Tutorial Tuesday: Grocery List

Grocery List

I hope you have all been following and enjoying my Meal Planning Tutorials the past two weeks! Have you tried out my tasks yet? Taken any of my tips? I'd love to hear! Click on my 'Tutorial Tuesday Label' to look back at past posts.

This week I reveal my Grocery List!

At the end of each month, I plan the upcoming month's dinner meals on a calendar. After choosing my meals, I open my 'Grocery List Template'. I have listed each day of the week, additional groceries, weekly preparation,  and breakfast and lunch meals for both Michael and I. I then do what I call 'pantry inventory'. I will pull up each recipe for my meals and dig through my pantry to see what I already have or ingredients I can use as substitutes. This has GREATLY helped clean out my pantry and make use of what I've already bought (as well as save a little money for my grocery bills so we do not exceed our weekly budget). After inventory, I begin my Grocery List to complete the ingredients needed to prepare dinner each night.

I'll add our Additional groceries that are regular weekly purchases, as well as any extraneous needed pantry items.

Weekly Preparation consists of Sunday afternoon prep for the week. I'll count out just how many chicken breasts I will need for each meal to cook. I'll prep my salads for lunch. I add anything that needs to be thawed from freezer on here also.

For Michael and my Breakfast and Lunch meals, I'll plan what we will have to eat that week. We are pretty simple eaters and not picky at all. You'll see a trend on my lists that we typically each the same things often. We both go to work very early and don't have time to eat before leaving the house. I drink a protein shake on the way to work, and then will eat my 'breakfast item' that I've prepared an hour or two after I get to work.

Camp will start stage 1 veggies this weekend! I am attempting the Homemade Baby Food route. Last weekend, I prepared Sweet Potatoes and froze them to get ready! Soon I will add him to our weekly grocery list for what I need to buy, cook, prepare, and pack for his lunches! I love being a family of three =).

I print out my list at the beginning of each month and use it each week for shopping. I like Iphone lists for all other reminders (I am serious about list making!), but for groceries, I like a hard copy so I can cross off each item.

Hope this helps to continue the Meal Planning adventure for you and your family!

smiling is free =),

reagan