’s got to get out more!! Thanks for the great information.

  4. excellent post! it goes perfectly with me recent reinvestment in cooking for myself. I have gone almost 3 weeks without eating at a restaurant and have lost about 2 lbs.

    I will be sure to check out Marianne’s blog! 🙂

  5. Great reminders. Thanks 🙂

    How do I find someone to help me plan? OR, stick to the plan? lol. I’m hopeless.

  6. ha, i “helped” my friend clean out her freezer when I was over last weekend (aka made her). she had stuff in there over 2 years old. over 1/4 of the freezer came out, in about 10 tupperwares! I keep a list on my fridge so I don’t forget what’s in there 🙂 need to make room… gotta make ice cream!

  7. Once you get good at cooking you realize that almost anything you can get at a restaurant can be made at home and it’s better.
    You’re right about herbs. A few minor changes turns a Mexican or South American dish into a curry.

  8. I am a home eater & a meal planner! Makes better sense to me & I never quite find what I really want to eat out & about… If I do eat out, I plan it! 🙂

  9. Marianne! How wonderful to see you here!

    Your site is terrific and can really help someone who is trying to lose weight and save money all at the same time.

    Umm, Diana (who asks how to find someone to help her plan) – go to Marianne’s website…. SHE can help you!

  10. I only do the buying stuff on sale if it’s something we’ll eat and it’s non-preishable, such as protein-enhanced whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce.

    And the restaurant thing is a big deal. It’s why BK and I are looking for cooking classes (we love Thai and Indian, and would love to not have to spend so much to eat them, also I’m convinced that the food will be healthier if we make it than get it at a restaurant).

  11. I really try to be good about meal planning. I’ve started making a weekly meal list so I have a general idea of what’s up for the week. It does help!

  13. A friend recently convinced me to try planning out a month’s (!!) meals in advance as a budgeting technique. I was dubious but I did it and I have to say that while it did take me about 2 hours to come up with the schedule and the grocery list for each week, I’ve saved… 300$ this month. Yeah. Consider me converted to meal planning Marianne!!

  14. Good Morning all! Yeah, I know this is preaching to the choir…

    Funny about McD’s Diane. I used to be addicted to their fries. Nice job with the 150 loss!

    Diana, it’s as simple as coming up with 21 meals, buying food for only those meals, and eating them.

    One of the things I like to do best is re-create restaurant dishes. I take out a lot of the bad fat and add more wholesome ingredients (like the better pasta). Taking the boys out to eat makes my wallet cry!

  15. Great post! I so agree, meal planning is so important. It’s funny because I just started seriously planning meals a few months ago. Before that, I usually had a “general idea” of what I was going to make, but I have found that actually writing my plan down makes all the difference!

    Since writing down my weekly meals, we are eating more balanced meals, and my grocery shopping and Farmers’ Market trips are much more efficient, and I’m actually saving money as I’m only buying what I really need. Meal planning has also inspired me to be more creative and try out new recipes! Somehow seeing the meals in writing on my blog every week, makes me realize when I get stuck in a rut, and it’s time to try some new things… 🙂 Looking back on years of chaotic dinner times and the associated stress of not know what’s for dinner, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get organized and plan meals. But better late than never, right!?!… 🙂

  16. Amen! Meal planning is the way to go… it takes a bit to get into the groove of it, but once you do, you feel lost without it… If you start with one meal (even if it’s breakfast- and your week looks like oatmeal, cereal, oatmeal, cereal, etc.) you get yourself in the habit then build on that!

  17. My husband and I decided that once we got married we would make at least 5 meals a week at home and plan for those meals in advance. 2 years later, we’re still doing that, and it’s been great! We just need to find new recipes because we are kind of in a recipe rut.

  18. Most of the time eating out at restaurants or eating processed stuff makes me feel a little ill, too. I love planning ahead- it really takes the stress out of the day!

  19. I plan almost every meal. Usually on the same day. I keep good quality ingredients in the house, so it’s just a matter of putting it all together. That’s a lot of the fun, really!

  21. I am SO bad at planning and know that it’s very important to getting healthier. Will try being sensible again – it’s bound to stick one of these times.

    Loved the mention of being a survivor of the 1970s packaged food assault. Very funny.

  22. Seriously? My mother’s stand by meal was a pound of hamburger browned, and then she dumped in a can of franco-american gravy and served it over instant mashed potatoes or minute rice. Gaaack!

  23. Ha. I am so old… when I got married I insisted that we go out for one dinner a week -so I wouldn’t have to make all the food decisions and would get one break. And I feel guilty when heat/illness/schedule means we have to eat out a 2nd time.

    I make my meal planning simple by having a standard breakfast and a repeatable -often standard- lunch plus snacks. So the only meal I really have to think about is supper. And sometimes even that’s a challenge.

  24. Marianne, I totally agree with your planning and would encourage anyone else to give it a try! It saves me so much money because I love the grocery store a little too much. When the impulse buyer in me rears its head, I can just say to her, you can buy[whatever it is] sometime, but you have to plan a meal that involves it first. 🙂

  25. I’m a big fan of meal planning. I keep sandwich and salad fixings on hand for lunches and oatmeal and eggs in the fridge for breakfasts. For dinners, I fix one or two meals on the weekend, and then eat leftovers all week. When I first started doing it, I saved a FORTUNE. Then a while back I realized that I could actually afford to buy the high-quality, more expensive food, because I was meal-planning. So now my grocery bill is about what it was before, but I eat almost all organic, locally-grown, grass-fed, free-range, rBSt-free, etc., etc.

    (Except when I bust out the emergency Kraft Dinner. Because sometimes I just need some kid food, dammit. ;D)

  26. Oh, I almost forgot – this part of Diana’s comment:
    When the impulse buyer in me rears its head, I can just say to her, you can buy[whatever it is] sometime, but you have to plan a meal that involves it first.

