M. Suzanne Terry

Sometimes, when the weather is hotter than I like (i.e., approximately 96.84% of the time), I crank up the A/C so I can snuggle in a blanket and pretend Texas has real seasons.

This is one of my favorite steps of the Epic Meal Planning process. This is the part of the process where I get to put a number on exactly how many days I could feed myself without leaving the house. This nourishes my rich fantasy of one day being a hermit.

I’m kidding. Sort of. Most days.

Let’s move on.

Today, we will break out our calendars and write down meals that we can make right now without having to buy anything extra to put with them. We are going to identify meals, count servings, and plan the days that we can go without shopping.

Identify meals

If you already cook a lot, this part will be easy. After spending the last couple of days peering at your fridge and pantry, you could probably do it without even looking. If you don’t cook a lot, take a few minutes and look back at your inventories to see what you have available. It’s not cheating to search for an ingredient via Google or Pinterest and see if there’s something interesting you can do with it.

List the different types of meals you can make. In order to count as a meal, it has to be able to make enough to feed everyone you feed on a daily basis at least once. For me, that’s one, but if you have a spouse/kids/roommates, you, of course, will make sure your ingredients cover enough for them, too.

Example: Right now, I can make…

1. pasta and some sort of sauce
2. pizza
3. antipasti platters
4. chicken salad
5. frittata
6. vegetable soup

I also note that I have sufficient breakfast supplies for three or four weeks.

Count servings

After you know what you can make, you need to determine how much of it you can make. This will determine your number of servings. Take your list above and calculate the number of times you can get a full meal out of the ingredients (again, a meal – even of leftovers – equals a meal for everyone you feed). If it’s something you can cook twice (see examples below), note that as well.

Example:

1. pasta and some sort of sauce – 8 servings (cook twice – 4 servings each)
2. pizza – 12 servings (cook three times – 4 servings each)
3. antipasti platters (cheese, deli meat, bread, olives, roasted red peppers) – 6 servings
4. chicken salad – 4 servings
5. frittata – 6 servings
6. vegetable soup – 6 servings

I’m ridiculously excited about these numbers.

Plan your days

Pull out your calendar. First, choose the days when you are going to cook. If you have multiple servings, and you embrace leftovers, try to space out your initial meal cooking days. Keep in mind days when you have plans in the evening to make sure you have time to cook.

Once you have all your meals plotted on their cooking days, fill in the extra servings on subsequent meal times. Try not to stretch one meal too long, because mold and bacteria are not proper food groups.

Example:

After plotting cooking days and taking into account meal times when I have planned to go out with friends (and thus don’t need to plan for a meal at home), I can eat heartily without going to the grocery store for about three and a half weeks. My inner hermit rejoices!

All hermit “jokes” aside, I actually recommend going through this step before each trip to the grocery store, particularly if it’s not your favorite errand. Either you will discover some hidden gem meals that allow you to postpone your market trip (and the hefty bill that goes with it) for a little while, or the random meals you find will be so unappetizing that a trip to the store will suddenly seem fun in comparison to enduring them. Either way, you win.

I’m sharing my Epic Meal Planning strategies for Write 31 Days – click to see the master list.