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Meal planning: the money-saving ingredient

[ad_1] Let’s call it a Wednesday, mid-afternoon. Lunch is a distant memory and you’re starting to feel a bit peckish. Just then, your phone buzzes. It’s your partner, parent, roommate or child, asking, “What’s for dinner?”  If you’re like most people, that question is a source of low-volume stress every single day. In fact, the average person (me included) faces five stumbling blocks: No ideas for what to cook No groceries to make whatever idea we do come up with Short on skills or equipment No time Out of sync (not everyone in the house eats the same things or at the same time) There’s a fix to all of these problems, but it isn’t particularly glamorous or thrilling, and you might groan at the next two words: meal planning. Hear me out! Meal planning creates a framework to fall back on. It’s the first line of defence against all the dark arts conspiring to make you order take-out or convincing you to eat cereal standing over the kitchen sink. It puts you in the driver’s seat and makes you proactive instead of reactive. After decades of teaching home cooks, I can vouch that meal planning and shopping are the two most underrated, under-discussed (and yet most critical) elements of getting dinner on the table. Having a meal plan is also the best way to save money on your weekly food bill. With a plan, we make fewer impulse buys when grocery shopping and decide against picking up those aspirational ingredients we buy then never use (I’m looking at you, jar of sauerkraut at the back of my fridge), as well as those extra ingredients that end up in the compost bin. Plus, with a plan in place—and the groceries on hand—we’re much less likely to order take-out or delivery. Don’t worry if you’ve tried meal planning before and found it didn’t stick. I bristle against rules, so the classic two-week meal plan has never worked for me (and I’ve tried many times). Luckily, there are four other methods that still deliver all the benefits.  The Camper method assigns a theme or protein to each day of the week, just like at summer camp (e.g. Taco Tuesdays, Chicken Wednesdays, Breakfast for Dinner Thursdays). The themes repeat every week or two, but the recipes themselves can change. Maybe you have time on the weekend to stock the fridge and freezer with big-batch recipes, then dish them out over the week. The Batcher system is perfect for people who have next to no cooking time during the week.  If your day-to-day schedule changes on a dime, you might prefer to pencil in just three or four dinners and lean on quick pantry meals on other nights. This Semi system works well for me, and it’s also a perfect starter system for anyone who is reluctant to try mal planning. The fourth system, the Wingnut, is for those people who truly prefer to fly by the seat of their dinner chairs and simply rely on a well-stocked fridge and pantry. It’s a great system for retired chefs or young couples who don’t mind popping out to the grocery store at the last-minute, but not terribly helpful for most of the rest of us. Whatever framework makes sense for your life, there are two critical pieces I recommend for everyone. First, have a back-up plan—what I call a back-pocket dinner. This is a meal you can make without a recipe, using pantry staples, and in very little time. Back-pocket dinners are typically really simple dishes. My own is garlic spaghetti—a dish of pasta, oil, garlic and Parmesan. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been so close to ordering delivery only to realize that garlic spaghetti is faster, cheaper and smarter, well, I’d be rich. So bring on the grilled cheese sandwiches, the fridge-clearing omelettes and the pita pizzas. When you can feed the family from what’s in the pantry, you’ve got a superpower. The second piece is to designate one night a week to eat what’s in the house. Whether that’s leftovers or something from the freezer, eating what you’ve got before buying anything new just makes sense. In our house, we call it Scraps Night and it’s usually on a Monday when we have a variety of leftovers from the weekend. This simple weekly ritual dramatically reduces food waste (and money waste!). If there’s nothing obvious to use up or eat up, just lean on that back-pocket dinner.  While meal planning might feel tiresome or limiting at first, it will likely grow on you. (It certainly did for me.) I love how meal planning saves me time, money and energy, but most of all, I love having an answer to that daily “what’s for dinner?” question. It eliminates the dull stress of decision fatigue, and that’s a high-five everyone needs!   Recipe: Crispy Chicken with Spicy Black Bean Rice Prep time 20 minutes | Ready in about 50 minutes | Serves 4 Suech and Beck This is a fabulous cast iron pan dinner. Rice and black beans form the base and soak up all the flavours of the dish and the chicken, perched on top, gets crispy while staying very juicy. I like to bring the whole pan to the table for serving, for additional flourish. The beans make this dish hearty enough to serve four, but if you’re feeding big appetites feel free to roast some more chicken thighs on a separate pan (brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper first). INGREDIENTS 1 teaspoon salt, divided 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 small green pepper, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced  1 jalapeno, minced 2 teaspoons ground cumin 540-mL can black beans, rinsed 2 cups chicken broth  3/4 cup basmati rice METHOD Preheat the oven to 375°F. Heat a 10- or 12-inch oven-safe frying pan over high (cast iron is perfect here). Sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of the

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Get the Eat at Home Menu Plan Service for just $1.13/week!

