Part 1: Planning

On my (decades-long) quest to eliminate food waste I have established this weekly meal planning routine. I do this almost entirely in my head now, but I thought I would walk you through an example of what actually goes on in my head using the Weekly Grocery Plan printable. I have to tell you, this week’s meals sound amazing and I’m excited to share the process with you.

Before putting in an online order

As usual, this week’s meals are inspired by what I already have on hand, some seasonal specials, and a quick glance through my freezer.

Fridge survey/clean out

Starting with my veggie drawer I see:

• romaine lettuce- a couple brown spots and wilted edges, should use this fast!
• apples- look pretty good, although a couple are getting a little soft
• grapes- they look ok, maybe a little dry
• bell peppers- dry around the cut edges but still good
• carrots – getting a little dry, my kids might not want to eat these raw
• cabbage – whole, it has some brown edges that can be cut off the next time I want to use it
• cilantro- although NOT in the veggie drawer, stored upright like cut flowers and look good!
• green onions – also stored upright in water

Next up, meat and cheese drawer:

• prosciutto that I had gotten for a cheese tray last week
• ham/lunchmeat
• swiss cheese
• flour tortillas

Last, the rest of the fridge:

• a little leftover rice that doesn’t smell good, bummer– out it goes
• spring greens – also need to be tossed. I made it through about 3/4 of the tub so not terrible
• condiments
• milk & juices
• eggs getting kind of low

Many of these I don’t even write down in the grocery plan since they are “staples” that I always have on hand. Thinking through meals I could make, I think ham and cheese sliders are in order (a family favorite). I consider making coleslaw as a side, but glancing over my “use up” list, and the fact that cabbage will keep longer, I decide to go with a Waldorf salad instead. This uses the romaine, and I can add the apples and grapes. Not much else is jumping out at me. Moving on.

Seasonal Specials

I take a quick glance at the weekly flyer on my King Sooper’s app. Whole pineapple is on sale.– must be coming into its second growing season in the Caribbean! Now that’s some inspiration. With my bell peppers, cilantro, and green onions I could make a fantastic pineapple salsa for fajitas. Shrimp is on sale too– Shrimp fajitas would be ah-may-zing! Lock that idea away…

Sweet potatoes are also on sale which would make a great hearty meal. I could use some of the softer apples with these in a roast. However, instead of looking at meat sales, I resist the temptation knowing I probably have something in the freezer.

I also happen to notice they have dinner rolls on sale– perfect for my ham & cheese sliders so I add them to my shopping cart. Moving on…

Freezer Survey

With a roast in mind I look through the freezer. I don’t have any pork (usually my favorite with sweet potatoes) but I do have a beef chuck roast. That’ll do! This completes my three meals. Skip the pantry survey, I jump right to building my grocery list.

Building your grocery list

The next step in the weekly meal planning routine is to build your grocery list. This is an iterative process but will definitely speed up with practice. And if much of the work is done directly in your favorite grocery shopping app, you get planning and shopping done at the same time! Let’s start with our planned meals…

Ingredients for meals

Next column, I start to fill in ingredients that I will need to fill in my recipe ideas. For the ham & cheese sliders I need the dinner rolls (which are already in my cart, mind you). Also for the salad I need bleu cheese, celery, and walnuts.

And on it goes for the other two recipes. I found a great roast recipe, and I jot down a couple ingredients: celery and smoked paprika. For the fajitas, I think some red onion would add some nice color to the pineapple salsa. I also prefer corn tortillas to flour– I know my family will eat up the flour tortillas, and corn tortillas keep for a long time so I add them to the list.

Review meal items for subs

Now… time to scrub the list. (Here’s where you need discipline to say no to yourself!)

Starting at the top, I don’t really have a good substitute for bleu cheese at the moment. (Although feta or parmesan, if I had them, could suffice.) I’m ok omitting the celery, and I have pecans on hand that can sub for the walnuts. Gone and gone. I’ve already decided to use the prosciutto in the salad instead of the chicken in the recipe, so chicken didn’t even make the original list. Although if it had, I’d omit; meat isn’t necessary as a side.

