Meal Planning : Week of 9 Jan 2012

This week was a hectic week (Who am I kidding? Everyweek is hectic!) with Chinese New Year looming near and kids homework ramping up and spelling sheets flying everywhere!

I was able to shop better and stick better to the plan with last week's experience. I was also able to improvise and change plans when family or work plans change. This week I decided that I will not show you what I plan but just what worked for me. I realised that it might have been too confusing.

Because I was committed to this process, I was also able to save money on my own work lunches by packing leftovers to work. Since I only cooked food that my family enjoys, lunch was very enjoyable to me. Portion control is easier since I packed it myself. Double-duty, so stretching not just every dollar but every minute.

Star recipe - Chicken Rice cooked using Rice Cooker

It was easy to prepare, since it only took me half hour to ready all the ingredients and 15mins to finish the process and put it into the rice cooker. To add a side, steamed up broccoli or throw some baby spinach (or what every green vegetables you fancy) into the rice cooker 10mins before serving.

I used chicken drumsticks so it was smooth and tender. The rice was fragrant and delicious with some lemon chili sauce or sambal belachan. I had a serving of leftovers which froze beautiful and heated up like it just came out of the rice cooker. I was the envy of my colleagues since it smelled so good :)

Meal Plan - 9 Jan 2012

Monday
Lunch - Chicken Rice cooked using Rice Cooker
Dinner - Grandparents

Tuesday
Baked Beans with Minced Pork and Potatoes, Rice
ABC Soup with Prime Ribs, Rice

Wednesday
Store Bought Lunch
Stew Chicken with Pasta

Thursday
Lunch - Chicken Porridge
Dinner - Teriyaki Salmon on Sushi Rice, Steamed Edamame Beans

Friday
Lunch - Chicken Yee Mee Soup
Dinner - Tomato Pork Chops, Salmon Omelette, Rice

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Weekly Meal Planning Learning Experiences

1. Leftovers are stretched into another meal. For example, the Teriyaki Salmon from Thursday dinner was shredded and used in the Salmon Omelette instead of the original Cai Poh Omelette.


2. Soups can be very nourishing one-dish meals. For example, ABC soup which contains, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, prime ribs - have everything my kids need.


3. Make Meal Planning a committment. Since I do my grocery shopping on Saturday, I make sure I have my shopping list ready to go by the time I go to bed on Friday.


4. Defrost all meat required the next day in the refrigerator overnight and do as much cutting and preparation as possible.

My total grocery bill this week, which includes non-food items, came to $111.31.

Meal Planning : Week of 2 Jan 2012

So, I had committed to blogging about my meal planning experience. For the last month or so, I have been browsing the internet for recipes that might be suitable for my needs. Namely :

1. Easy


2. Fast


3. Family will eat


4. Nutritious

Out of 10 recipes that I look at, I reject 9. Most recipes do not meet my criteria above in either 1 or 2 areas. But the ones I find, are keepers. I know there will be a period of trial and error, leftovers and frustrations. So I set my expectations right and make sure I have backup plans aka bread, eggs and milk, to ensure my family is still fed.

Then there is the area of making up a shopping list and doing the grocery shopping. Depending on the week's schedule, I may be shopping in Fairprice or in a local wet market or a combination of both. I must also make sure that I do not give into temptation to have LOTS of food in the house or because there is a sale. Not easy. Since I am not a clothes, shoes or jewellery kind of girl, I am a grocery shopaholic. My record was a $500 plus grocery bill at checkout. My kids talked about it for days. So there is only 1 rule when I do grocery shopping. Okay, maybe a couple more.

1. Stick to the shopping list.


2. Allow only up to 3 items of buying extra due to sale price.


3. Eat before shopping.

These rules ensure I stick to the game plan. Speaking of which, here was mine for the last week.

