Meal plans with weekly shopping deals

[teresaarrington]

My husband often complains that I bring home a lot of groceries, but never really have what we need to throw a week's worth of meals together. I would love to see the ingredients on sale organized into a weekly meal plan. I think I'm actually going to focus on doing this and check back in.

[IndianaMom]

Have you checked out the Recipe Thread? There are a lot of good meal ideas there.

[teresaarrington]

I have but it would be nice to have a nice pairing between what is currently on sale with a list and meal plan.

[mnm'z]

For me that would be hard to do... If I am having spaghetti for dinner - I prolly would have picked up the sauce, meat, pasta and bread in 4 separate weeks of shopping. That's one of the reasons that non-couponers have a hard time wrapping their cute little heads around Strategic Shopping, they look at my cart and wonder how I can make a meal. I pick up portions of different meals every week and once I get the last ingredients in the house, that meal goes on the meal plan.

[Rooster]

^^EXACTLY! This is what my friends & family do not understand!

[Nic]

For me that would be hard to do... If I am having spaghetti for dinner - I prolly would have picked up the sauce, meat, pasta and bread in 4 separate weeks of shopping. That's one of the reasons that non-couponers have a hard time wrapping their cute little heads around Strategic Shopping, they look at my cart and wonder how I can make a meal. I pick up portions of different meals every week and once I get the last ingredients in the house, that meal goes on the meal plan.

I understand you completely. Its that 'stock' that you have, with that stock you can always make a meal, your never with out. I cook most things from scratch so it take s a stocked pantry or larder with a few things that freeze or what ever to put a meal together..snack what have you. My husband was always amazed when we first married , he would look in the cupboards and not see anything and then i would go into the kitchen and come out with dinner!

[CurtisBeers]

I did a Google search for "pantry cooking" and there are so many sites you can visit. Here is a good one:
Cooking From Your Pantry

Since we all seem to have pasta, rice, sauce, condiments, canned vegetables, etc. on hand, sometimes all you need is some beef, pork or chicken aong with a bagged salad to make a great meal.

There is/was a TV show on Style Network called "Pantry Raid" which used only items from the pantry and refrigerator/freezer. It was amazing some of the great dishes the host/chef came up with.