Celery shows up again on the Pot Roast recipe… hmmm… I do a quick look in the freezer and I have a bag of frozen celery that will work! Off it goes. I don’t have smoked paprika but I have some Trader Joe’s South African Smoke that would probably add just enough of the smoky flavor. Off it goes.

I consider removing the red onion from the list. However, red onion keeps a while, and I can also use it in the Waldorf salad. And let’s be honest, I love colorful meals. The purple will add a great pop to the salsa. I leave it on the list.

Lastly, and probably the hardest one: I know we probably won’t finish the 3 lb chuck roast. The leftover beef, shredded with some fajita seasoning, would be great for the fajitas. As good as shrimp sounds, (AND it’s on sale!) I decide to cross shrimp off the list too. The roast will be more than enough for the two meals, and we probably will still have leftovers for lunches.

In this review I’ve eliminated nearly half of these items! Items that would have increased my inventory and some of which probably would have gone bad on me. I’ve also repurposed leftovers that I’m already anticipating. I feel pretty good about this.

Other grocery items

For “other grocery items” I usually don’t even write these down as part of the weekly meal planning routine. I usually just build it directly in my cart on my shopping app usually from the “buy again” tab. But for sake of demonstration, I’ll write it in the printable too.

We tend to eat quite a bit of fresh cut veggies and fruit so I add the ones that are on sale to our cart. Even though I have carrots I decide to add some more as I’ll probably throw the older ones in the roast. I’m also running low on some canned goods (diced tomatoes and tomato sauce) and pantry items (flour, tortilla chips, lemon juice).

Rounding the list out with our regular-use items (milk, eggs, bread, cereal, hot dogs, chicken nuggets) and some other sale items we will use and/or will freeze well (crescent rolls, ground beef, chicken), and I’ve got a complete list.

Review and eliminate

Time for final review… These review steps are CRITICAL for eliminating food waste. I’d say as important as planning.

Here I’ve arranged the “other” items (roughly) in the order in which they will spoil (easier for demonstration). You don’t need to do this but it might make the review a bit easier, especially as you’re learning this method.

Focusing at the top of the list (most of which are in columns 1 & 2 here) I see I have both broccoli and green beans. Both will spoil in about the same amount of time and I’m not sure we will get through both of these. So I (somewhat reluctantly) cross green beans off the list (take it out of my cart).

I also usually buy spring greens weekly, but with my romaine already on hand I doubt we will go through a whole tub of spring greens, especially since at this time of year they are spoiling well inside of a week (sometimes only lasting 4-5 days). Off it goes.

As I’m looking at the items that are left, as compared to the “Use by…” printable, I’ll count up the items landing in column 1: rapberries. That’s it! This number should be three, at most.

Counting the items that fall in column 2: broccoli, blueberries, grape tomatoes, lunchmeat, cheese, bread, jalapeños, pineapple (not on the printable but usually keeps about a week). Eight. That seems about right. This should be 6-12 depending on quantity of each, how big your family is, and how many meals you typically eat at home.

The bulk of my list falls in column 3 (including the fresh meats that I will immediately freeze).

A note on balancing perishable items

Items in columns 1 & 2 are probably overall the healthiest foods to eat– and healthiest to eat fresh. You want to make sure you have several of these mixed into your plan, but you want to only buy what you are sure you will eat this week. Several items in column 3 are still plenty healthy (kale, root vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, squash) and even find themselves on superfoods lists. And the best part is they keep longer to give you more buffer week to week!

I think this looks like a pretty good plan! Probably one of my better ones… Next week in Part 2 we will see how this weekly meal planning routine plays out throughout the week.

I’d love to hear how you’re doing on your journey! Have you tried the weekly meal planning routine yet? Leave your challenges, insight, or inspiration in the comments. Happy scrounging!