Mon
Breakfast - Waffles with Maple Syrup, Milk, Bananas
Lunch - Chicken Teriyaki Bento  serve with sliced Japanese cucumber
Dinner - Lotus Root and Peanut Soup with Prime Ribs, Orange Pork Ribs, Rice, Stir Fry Long Beans with Silver Fish

Tue
Breakfast - Eggs and Sauteed Mushrooms on Toast, Milk, Apples
Lunch - Chicken Congee
Dinner - Pineapple Rice, Fresh Lettuce/Mixed Greens
Wed
Breakfast - Store Bought Bakes, Milk, Oranges
Lunch - Tuna Sandwiches, Chips
Dinner - Stew Pork Belly, Sweet Buns, Fresh Lettuce/Mixed Greens

Thu
Breakfast - Sweet Oatmeal with Almonds, Milk,Blueberries
Lunch - Pasta Bake
Dinner - Chicken Curry, Rice and Baguette, Fried Hairy Marrow with Vermicelli, Watermelon

Fri
Breakfast - Prata with Chicken Curry, Milk, Watermelon
Lunch - Prawn Noodles
Dinner - Baked Salmon with Asparagus

Here's what I REALLY did. Breakfast was a bust since everyone basically ate whatever they liked that was available. But I did manage to serve fruit a couple of days. Note to self - make sure there is food for breakie and let everyone else choose. This would also work for tea, supper and snack attacks.

Monday - Public Holiday so everyone was at home
Lunch - Curry Chicken
Dinner - Old Cucumber Soup, French Beans fried with Haebihiam, leftover Curry Chicken, Baked Saba Fish

Tuesday - First day of school
Lunch - Teriyaki Chicken Rice, Cucumber slices
Dinner - Fried Pineapple Rice with Toppings



Wednesday
Lunch - Grilled Tuna Fish Sandwich with Chips, Simple Salad
Dinner - Western food at Food court

Thursday
Lunch - Meatball Soup with Rice
Dinner - Pasta Baked

Friday
Lunch - Store-bought Wonton Noodles, Mee Goreng fried by my dad
Dinner - Pork Chops and Buttered Corn for one child due to club meeting, the rest ate at grandparents

Weekly Meal Planning Learning Experiences

1. Frozen saba fish is great to keep as an emergency supply. It is easy to cook in an over with some olive oil and served with some light soy sauce.


2. One-dish meals are easy to cook and serve.


3. The vegetable part of the meal can be serve as small portions of raw vegetables or salads.


4. One must be flexible enough to change things around, swapping meals when schedule changes.


5. There will be leftovers - learn to use them or they will be wasted.


6. One must not be beyond using modern day mixes which are now high in quality.

My total grocery bill this week, which includes non-food items, came to $234.40.

Meal Planning : How it got started

 

 

Our lifestyle changed this year with half of our 4 kids moving nearer to our home than our in-laws' home. So I have my wish of cooking lunch and dinner for half our family.

I know that if I don't do any meal planning, grocery shopping will be messy and expensive, not knowing what to cook or missing ingredients will drive me mad. This will make me cranky. Not good.

So in view of the dire consequences, I decide to do meal planning in a bid to keep us healthy, to know what to cook and when, save money and to keep me sane.

I will (TRY!) to document my journey and how plans don't always work the way you want them to, my workarounds, and how I stretch the dollar and the food.

I spent quite a few hours researching how other mothers meal plan. It helped but most often, tips were few and far between e.g. you bought a lemon but only used half, what do you do with the other half, What do you do with that leftover pineapple rice from dinner or even, how to cook around last minute schedule changes. I found lots of great recipes so instead of reinventing the wheel, I will refer to those in their website/blog of origin.

I intend for this documentation to be hopefully a weekly entry, with real life challenges, experiences and tips and tricks. So stay tuned...

Change

Today is the first of school. Not just any typical first day of school. This is the day that my first born steps into secondary school and my third born steps into primary school.

Many feelings go through me as I watch the boys wore their new uniforms proudly. Of course, the moment is sometimes lost in their complaining about the scratchy shirts. Amidst their complaining however, the pride and smiles never left their faces. Or mine for that matter. My boys are growing up.

I am lucky to be able to work from home these few days and witness this metamorphosis first hand. Long term however, my mother will come daily to help me with No. 3 as he attends school in the afternoon session. After lunch, she will fetch him to school and then leave for home.

This would allow me to continue working. It's funny. After today, my job seemed to have dropped to a lower priority.

You see, being able to work from home, I was able to cook breakfast, fuss over all the kids, play a board game with No. 3, cook lunch, watch him eat and welcome my No. 1 home and watch him eat the remainder of lunch. This is way more fun and way more worth it than a regular job. I am sure many mummies out there would tell me to wake up. "See if you would feel the same way after days or weeks of the same stuff!"

Perhaps. But for now, it is great to be able to watch my kids grow and flourish. Difficult and painful at times, maybe it is time I make a change myself.