Meal Planning

I never did a lot of cooking pre-Bungalow living, just the odd meal here and there, and baking (I love to bake, I get out of control as you can see here). Andy was pretty on par with me as far as his cooking skills went as well. It's hard to cook for just one person. You end up having a lot of leftovers and getting really sick of eating the same thing 5 days in a row (except for tacos, I used to eat tacos for a whole week straight when I was a single lady).

When we moved into the Bungalow we started cooking. Like really cooking. Making sauces, breads, Chicago style pizza, etc. from scratch. Then we made the decision to eat foods that were better for us (ie. not buffalo chicken or chinese food for every meal). This week, we are trying out meal planning. That way, we don't have to have this conversation every day:

Me: What do you want for dinner?

Andy: I don't know, what do you want for dinner?

Me: I picked last time, what do you want?

*Repeat 14 times

I bought this nifty little magnetic meal planning notepad and this grocery shopping checklist. We made our journey to Whole Foods yesterday (side note: don't go on a Sunday at 3 pm, you're just asking for frustration, trust me). We only got one thing that wasn't on our list (Andy's favorite veggie chips were 2 for $5, so he couldn't pass those up) and enough food for 4 dinners (with enough for lunch the next day), breakfast, and snacks for the week. 

So these are what our eats for the week are:

Sunday: Chicken Stir Fry with carrots, broccoli, snow peas, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots (modified from this recipe)

Monday: Each on our own because Andy worked late

Tuesday: Quinoa pasta with tomato sauce and Italian turkey sausage with a salad

Wednesday: Balsamic chicken breasts and red potatoes (recipe here, no cheese for me!)

Thursday: Turkey tacos with chili lime corn

Friday and Saturday: Open, we like to eat out on Friday night and play it by ear for Saturday

What do you think of meal planning? Does it work for you? Do you end up spending more or less money when you plan our your meals?