[ad_1] This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here. (A sample of one of the . I love how organized & time-saving these are!) My favorite for 30% off through midnight tomorrow night (September 22, 2020)! If you struggle to make menu plans and would love for someone to make them for you + make a grocery list for you, it’s well worth spending a few dollars every week to let Eat at Home do the work for you. This offer is only valid when you  EASY at checkout! That makes the done-for-you . And you get access to all four plans and the freezer cooking plans for the whole month at the rate! This is the I have used many times during busy seasons of life and I cannot sing the praises of it enough!  The recipes are so simple, so yummy, and have been a hit at our house. Most all of the recipes can all be fixed quickly — often with less than 15 minutes of hands-on prep. Because the recipes use common pantry ingredients, it’s likely that you have everything you need to make many of the recipes. It’s also convenient because all the work is done for you! You just choose which menu plan you’ll use, print the grocery list, go shopping, and then spend a few minutes prepping food each day and dinner is D-O-N-E! Plus, it’s only a few dollars per week (or less, depending upon what plan you buy!) and you get — which is so worth it if it saves you a lot of time, money, and stress! When you, each month, you’ll get: An entire money of No Flour, No Sugar menu plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions An entire month of Traditional Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions An entire month of Crockpot/Instant Pot Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions NEW! An entire month of Plant Based Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions Each menu plan comes with recipes created for small family (3-4 servings) and large family (6-8 servings) Color-coded grocery lists make it easy to swap out ingredients or whole meals Printable Menus to hang on the fridge or near your calendar, so you can easily see what’s for dinner that week and your family can too Access to the entire month at once! 1 Hour Freezer Stash Plans – a new plan each month to stock your freezer with 6 meals in 1 hour! You can choose to stick with just the No Flour/No Sugar menu plans, or just the Crockpot/Instant Pot menu plans, or just the Plant-Based menu plans, or just the Traditional menu plans. Or, you can rotate different menu plans on different weeks, depending upon what you feel like cooking or how much time you have! Get the as Low as $1.13 per Week! If you struggle to make menu plans and would love for someone to make them for you + make a grocery list for you, it’s well worth spending a few dollars every week to let  do the work for you. Through midnight tomorrow night, when you , you’ll get 30% off with coupon code EASY at checkout! And you’ll lock in that discount for as long as you are subscribed! That makes the done-for-you menu plans and grocery lists as low as $1.13 per week. And you get access to all four plans and the freezer cooking plans for the whole month at the rate! (Oh and they have a fantastic two-week money-back guarantee if you think you want to try it out but aren’t sure whether it will work for you or not!) [ad_2] Source link

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My 10 Goals For This Week

[ad_1] I skipped posting about goal-setting last week… and I realized that I wasn’t as motivated to do certain things like exercise and reading because I hadn’t publicly set those goals and knew I wouldn’t be reporting back to you all about them! It was good to realize that posting these here really does make a big difference for me! This Week’s Goals Personal Goals 1. Take 3 walks in our neighborhood. 2. Read 5 chapters of The White Rose Resists. Read 5 chapters of Atomic Habits. Finish listening to Five Days in November. Finish reading Standing Strong. 3. Do pelvic floor exercises at least four times. 4. Do 3 days of Couch to 5K. 5. Get 45,000 steps in. Home/Family Goals 6. Read 20 pages of A Boy’s War as a family. Read three chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the babies and Silas.  7. Invite friends over. Work/Blog Goals 8. Do an IG story for a brand (I’ve had this on my calendar for way too long — time to get it done!) 9. Plan and teach a live coaching session for my Blogging Mastermind group. Word of the Year Goals 10. Have a family movie night. What are YOUR goals for this week? Tell me in the comments! I’d love to hear and be able to cheer for you! [ad_2] Source link

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Vera Bradley Blankets only $15.40 (Reg. $59!)

[ad_1] This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here. These Vera Bradley Blankets would make such great gift ideas! Through tomorrow, Vera Bradley is offering an extra 30% off sale items! No promo code needed – the price will drop at checkout. As a deal idea, you can get these Vera Bradley Blankets for just $15.40 after the discount. These would make great gift ideas. Shipping is free on orders over $35. Thanks, Hip2Save! [ad_2] Source link

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