    That’s BRILLIANT. Because the grocery aisles at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are like my kryptonite. I’m TOTALLY stealing that method.

  27. Planning is everything. I can’t stick to a diet unless I’m thinking ahead all the time. No spur-of-the-moment decisions!

    I used to make weekly menus (just for dinners, because I don’t have an “eating bad” problem any other time of day), and the surprising thing is how much less we spent at the grocery. No loading up on veggies and stuff that just sat in the fridge because we were too tired to cook them!

    The problem now is that I have to plan WHEN I’m going to plan. Otherwise I forget to…:-/

  28. “Sometimes real life requires a can opener.”

    I love that! It’s so true. It’s unrealistic for a lot of us busy women to cook from scratch every single day. Even when we have great husbands (like mine) who do help us out. Still, we all know, for the most part, it’s often up to us to make sure there’s a healthy meal on the table and being realistic about that DOES require a can opener sometimes.

    Great blog.

  29. I think a lot of people don’t realize that planning meals actually SAVES time. It’s so much easier to plan out a week and then just hit the store once.

  31. Planning saves tonnes of time…and makes for better meals, not just “so what have we got left?” sort of meals 🙂
    I can’t always get the whole month done, but we try and get all our groceries in one main shooping trip per month and this helps a LOT.

  32. After reading *The End of Over Eating* I am so glad I gave up processed and restaurant food. Makes me shudder to think what I used to eat.

  34. My fridge and freezer is always stocked with food. When food is abundant, I tend to freeze some and make a list of what I have just to remind myself. Thanks for the reminder that planning ahead is the key to keeping on track.

  35. Yeah, I totally agree. It’s funny how much less food you buy when you have all your meals planned vs just buying what you think you’ll need. The funny thing is, that restaurant food (even real not fast food) never tastes as good once you know you can make it at home.

  36. I loved the whole post yet have SO had rattling around in my head all day the “sometimes real life requires a can opener”

    I do love me some Marianne.

  37. Great post! I am so a fan of meal planning. Once a week I write us a menu and make a list and just go to the store and buy what’s on it (minus a few splurges). Breakfasts are always a to-go-easy thing like zone bars/oatmeal/etc, lunches are split between sandwiches, salads, leftovers, or occasionally out to eat, and dinners are where we go wild.

    Sometimes those plans include microwave meals (amy’s indian, i <3 u) and canned soups/chili, and sometimes we plan to go out. I’m nowhere near perfect. But keeping a list of possible meals that we have ingredients for is a huge way to save money (either from just going out or wasting food). I don’t have to be the best, I just have to be good enough.

  38. Oh how I envy easy breakfasts! My boys are big breakfast eaters, so I have to plan for french toast and sausages and omelets…

    Today we made a big Costco run for staples. The downstairs freezer has a sheet of contact white board on it, and so I always know what’s inside. The

    Trader Joe takes all of my self control, too!

  39. Marianne, I think you are right on target. The home-cooked meals are so much better for us, they taste better, and they cost less. The only problem is the preparation; however, with proper planning that can be made better.

    I am anxious to read your defending low carb diets reference. I am a believer in this lifestyle, and like to see others opinions on it.

    Great post.

  40. ….real ham did not slurp out of a can in a scary pink teardrop…… Oh, my. This made me LOL! 😉 Reminds me, I need to clean out my freezer. Lots of buried junk we’ll never eat.

  41. I hope either Marianne or Miz sees this comment

    I think Marianne asked me about making yogurt at home. This link explains it well

    http://www.good.is/post/better-living-through-homemade-yogurt/

    I always grew up in a household where yogurt is made every day (common practice in South India).

    Marianne: I did not read the other links in the link I posted above. I would suggest starting with 2% milk. Home-made yogurt will never be as thick as any store bought yogurt. If you desire that, you have to strain the excess liquid through a chesse-cloth, but you will lose good whey protein.

    I boil milk in a milk cooker: http://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/10/16/stories/2008101650841600.htm

    A regular saucepan (1 qt) will suffice, but you have to watch over it like a hawk so milk does not boil over. Let it cool. Then innocuate with starter culture. I find the best starter (other than yogurt culture that some people seem to somehow bring from India) is one that I buy in our local heath store called Yogourmet.. this is a powder. Innoculate when milk temperature is something your finger can bear. Yes, you can stick your finger in the milk. Then I stick my container of milk in the oven with the light on overnight. If you live in hot climates, just leave it covered on a counter. You will need to experiment a bit.. once you get the hang of it, it is easy peasy lemon-squeezy. Also, once you successfully make yogurt, you just use that as your starter culture for the next batch.

  42. Great post, Marianne! I laughed about the canned ham, too. I always do better when I plan my meals; it does help when striving for healthy eating.

    Another thing that can help that’s sort of related (that I read and used from “Simplify Your Life” by Elaine St. James) is to create a pre-printed grocery list, organized by the layout of your grocery store. Include only the things you buy on a regular basis, with maybe a few lines under each section for write-in items (such as when you want to try a new recipe and need an ingredient you usually don’t buy). It takes some time to set up, and my husband laughed about it at first. (He though I was over-organizing). But I got the last laugh: he uses it religiously, since he’s our most frugal grocery shopper and chef. (I’m the one who goes off on “ooh, that looks good!” tangents.) It saves time, mostly from the dreaded backtracking phenomena: “Ooops, this item was 3 aisles back…hey, sour-cream-and-salsa-pork rinds are on sale!”

  43. Great post! My husband and I plan our meals together and usually grocery shop together which is fun and saves $ and when we eat out, it is for date night or a special occasion. And we like cooking at home, together! You are right, planning is key. Thanks for the guest post Miz!

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