How To Prepare A Flexible Meal Plan That Practically Plans Itself

When it comes to Grammie’s Cottage Kitchen, our Everyday Menus look dramatically different than our Entertaining, Meal Gifting, Vacation, or Holiday Menus. In order to keep family life, ministry, blogging, dates with Stache and GrammieDays rolling, I can’t be in the kitchen whipping up a big ol’ mess every day, – not to mention our grocery budget! We need a flexible meal plan.

Following this plan helps us stay on track, keeping the budget reasonable, and the kitchen humming along at a casual pace. My kitchen has seen its day of a constant frenzied roar and still does from time to time, but we consistently enjoy this more flexible plan when our calendar allows. Of course, several factors are involved.

Flexibility

Stache works as a Supervisor in retail, so he has the oddest days off on the planet, Mondays and Tuesdays(!), – for now. He also has a descending schedule which keeps things especially interesting. Topping these both, the guy is an old-fashioned ‘Company Man.’ He’s the sort that cares about the store before himself, – ever ready to fill in gaps.

As you can imagine, these details together keep our family schedule consistently inconsistent. Flexibility is the name of the game around here. My systems reflect respect for those values, giving Stache a semblance of predictability at home and peace that the family can ‘roll with it’ all, – for the most part, anyway!

Excellent Quality

In terms of WHAT we eat, Stache has long considered himself a ‘meatatarian,’ which of course dictates our menus a good deal. Still, he genuinely enjoys a meatless dinner meal here and there, and we take advantage of that budget saver nearly every week.

Our targeted cuisine might be best described as ‘American styled Mediterranean.’ Is that even a thing?! I can’t rightly say.

We choose Mediterranean cuisine when we can, but there again, we are flexible. We use too much meat and butter, and Stache isn’t as fond of beans as an authentic Mediterranean diet might suggest. Still, we love our excellent quality fruits, vegetables, herbs, fish, olive oil, complex carbs, nuts, and cheeses.

Served With Love

Considering quick and easy meals that are the mainstay of our work week, – ‘Quick and Easy’ does not infer a lack of flavor or care. There isn’t a simple Scrambled Egg that leaves the kitchen without at least a dash of ground pepper before serving, or a Quesadilla served without a touch of something like hot sauce, or some added avocado. All slices of bread are spread from crust to crust, never that ‘slap the bread twice’ with each side of the knife thing. The simplest meals here are served with love.

So the plan looks like this, adjustable for any retail, ministry or family hoops that get thrown our way.

Meals Planned Per Week

Breakfasts:

(One) ‘Grab what’s ready’ – like yogurt; a banana or boiled egg; or fasting
(One) Breakfast Date out with Stache
(One) Stache cooked Bacon or Sausage, Eggs, and Pancakes; Grits, or Potatoes
(Two) Oatmeal or Granola, Apples or Berries, Walnuts, Honey and Greek Yogurt
(Two) Scrambled Eggs, Veggies, and Toast;
or Egg and Cheese on Toast; or Avacado Toast with Egg

Lunches :

(One) Eat out or fasting
(Four) Leftovers; Sandwich with Tuna or good quality sliced Meat; Green Salads with Tuna or Chicken; or a sliced Apple with nuts or cheese
(One) Grammie Day Lunch: Mac and Cheese Shells, sliced Apples or Berries, Grilled Chicken Tenders, or rolled Ham Slices

Snacks:

Always available: Apples, a variety of Cheeses, Nut Butters, Dried Apricots, Raw Nuts, Olives, and Pickles. Oh, and let’s not forget, – the Chocolate Covered Almonds!
(One) GrammieDay Snacks: Peach and Mango Yogurt cups, cookies, boxed raisins, and fresh fruit

Dinners:

(Three) Super Quick Dinners: Beans on Toast; Quesadillas with Salsa; or spruced up Leftovers.
(Two-Three) Easy Dinners with Ground Meat: Easy Spaghetti; Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Taco Meat; Fried Rice; or Pan-grilled Hamburger Patty with same pan Grilled Veggie combo.
(One-Two) Nice Effort Dinners: Grilled Chicken (1-2x per month); Pork Chops (1-2x per month); Steak (1x per quarter); or Salmon or White Fish (1-2x per month) each served with a potato, rice, or pasta and a veggie or two.

A Versatile Structure

You’ll notice, I don’t fill out a graph, assigning meals to specific days. Life is too in flux for that. This guide gives my pantry a versatile structure to plan our meals for variety as well as the effort I can afford on any given day. This plan is pantry directed rather than being a specific meal planner.

Depending on pay periods and events, I fill my pantry weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly using this format, and we’re good to go, just adding in fresh produce, milk, and bread as needed. If I need to plan specific meals for Entertaining, Meal gifts, or Recipe Testing in my month, I adjust for them, specifically in my Nice Effort Meal category.

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Years ago, I was given a cookbook called ‘More With Less’ by Doris Janzen Longacre (1990 edition). It’s a Mennonite cookbook that teaches along with recipes on how to serve more with less. Although it didn’t wholly or immediately impact all of my kitchen practices, it gave me quite a few delicious, economical recipes and encouraged the idea of asking, ‘what do I have in my hand?’ I learned then to be creative with what I had.

This idea launched my pantry directed meal planning habit, still serving us today. With the structure mapped out above, I then ‘shop’ my pantry first and refill it with excellent ingredients as necessary. The plan has been the most budget-friendly and least wasteful of any I’ve used, though I must honestly admit, our chickens are my best resource for a low waste kitchen, – but that’s another story.