Meal Planning Resourcefully

There are many reasons one might choose to meal plan. Whether you do it to eat healthier, to stick to a budget, or to curb indecisiveness, meal planning resourcefully is important.

The Talent of Resourceful Cooking

Shortly after I got married my husband pointed out to me one of my talents. I am really good at seeing the ingredients that we have and making something amazing out of it.

Once early in our marriage, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I told my husband we were going to have a box of mac and cheese for dinner. Afterwards I looked in our fridge and found several leftover ingredients from meals we’d had earlier in the week that needed to be used. Instead of mac and cheese this is what we had for dinner that night.

Cooking resourcefully is a talent, one that I feel I have spent a lifetime developing. Whether it is a skill you hold naturally or one that you’ll need to work to develop, here are some steps I recommend you take to make resourceful meal planning part of your routine.

Three Ways to be Resourceful in your Meal Planning

1. Use what you have on hand or what you find on sale.
2. Plan meals that have overlapping ingredients.
3. Always look for a challenge, don’t be afraid to be creative in your kitchen.

Because I try to keep my meals plant focused my planning often revolves around produce. I want to make sure I am able to use the fresh fruits and vegetables that I have before they go bad. Another priority that guides my resourceful cooking is using what I can find on sale. The foods I find for the best prices are both those in season and those that are going bad. Stores often reduce the price on foods near their expiration date so that they don’t go to waste. For example, the store I go to sells bags of imperfect produce for $1.

How to Use What You Have in your Fridge

When I plan meals, I almost always start by looking in the fridge to see what foods we have that need to be used. Things I look for include produce, sourdough starter, dairy, and leftovers. I begin with these ingredients when I am deciding what food to make for the week. If we have lettuce that needs to be used I might make salads. When our avocados are looking a little ripe we might have something Mexican.

When there is more than one ingredient that needs to be used it can sometimes make the decision harder. But it can also make the decision for me. For example if we have peppers, zucchini, and cottage cheese we will likely have lasagna.

I try to use my sourdough starter at least once a week. I often use it two or more times to keep it active. Often for breakfast I will use the discard to make things like like sourdough crepes and pancakes. These breakfasts are especially good when we have berries that need to be used. I also usually make some sort of sourdough loaf. We can use the bread for sandwiches, to go on the side of soups, or just to snack on during the week. I don’t usually plan my meals around my sourdough, but I love having sourdough as a resource to add to other ingredients to make a delicious meal.

How to meal plan resourcefully

I do not often meal plan before going shopping. Usually I decide what I will cook for the week after coming home with whatever groceries I found on sale. I do try to keep a few ideas in my back pocket in case I don’t find as many sales as I had hoped for. When I do this, I like to plan meals that use seasonal ingredients. This way I can usually find them for a pretty good deal.

I also like to plan meals that overlap ingredients. This allows me to buy a variety of vegetables and use them all before they go bad. For example I might buy two peppers, one orange, and one green. I would then use half of each in my enchiladas, and then the other half in orange chicken. This way I can use more types of vegetables without anything going to waste.

Don’t be Afraid of a Challenge, be Creative!

Growing up I use to watch “Master Chef”, and later “Chopped” with my dad. Some of my favorite challenges were the mystery box challenges. In these challenges the judges gave contestants a box of mystery ingredients. With these ingredients, along with a room of pantry staples, the challenge required the chefs to quickly think of a gourmet meal to cook and present to the judges.

Although its been several years since I’ve watched these cooking shows, I feel like I use what they taught me in my cooking almost every week. Instead of a mystery box chosen by world class chefs, I am put at the mercy of the sales and markdowns at my local grocery store and the pantry staples I keep in my own home.

I love meal planning resourcefully with the foods I find in my fridge as well as at the store. I find I am able to come up with delicious meals for my family, even if I don’t know what I am going to cook when the week begins. We have several favorite dinners that I am often able to make with the ingredients I find, but I also love putting ingredients together and trying something unique and new.

Although this style of meal planning will not work for everyone, it is a skill that can be learned. I hope I have inspired you in some way to be resourceful in your cooking and get creative in your kitchen.