My Style of Flexible Meal Planning
There are times when I plan out my menu a week at a time. That is usually when we have company coming or a very busy week ahead.
For regular life, I plan out the main meal components just for a few days. Notice I said “main meal components” not “menu”. This is because what works for me is to cook up larger amounts of meat and grains — such as two whole chickens or two pounds of ground beef; a crockpot full of beans or a pot full of lentils; and/or 4 cups of dry grains which results in 8 cups of cooked grains. Having these components in ready in the refrigerator allows me the flexibility to combine them over the following days into various skillet dishes featuring unique sauces and flavors. So I sort of wing it, and I sort of don’t.
One great advantage in my favor is that I keep a well stocked pantry. This includes a half beef in the freezer and two sources for bulk natural food pantry items. One of them delivers right to my house every other month. The other delivers to our area once per month. Having all this on hand frees me from being dependent on weekly shopping or weekly menus. However, I do shop for fresh produce and local eggs every week. I buy local chickens as they are available and add them to the freezer.
To create the meals, I “shop” in my pantry and/or freezer to have a constant rotation of meat, beans and/or grains either already prepared or being prepared. Then I go “shopping” again in the pantry for each meal to dress the skillet dishes up various ways. So we eat similarly for a few days, but not so similarly as to bore anyone.
Here’s an example. Let’s say I have cooked chicken, cooked pinto beans, and cooked quinoa in the refrigerator.
Dinner 1: Create a warm skillet dish combining some of all them and adding coconut milk, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and cumin.
Lunch 1: Leftovers of Dinner 1.
Dinner 2: Make gluten-free 4-grain flatbreads, use some of the beans to make refried beans, shred the chicken and season it, shred goat cheese and make flatbread melts. Create a cold quinoa salad on the side, if desired, but it isn’t necessary.
Lunch 2: Leftovers of Dinner 2 and/or Dinner 1.
Dinner 3: Use chicken and pinto beans to make a chicken chili. Likely, there is no more quinoa left. If so, cook a pot of brown rice and eat it with the chili.
Lunch 3: Leftovers of Dinner 3.
All the meals will also have a salad made from homegrown microgreens and/or sprouts, and any seasonal unsprayed or organic veggies I get from the Farmer’s Market.
Do you see how you can introduce meal components into the rotation to create endless variety?
For further reading, see Healthy Skillet Dishes and Planning Ahead for Hassle-Free Healthy Cooking.
Sounds like a wonderful plan. A mix of flexibility and planning. I am curious, do beans freeze well? And do you eat brown rice for more than one meal? How do you store it? In my culture, rice is eaten fresh with every meal. But it seems too time-consuming to make fresh brown rice, so I wondered if there was some way to season it so it stores better.
Sangeeta, I don’t freeze rice. I’m not sure if it freezes well or not. What I do is cook 4 cups dry rice, which makes about 8 cups when cooked. We eat some with that meal. The rest I store in the fridge, either in the cooking pot or in a glass storage dish. Then at the next meal I reheat it, usually on the stovetop in cast-iron and I season it up with salt, pepper and oil, and other things, too. It tastes really yummy that way! You could tailor the seasonings to suit what you’re serving that meal. If you visit Reheating Foods Without a Microwave, you’ll see exactly how I do the rice. Love, Wardeh
Thanks Wardeh, Great ideas!
Hi, Wardeh, I read Sangeeta’s question about freezing rice, and I have to say that when we make your Arabic Rice recipe, using brown basmati rice and pine nuts, it makes such a large batch that I do freeze containers of it in the freezer. It usually makes enough for side dishes for 5-7 meals. It freezes really well. I just heat it up with some olive oil or butter, and it does just fine and dandy. Enjoy!
Julieanne, thank you for sharing that! I’m so glad to know it and I know Sangeeta will be also. Love, Wardeh
what is your bimontly source that delivers to the door? amy
also-do you have any favorite non-vinegar dressings that you make for salads? I did not know until recently the tie in between vinegar and wheat… and so I’m trying to come up w/ some new dressings using lemon juice..
amy
Amy, the every other month source is a natural food supplier that delivers to WA, OR and CA. Not your area unfortunately.
I sometimes use lemon juice instead of vinegar in dressings. And I have heard you can use Kombucha, but I haven’t tried that myself. Yet. What is the issue between vinegar and wheat? I haven’t heard!
Love, Wardeh
Butting in - the vinegar/wheat thing is old research. Now they say that as long as the vinegar is distilled, even grain distilled white vinegar, that the gluten is destroyed in the processing. I guess there are some super cheap white vinegars that are not distilled, but I’ve never seen them. All other vinegar is fine, as far as I know.
Thank you, Sara! I’m glad to hear it. Love, Wardeh