Meal planning

I am a huge advocate of meal plans, and have been pretty much my entire life.  I grew up with a stepmother that meal planned and I quickly learned the importance of doing so.  I don't do very well flying by the seat of my pants, and I can't stand the feeling of standing in front of a refrigerator at meal time, trying to figure out what I'm going to make.

 

 

I like a plan, I like a structured meal list and I think, actually no, I KNOW, that it saves me that headache and money on groceries too.

 

There are quite a few posts on my blog about meal planning, why I love it, and how I do it. 

 

 

I want to menu plan but I don't know how 

Menu planning on a budget 

Recipes and grocery lists 

Let's Meal plan for the next two weeks

Day 1 of Quarantine -  Let's make a meal plan

Menu plan and grocery notebook

Meal plan with me - old recipe collection

Blog 365 #61 - A day of meal planning

Time to meal plan for the next two weeks

Cooking from the freezer and pantry

 

There are plenty more on the blog, but that should give you a good idea or some motivation, at the very least.

 

I don't really have anything to add, other than what I already said in those posts, and I don't want to repeat myself because that would be boring, wouldn't it?

 

I recently received a cookbook I ordered on Amazon, and am using it for some inspiration.  I ended up not writing down any recipes from it, because I had a bunch bookmarked that I want to get off my computer.  

 

But, I will say, I love The Slimming Foodie in one, it is filled with amazing recipes.  The whole book, not just a recipe here and there, I think every recipe is one I would love to try.  

 

I have many cookbooks that I thought I would love, and end up with a handful if that, of recipes that I actually want to try out, the rest of the book seems filled with others I would enjoy, or I know my family wouldn't enjoy.

 

Also, I grabbed one of the latest Taste of Home magazines which is all about Mediterranean cooking and since that is mainly our diet, I needed to have it.  There are quite a few in there that I want to add to my meal plan as well.  I'm thinking next meal plan will be entirely from the cookbook and the magazine.

 

I also have a huge collection of bookmarks.  Any time I come upon a recipe I want to try, I save it.  I have them all labeled under one main folder called Recipes to Try.  Then other folders for other categories, for example, Portuguese, Greek, Mediterranean, Desserts, Bread and so forth.

 

Do you meal plan or do you prefer to just figure out what to eat that very night?