The Grocery List & Menu

 I’ve met people that go grocery shopping with no menu and no list. It’s ok if this is you.  However, I have an inability to ‘wing-it’ so you will always find me with a grocery list in the store.

Prior to Paleo I always planned our dinners but not really breakfast and lunches. Those consisted of cereal, eggs and sandwiches for the most part. That is no longer the case, so planning is needed to keep everyone happy and make sure we have everything needed for each meal.

I start each week by asking everyone what they’d like to have for a few of the meals. It is a family effort and everyone is involved. I generally say that a meal needs to be something we haven’t had in a while and most certainly did not have the week before. I also look at our schedule for the week to see if we need quick meals or we can do more involved meals. This is determined by our gym schedule, Scouts or other school and church activities. Additionally I take into consideration how much of each meal can be prepped in advance because this affects the time for cooking the day of.

To start the menu I take a scrap sheet of paper and divide it into 3 simple sections: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. I write down the wanted meals as well as where the recipes are located whether it be on my Pinterest Paleo Board, in my recipe program or a cookbook.  This is helpful for the person preparing the meal, especially when it’s not me. (The list above doesn't show everything that goes with the main dish - i've gotten better at writing this stuff out on the menu. However this is an older one.)

Next I walk through each recipe and write down the needed ingredients. I generally have more than one shopping list because we get different items at different stores. Fruit and veggies come from Meijers. Meat and spices come from the meat market. Lastly nuts, coconut water, fish, almond meal and a few other items come from Trader Joes. It will take a few trips for you to figure out what you want to get from what store. You may be lucky in that you get everything from one. I’ve not found this to be the case yet due to cost and variety. Some stores just don’t carry what we need.

When the grocery list is done I review any left over ingredients from the previous week that I might be able to crossed off or reduce the amount that I purchase for the coming week. I also will check the spice list against what we have in stock so I don’t buy anything not needed.

It will take a little while to build up a good spice collection. We started with just the normal size jars because we were unsure of how much we’d use of a spice. As we empty a jar we evaluate if we need to keep it in a small container or move to a large container.  Spices are a very necessary part of Paleo and they are an investment.  The photos below you’ll see our main spice cabinet as well as our spice drawer with the red-topped containers. The red-topped containers are our large containers that we move to purchasing if we are using enough of a spice. These save so much money. In many cases the large container from the meat market is the same price as the tiny container at the grocery store. (Our large spices have grown since I originally wrote this blog. We are at 2 full rows.)

 

Making a menu and grocery list takes 30-45 minutes each week but saves so much time in the long run. There’s no guessing what we will be having or if we have all the ingredients. By planning ahead and being prepared it also helps you with the transition to Paleo and to stick with it. Additionally planning helps you with not over buying and having food go bad.

Give menu planning a try and see if it works for you!

Enjoy!

Yvonne