M. Suzanne Terry

The cutest insulated grocery bag that ever was. 

Take a minute to gaze lovingly at your calendar. You did it! You have a plan! For every night next month, you already have an answer to “What’s for dinner?”

Be prepared to hold this plan lightly, however, especially for the first few months. If you decide you want to order pizza on a night that you originally planned to cook, that’s okay. This plan is to help you, not to tie you down and remove all fun and freedom from your life. You can shift your calendar schedule to allow for it (another plus in the pro column for electronic calendars, as shifting makes my written calendar look messy). You can have your plan and your pizza, too.

If your life is anything like mine, however, you can’t just shift with wild abandon.

Your event evenings are probably not shiftable (WordPress says this is not a word. Of course, WordPress also says “WordPress” is not a word, so I’m keeping it. I do what I want, Internet.). They stay where they are.

You start with your shopping days. Shopping days drive your meals, not the other way around. One delayed meal is probably not enough to warrant shifting your shopping day. Three or four delayed meals, however, will probably mean you need to consider it. Are there perishables on your list that will go bad before you get to them? If so, you will either need to move the shopping day or keep those meals where they are.

This may also affect your coupon usage. If a coupon is near its expiration date, decide whether it is really worth an extra trip to the store just to use it.

After you get your shopping days reestablished, you can move the meals that go with them around if you need to do so. Then, your plan is back on track.

Tomorrow, we set you up for success by keeping you on track.

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

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Tabula Rasa *rubs hands together maniacally*

Everyone, grab your calendar.

Your calendar can be a traditional wall calendar, like mine, that you hang in your kitchen. You can use a planner, which would be nifty for also storing coupons and shopping lists. You can use a digital calendar, which would be convenient if you cook every day and have a desk job where you can access it every afternoon before you leave. Whatever your choice, it needs to have enough space to list 2-3 meals a day (depending on whether you actively plan breakfast and whether you follow the 3-meal-a-day habit).

You also need to decide how often you will plan. I plan monthly, but if you would rather plan weekly or seasonally, there’s no reason that won’t work just as well. You will need to adjust your meal count from yesterday to reflect your new timeline.

The first thing you need to plot on your calendar are the plans that affect your meal production. For example, I note the days/evenings that I have dinner with friends (or are cooking dinner for friends). I note nights that involve choir practice, book club, writers group, and committee meetings. And I definitely write down days that I will be out of town, because there’s no need to plan anything there.

Next, you will need to choose shopping days. Personally, I eyeball my open Friday nights or any days that I have planned to take a personal day from work, because I would rather eat a bug than deal with the grocery store when everyone else in the world is there. I choose two or three days, depending on how many of my listed meals have gone renegade from my staples list. Find shopping days; write them on the calendar.

Now all you have left to do is fill in your meals. When I plot meals that can stretch into two (or four), I list them with their serving number on each subsequent day beside it. You can see an example of this in the picture on the master list post:

Most of my leftovers are lunches, but some of them end up on the nights I have something planned that does not involve eating (such as choir practice).

I have started leaving a few days blank at the end of the month for when I inevitably have more servings than I expected or when I spontaneously decided to go out with people for lunch/dinner or saw a new recipe to try in the middle of the month. Experience has shown me that I do these things frequently enough that I hardly ever end up having to come up with something to eat for those final few days because they shift the meal plan. If you already know this will likely be the case for you then feel free to leave them blank as well, but there’s no real harm in planning something for every day until you see how that works for you.

We will talk tomorrow about how to shift your calendar efficiently if such a need arises.

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

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When my counter starts to look like this, I know it’s time to visit the bulk spices aisle.

Today, you are going to make a list of all the meals you want to make next month. Don’t worry if this sounds daunting – I’m going to walk you through it.

First, we will need to determine how many meals you will need to list. I cook in bulk most of the time, and I rely solely upon staples for breakfasts, so my monthly list is comprised of 10-15 meals. If you cook every day, you will need at least 30. As next month is November, if you are in the U.S.A., and you are primarily responsible for Thanksgiving food, don’t forget to include that meal, too.

