Mom plans meals for whole year

[Atash Hagmahani]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/mom-plans-meals-entire-year/story?id=9618348&page=1

I think I am doing well to plan them for a week. It gets hard, because my refrigerator is small enough that it's hard to store a week's worth of perishables. I suppose, though, that I could explode out a "parts diagram" to figure out what items turn over quickly, what turn over slowly and are not worth stocking, and try to get the total number of stocked foods down to a more manageable number.

(Hmmm, I will have a lot of trouble from one particular member of my family, who is HIGHLY impulsive about food--she will buy something that "looks good"--alas typically something EXPENSIVE--without allocating it in her head to a particular date, and then it rots).

I've been thinking about the benefits of stocking fewer items. Tonight for example we had Phud Thai which requires me to stock rice noodles and Tamarind sauce. The beansprouts I grew from Mung Beans which I only use for a few other things. I could live without them.

It would be nice, too, to have a master stock list, so that the family and I can just check off what we are out of, and take the list to the grocery store. That along with planning meals out ahead of time could cut down on trips to the store.

One more problem would be trying to work around my family's schedule. I don't usually get a lot of notice ahead of time of visits, meetings, and recreational activities.

Have a look at her list:

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/ktrk_011910_dinnercalendar.pdf

To my eyes, they have a rather rich diet with a lot of meat, and some expensive meats at that.

[Lady Lilya]

Rob, what you describe as your goal is what I do, except for the master stock list.  When someone takes the next-to-last one, they write it on the list.  For the most part, this works. 

I can look at the circular for our supermarket online to see what is on sale.  Then I think about which things I've cooked that were popular and which weren't, and ask my husband if he is getting tired of anything we've had a lot of lately.  Then I plan the menu for the week.  We go shopping each Tuesday. 

I keep an inventory list for my freezer.  But I need to re-work it so that it keeps dates too.  That way I can properly rotate.  It is easier to rotate pantry stuff because I can just put the new in behind the old.  But with the freezer it is more a matter of putting things in where they fit.  So I'm thinking that when I make the menu plan I can look at which things in the freezer are getting older, and plan to use them soon.

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Some of my friend do Once-A-Month Cooking.  They spend a weekend cooking meals for a month, and freeze them.  This way, those whose jobs get in the way of them cooking every night, can still have the health benefits and lower cost of eating home-cooked food rather than take-out. 

[Dame]

Given the actual cuts listed, I think they buy beef and pork by the 1/2 (of an animal); dressed, cut and wrapped.  Perhaps even do the cut and wrap themselves if they have a meat grinder.  This would cut the cost to about $1.50 to $1.75 per lb for the whole half.  Chicken, fish, seafood would be purchased bulk and repackaged.  They could get the price down even lower if they bought the meat on the hoof and had the slaughter, dressing and hanging done on a custom basis.       

[The Future]

maybe this is off topic somewhat, but does anyone else figure the cost per pound when buying processing food?  I notice when I was in the US WholePaycheck listed this for all items.  I tend to do it at home...hmm $16 a pound for what is essentially a potato (chips)....a potato that sells for $0.30 a pound on the wholesale market?  Pass.

[opsec]

Somebody somewhere did the math and discovered that pound for pound, Twinkies were more expensive than T-bone steak.

[Lady Lilya]

I don't bother with firm calculations, but I keep a general sense of how much per unit of nutrition things are.  At least a relative idea (ie. comparing between 2 possible sources of the same nutrient).

But people don't choose potato chips for their nutritional value.  They choose them for a different kind of benefit they provide.  Like emotional utils. 

[The Future]

oh i'm with LL.  But in a crunch, reasoning may yet dictate to emotions.  maybe we need to learn how to make chips ourselves...hell at that profict margin (5300%) we need to be sellin them bad bwoys and thus paying for all we could ever eat...