Meal planning -step one

Step one, organize your meal plan

In order to plan your grocery list, you must first plan the meals you plan to make. What I recommend is you sit down and make a list of what your family likes best, what meals do you make most often, that they like, and a few you like that are fast and easy for you.

Cooking doesn't always have to take long or be a chore.

So you make this list, an example is

Breakfast- Oatmeal & cereal (dry) , Grits, Egg sandwiches/English muffins, bagels,.

Monday- Quiche with bacon and onions Ingredients bacon, onions, eggs, milk, soft taco shells.

Tuesday-fried egg sandwiches;ingredients eggs, cheese, bagels/muffins

Wednesday- Scrambled eggs, grits, toast Ingredients: milk,eggs, butter grits, bread

Thursday- Cereal/toast-Ingredients: Dry cereal, bread, butter

Friday- Eggs in blanket-Ingredients: eggs bread

Saturday-make your own omelets.Ingredients. eggs, cheese, milk, butter, bread, fried meats

Sunday-coffee and bagels Ingredients:coffee bagels creme cheese

So that is a typical week of breakfast food, you make for your family

from the ingredient portion you find you need these items:

Milk

Eggs

Oatmeal

Grits

English muffins

onions

bagels

soft shell tortillas

coffee (fresh ground )

butter

creme cheese

American or Swiss cheese

First look in your refrigerator for what you have on hand. Take inventory and realize this is Friday and you have none of these items left but butter.

so you make your list of breakfast items

Milk

Eggs

Oatmeal

Grits

English muffins

onions

bagels

soft shell tortillas

coffee (fresh ground )

creme cheese

american or swiss cheese

Now you go and find you rarely make lunch but always make dinner.

So for dinner you list things like

Pizza and salad

tacos with rice and beans

Chicken enchilada's with a vegetable

baked white fish (cod) with Brussels sprouts

Steak with Home Fries and peas/carrots

Salmon cakes/oven fries

Spaghetti with sauce and side salads

Meat loaf with corn/red bell peppers

Again you look in your pantry and find items missing

Taco shells

soft shells for tacos and enchiladas

Vegetables

Fish fillets

Steak

salmon

crackers

hamburger

red peppers fresh

Again using your menu for dinner you added more items to your grocery list

now you have the hang of this.

to keep track a great way is to put up a pad of post it paper on your refrigerator

each time you use something, put it on your list..

i write it down right away so not to forget it

So now you have a list, lets trim it up and make some preselection's to make it easier to shop.

Since this store is not new to you, you know the aisles and where things are.

So you first get your list prepared.

You need to buy things in proportions to fit your needs, but also give you stock, so you don't have to go so often. Remember some items you can buy in bulk, meat, cheese, dry goods. YOU need to find good ways to store them, in later chapters we will cover storage, and spoilage.

Sugar - a 5lb bag is preferred. You can store what you don't use in a large plastic seal able jar.

Tortilla wraps- you can buy three sizes, buy quantity if you have a freezer you can freeze these.

Bagels and breads- when they are on sale buy them and freeze them.

Crackers-saltines come in 4pks to a box, but you use one for each recipe, buy them on sale store

them in a dry spot.

three meals you have chicken in them, the tacos and enchiladas. So find a sale on chicken

But enough for 3-4 meals, what you don't use you can freeze also.

When you prepare meal one with tacos (chicken filling) make all the chicken then,

Bake it in the oven and set it to cool off, use the chicken for that nights recipe,

then wrap the rest and put in the refrigerator. This cuts time off of cooking for a night or two and your just assembling ingredients.

So lets look at your whole list before you go to the store:

Milk

Eggs

Oatmeal

Grits

English muffins

onions

bagels

soft shell tortillas

coffee (fresh ground )

creme cheese

American or Swiss cheese

Taco shells

soft shells for tacos and enchiladas

Vegetables

Fish fillets

Steak

salmon

crackers

hamburger

red peppers fresh

Lettuce (romaine)

onions red and white both

Tomatoes

Ok lets arrange them according to how the grocery store has them.

Produce department :

Lettuce

Red bell peppers, green peppers

Tomatoes

onions

Refrigerated items

Milk

Eggs

Creme cheese

Bagels (sometimes in frig aisle?)

English muffins

soft shell tortillas

Cheeses- Swiss, cheddar, Munster, provolone

Parmesan cheese (dry in container)

Spice aisle

red pepper flakes

Other aisles

coffee (fresh ground)

Cereal Aisle

Oatmeal

grits

Ready to eat cereal- shredded wheat, frosted flakes, honey n oats

Grits- not ready to eat save money and boil your own water!*

So your first step is done, you have planned a grocery lists according to what you plan to make this week to eat, how many proportions each dish has, and what ingredients you need to buy at the grocery store.