Second, review what you will  have in your kitchen once your staples are replenished. As I mentioned on Day 4 when we talked about snowed-in meals, it’s a good idea to do this every time you shop, but it’s really useful before you even plan. This review will take less time the more you do it. At this point, I am so aware of what is in my kitchen that I don’t even have to be home to tally how many and what kind of meals I can still make. List the meals you are already stocked to make and meals that you will be able to make once your staples list is restocked.

Third, pull recipe cards for other things you are interested in making next month, including holiday food, and list those meals. If you use coupons, try to match them with meals you can make, and list those meals.

At this point, if you still don’t have as many meals listed as you need for the month, go back and double up on those meal staples. There’s no shame in having spaghetti twice a month. In fact, I encourage it.

Repeat these steps as often as it takes to come up with the number of meals you will need to cook next month to feed yourself and your people. Tomorrow, we give them a timeline.

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

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Recipe card by day (for Simply Scratch’s stuffed shells) – grocery guide by night.

Today we start Section 3 of our process – making your monthly plan.

You already have your staples list, which should include everything you need for basic staples, meal staples, and saving graces. You may, however, occasionally want to eat something that is not represented on that list. So now we are going to talk about the extra recipes you may need to include on your meal plan (and thus your grocery list). For these recipes, you will need recipe cards.

Some of you may only have these cards (or files, if you are using an electronic system) for special occasion recipes, especially if your meal staples are pretty constant throughout the year. My meal portion of my staples list only includes basic lasagna (with goat cheese instead of ricotta – no other cheese needed – DO IT) and tacos, because all my other meal staples change seasonally. Therefore, I have a lot of cards like the one pictured above.

These cards need to include 2 elements:

1. Ingredient list and instructions (i.e., the recipe itself)
2. Some indication of which ingredients are not a part of your staples list and thus will need to be added as extras to your grocery list.

My indications are color-coded. Green means the ingredient is outside my staples list. Each season also has its own color, because I differentiate between ingredients that have little hope of being in my kitchen at all (green) and those that tend to magically make an unscheduled appearance during a certain season (e.g., butternut squash in the fall, salad greens in the summer, etc.). Summer is yellow, fall is orange, winter is blue, and spring is red. Of course, you can just use one color if that makes more sense to you.

As you can see from the picture above, in order to make these particular stuffed shells, I basically need to buy everything but salt, olive oil, and eggs. Translation – not a recipe that I’ll be making the same month the car needs new tires. During that month, I’m going to choose a recipe that has maybe three things circled. These cards keep me from accidentally overextending my grocery budget.

Your goal for today is probably a big one, unless you have a stellar staples list that includes every meal you ever make except for major holidays. Which is…well…stellar. Good job, you!

1. Collect your non-staple recipes (whatever that looks like for you).
2. Circle all the non-staple items on your ingredient lists.  If your recipes are stored electronically, I recommend separating the staples (e.g., salt, olive oil, eggs) into different columns from the non-staples (e.g., arugula, Italian sausage) so that your copy-paste into a printable grocery list is easier.
3. File the recipes in some organized way – whatever works best for you. I have a recipe box. Flash drive works, too. If you store your recipes electronically, pleasepleaseplease make a back-up. That would be a really sad thing to lose.

Tomorrow we discuss how to revisit your kitchen inventory to choose meals for the month.

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

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One of the hideous, glorious things that come from having a well-stocked freezer. Getting good pictures for this series has been more difficult than I imagined it would be. It turns out that my favorite foods – the ones that are most nourishing and most tasty – are usually not much to look at.

Freezer space is a saving grace all on its own. Food lasts so much longer in the freezer than anywhere else. The freezer can help you plan months in advance. For example, I’m certain my mom already has some dessert we’ll see at Christmas already made and in the deep freeze.

I also like to freeze things like bread or cookie dough. One of the biggest deterrents to baking for me is getting all the stuff out and clearing a spot on the counter in the kitchen to put it all together. It seems like such a chore. So while I have all the stuff out already, I just make extra. It freezes beautifully (wrap tightly in plastic – store in something air-tight for extra protection), and then I have ready-made dough that I can thaw and bake without rearranging my whole tiny kitchen.

