Menu Planning Magic

As parents, I don’t think there are too many of us that enjoy grocery shopping.  It’s time consuming, it certainly can be stressful and depending on how many kids you have, it can drain your wallet in a hurry. 

A couple of years ago, my wife and I were putting away a $350 grocery order, and I noticed that many of the items we picked up were things that we really could have done without.  You see something on special so you pick it up, right?  The thing is, a couple of weeks after the fact we noticed there was a lot of stuff in the pantry from months past that we still hadn’t used.  

So we sat down and devised a menu plan for the following week.  We mapped out all meals for the next seven days.  From that list, we figured out what ingredients we’d need to make each meal.  That became the grocery list and what we found was that the next trip to the grocery store was much less stressful.  We knew exactly what we needed and as a result, we got out of the store in half the time and we saved close to $100!  That’s an average $400 per month staying in our pockets.  Another bonus was the fact we found it really cut down on the amount of money we were spending at restaurants.  Let’s face it, how many times have you come home after an exhausting day at work and you’ve had no idea what to cook?  I know I’m guilty of saying, “come on, let’s just go out.”  Now with the menu plan, we never run into that problem anymore.  We let our three kids get in on the fun as well, as every week they each get to choose the supper menu one night.

Another big stress reliever is our crock pot.  We LOVE that thing.  Throw on some ribs or roast beef as you’re walking out the door, and when you get home…VOILA…supper’s ready!  What a beautiful thing.  Here’s one of my favourite suppers to make.  Get a package of chicken wings and put them in a crock pot with a couple of jars of V8 Honey Garlic sauce, and when you get home from work you’ve got fall-off-the-bone delicious chicken wings.  Throw on some rice, toss up a quick salad and ring that chow bell!