Freezing can also help you when plans go awry.

Sometimes, I go a little nuts with the meals. Maybe that’s not you. Maybe you always make the perfect amount of food and nothing goes to waste. Good work! I aspire to your level of self-control, but I’m not there yet.

Soup is my storage downfall. I start chopping vegetables, and I can’t seem to make myself stop. Then I have more soup than one person can possibly eat before it goes bad. I have to either find fourteen people to come over to eat with very little notice or I have to freeze the soup.

Freezing soup (or sauce…or lasagna…or whatever…) turns bad planning into good planning. Instead of having too much soup, I have a whole other future meal. Instead of wasting food, I have expanded it.

I meant to do that. Of course.

Having an extra freezer is even more wonderful. You can stock up on frozen staples when they’re on sale, saving you so much money in the long run. Although I don’t have an extra freezer yet, I like to practice for my future freezer with things like the locally-raised, pasture-fed ground beef that I buy. I don’t have a lot of freezer space, but I save some of it so that I don’t have to sacrifice quality for price.

How could you use your freezer space more efficiently?

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

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My calendar makes me happy. It’s a bit scruffy, but it’s beautiful to me.

For this shopping trip, you are buying staples. Once again, I suggest that you buy only the things on the list you made yesterday. Building a pantry takes discipline, but less than you would think. It doesn’t have to be a constant, weekly (or however often you shop) drudgery. As long as you have your staples list and you keep up with it, it should pretty much be a no-brainer from here on out.

This is the last time I will ask you to stick strictly to your list at the store, because once you are in the practice of meal planning, you will find that you have a lot more freedom all around, and this includes shopping. You will have kitchen that is designed to work especially for you, and this means you are making less food go farther, which saves you money. So if you see a deal on your favorite ice cream, or if you see something wonderful in the bakery that you want to try, you don’t have to eye it forlornly as you avoid it in order to stay within your budget, because your meal plan is stretching your budget for you. Meal planning gives you a lot of wiggle room. I have easily thinned my grocery budget by 20% since sticking to my plan, which means better wine and not having to scrimp elsewhere to enjoy the occasional evening out.

So go forth and shop, Stick to your list, and dream of all the things you’re going to do with the extra money.

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

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A little help from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and Bardi, Carbone, and Lanza’s Antipasti: Appetizers the Italian Way. I could feed myself completely from just these two books.

The day is nearly upon us – the day when you will be able to fill that empty space in your pantry and fridge with food that can feed a multitude. Specifically, that day is tomorrow. Hopefully this week has given you some ideas for meal staples if you didn’t have them already. Remember: a meal staple is one used to make a meal that you eat at least twice a month. Keep the recipes in an easily accessible place, even if you could make them in your sleep, because we’re going to be using them again soon.

Today, you will make your second grocery list. To compile this list, you will need the staples lists that you have compiled – basics, meal staples, and saving graces. Until you get used to your particular staples list, it might be helpful to type up a checklist to help you keep track of when you are running low. Although most of my meal planning is handwritten, my staples checklist is a typed document, because then I can check things off as I run low, use that list for shopping, and print a new one after I get back from the store.

The process for this step is pretty straightforward:

1. Type (or write – you do you) your checklist.
2. Go through your kitchen and put a check mark next to the items you need.

Voila! You have your second grocery list. This will stock your kitchen and get you ready to build a meal planning system that works specifically for you.

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

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Delicious frittata; shameless Equal Exchange tea plug.

When I tell people that I don’t eat a lot of meat, they are suddenly very concerned about my protein, particularly since I’ve been running more. I assure them that I get plenty of protein. In addition to the fact that one can get adequate, complete protein simply by eating a variety of plant sources (which I do), I also eat eggs quite often. And cheese in small-ish doses. But mostly from eggs.

I love eggs. I love them just about any way you can prepare them. My favorite three ways to prepare eggs are over easy, poached, and fried crispy. I also like to bake eggs in a frittata (when I have random vegetables in the fridge that I need to find a use for) or in a quiche (when I have random vegetables and also an inexplicable surplus of real milk and/or cream). Those two basic dishes can solve any problem of leftovers you have. I once made a spaghetti carbonara frittata, and it was awesome. Throw a slice of toast on the side of that, and you have a meal that will make me happy any time of the day.

At least twice a week, I will have breakfast for dinner. Breakfast foods are on my meal staples list all year long, and they might just be my favorite Pinterest board. In addition to the egg recipes above, I make sure that I am always ready to make:

1. Biscuits – the goat cheese and chive aspect may change (although I cannot imagine a situation where I would not be open to a goat cheese and chive biscuit), but this is close to the basic biscuit recipe that I use.
2. Monkey bread – better than donuts. Use homemade biscuit dough to a) free up storage for canned biscuits in the refrigerator and b) make it taste better than canned biscuits. Really – if you take nothing else from this month, find a biscuit dough recipe that you love and never use canned biscuits again. I will consider that a success.
3. Muesli (aka refrigerator oatmeal) – you can eat it cold if you’re into that sort of thing, but I prefer it warm.
4. Shauna Niequist’s blueberry crisp – this was my favorite thing in Bread and Wine. I take rampant liberty with the fruit used (favorite – nectarines and apples) but otherwise this is one of the rare recipes I follow exactly. It’s perfect.
5. Mark Bittman’s waffles – I use (read: tweak slightly) his basic recipe found in How to Cook Everything, but I am intrigued by the bacon maple syrup. I believe I would enjoy that.

What is your favorite breakfast?

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

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Summertime, and the livin’s easy.

Oh, the produce! I have so many summer favorites. And I mostly eat plants, because it’s too hot to eat anything else.

1. Peach Caprese Salad – a little spin on the traditional. Bonus points if you fire up the grill just to grill the peaches first.
2. Vegetable pancakes – good for any meal of the day.
3. Whether you want to call it the Inner Goddess Detox Salad or are willing to admit that you’re eating a large pile of fruit to avoid turning on anything heated, this is delicious.
4. Send someone out to the grill with veggies on skewers. Stay inside and eat ice cream while you wait.
5. Okay, fine. While you’re grilling, throw on some burgers and top with caramelized onions that you made in the crockpot.

I think Tamar Adler and I would cook well together (allow me my fantasies). Also, I would love to have worked at Chez Panisse.  An Everlasting Meal is a book I wish I’d written. In it, she talks about the importance of building a cooking practice and minimizing waste.

The Art of Simple Food is another of my favorites from Alice Waters. She teaches her readers about stocking their kitchens for success in cooking simple, flavorful meals.

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

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This is my springiest teapot. I love tea parties. Mostly for the hats.

My meal plan in the spring is driven by the farmers market. Whatever is fresh out of the ground or off the vine is what I want to eat. This leads to all kinds of experimentation as I try to figure out what I’m going to do with this weird vegetable, fruit, or herb I just bought. I occasionally eat something that I don’t care for, but more often, this is my favorite season to cook, because I find so many new things to love.

1. Roasted red pepper and asparagus quiche – Asparagus has a small window of time when it is actually fresh and seasonal (at least in Texas). There are about three weeks in March/April when asparagus grows like a weed. Then you just have a pretty plant. Dishes like this help me take full advantage of those weeks.
2. Pasta primavera – A dish so made for seasonal produce that it’s even in the name.
3. Salad – when you bought so many things at the market that you basically have to eat nothing but vegetables so that they don’t go bad before you get to them.
4. Maple dijon roasted carrots – I love a roasted vegetable and honey mustard. Double win.
5. And before it gets too hot to use the oven, I like to squeeze in some last-minute pie. Blueberry is my favorite.

Spring is when I most often want to read about food, too. Ruth Reichl is one of my favorite food people. Check out My Kitchen Year for a nice read with some amazing recipes. You know what? Go ahead and check out all the things she’s written and contributed to.

I cannot wait to get my hands on Padma Lakshmi’s The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs. I may just spend all of next spring covering veggies in different spices. Love, Loss, and What We Ate is also beautiful.

What is your favorite spring vegetable? How do you like it prepared?

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

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