Mom plans meals for entire year to save $

[deerhart]

It is cheaper to feed healthy food than trash if you put effort into it. Especially if you are willing to purchase veggies at places like aldi's. Cost is a cop out!

Not EVERYONE has a place like Aldi's nearby and accessible.

 

[deerhart]

Ooo homemade bagels. I have a recipe for them, but it requires malt, I think. Something that I haven't searched too hard for yet. Does your recipe call for malt? I have frozen the fresh bagels from Panera with good success. Freezing fresh bread products really helps. There are also some dry goods storage containers that are really good at keeping bread and similar products (crackers) from going stale. I got mine at the container Store, a good investment.

nope no malt and I believe I have all the ingredients at home, but would have to check on cornmeal (not something I use a ton of so I may need some new stuff)
Ingredients

* 2 cups warm water, about 110 degrees F
* 2 (1/4-ounce) packets active dry yeast
* 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
* 5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

recipe is here

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-bagels-recipe/index.html

food network has such yummy recipes


What kind of containers are you talking about for the storage? My biggest problem is that I love how soft and fluffy regular bread stays and my bread isn't anything like that. I don't know if its the recipe we are using, just how bad we are at cooking or what. I just really dislike crumble bread with a hard crust.

 

[Tinkmom75]

Not EVERYONE has a place like Aldi's nearby and accessible.

She didn't read my post like a PP stated because I said it wasn't about the expense, but I get what your saying. For some people it is about the expense and they don't have discount stores close.

I also have some very intersting cooking stories. I am a terrible cook and I hate to do it. I am fortunate my DH will cook too, mostly grilling. We buy our meat at the local meat market too and I have a garden in the summer, but my kids do get "crap" more than I would like.

 

[fakereadhed]

I had the same concerns about nutrition when I saw the yearly menu. I said "that's not for us!" but if it works for someone else what do I care? I get to raise my kids how I choose and so do the people less concerned about it. Can't we move on? I have learned a ton from threads like this on this board- even if it's not all my style.

 

[ShannonMB]

*Edit* Yes, we can move on!

 

[Mermaid02]

About Hamburger Helper...... I never had it until college... I was not too keen to try it but we were poor college kids. I LOVED IT! Go figure....

So a few years ago things were really tight here.... I thought, Well- I'll do Hamburger Helper... it's cheap and will fill them up. OMG it was the most disgusting thing I had ever had. I wouldn't feed it to the friggin dog. Don't know if my tastes changed or the recipe....

 

[DVCBELLE]

Wow - who knew this thread could be so controversial!!

I could never plan a year out b/c I never know when we will be home or what we will be in the mood for - shoot - I am not even sure what I want for dinner tonight (but we are all home sick so food isn't a high priority today!)

IMHO - Going to BBB and Hoop De Doo do not make a bad parent. The menu might not be the best there but one meal like that will certainly not do irreparable harm to a child. Also - I can't quite figure out how getting your hair done at BBB makes your child unhealthy...

My SIL eats what she says is very healthy...everything organic and natural. She sent her boys to my house with this food once and we compared the nutritional content to what we were giving our kids and it was not always the better choice. My SIL is also ridiculously skinny and is always sick. In fact, she is one of the most unhealthy people I know yet claims to make all these "healthy" lifestyle choices. There is such a thing as balance in life.

 

[angelsmith52]

WOW,this has been some thread to read through. I have gotten some great sites to go to (including the OPs). I plan a monthly menu and sometimes don't stick to that. With schedules around here, sometimes I just don't have the time or energy to cook what is planned. I did run off that year long menu and will use some of it. There are things on there we don't care for, mostly fish things, and I will change that. There are some veggies that we like that aren't on there and I will add them. That was a great starting point and has the potential of being a great money saver. If you know that next month you are having more meat and it goes on sale, you can get it at a better price. I am all for that! Thanks OP for the site!

Having said all that......we are having HH tonight!!!

 

[neatokimmo]

Having said all that......we are having HH tonight!!!

I like it too. Not every night but every once in awhile, the cheeseburger one is pretty good.

 

[TheRatPack]

I had the same concerns about nutrition when I saw the yearly menu. I said "that's not for us!" but if it works for someone else what do I care? I get to raise my kids how I choose and so do the people less concerned about it. Can't we move on? I have learned a ton from threads like this on this board- even if it's not all my style.

It would be easier to move on when you don't slip in those little snippets that still sound like attacks on people that don't cook to your standards. Was that truly necessary?

 

[TxRabbit]

What kind of containers are you talking about for the storage? My biggest problem is that I love how soft and fluffy regular bread stays and my bread isn't anything like that. I don't know if its the recipe we are using, just how bad we are at cooking or what. I just really dislike crumble bread with a hard crust.

They are called Desidry Stay Fresh. I looked for them online, but I couldn't find the kind I bought. I wonder what that means? I have the bread one that comes up on Amazon as unavailable (accessed only from a google search), and one that is flour or sugar sized, but I put goldfish and other cracker bags in that one. Like a reviewer on Amazon noted, the bread one can be a bit difficult to open, especially if the container isn't on track.

The ones at the Container Store website are the wet version. They are EXCELLENT for tomatoes.

 

[floridascgirl]

Ironically, my DS11 had Hamburger Helper the other night. He actually begged me for it in the grocery last week and I kept saying no (mostly b/c I was embarrased to have it in the cart). I finally gave in and told him to pick the one with the lowest sodium.

He made it for dinner himself (he also had a salad) and reported that it was the best thing he had ever tasted!!!

 

[tonilea]

i know. I still couldn't feed them hamburger helper.

I love a good loss leader, and that menu doesn't make room for them, best I can tell.

LOL We won't eat HH, even if I can get it free w/ coupon/sale combo!

 

[pjlla]

Well.... I must admit... my first reaction on reading the yearly menu in post #1was the overwhelming use of apostrophe "s" where it doesn't belong. But I certainly wasn't going to come over here and rant about it. I'm just pickier (and more aware) about things like that than some people are. (Plus I figure every time I comment on someone else's grammar I am just opening myself up to criticism everytime I have a typo or spelling mistake!)

My second reaction was the menu itself. It is certainly NOT a menu that I would feed my family. But again, I wasn't going to really comment on it. I didn't want to offend anyone and I figured the REAL POINT here was the fact that the woman planned a year of menus... not what the menus contained.

Rather than assuming that the woman doesn't CARE enough to feed her family a healthier menu, maybe we could agree to FEEL BADLY for her and think that perhaps she isn't educated well enough to know that she making some far less-than-healthy choices. There are PLENTY of very smart people in this world who know NOTHING about nutrition. They go along happily feeding their family foods loaded with transfats, sodium, nitrites, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, artificial colorings, and white flour. They NEVER serve a vegetable that isn't coated in butter, Velveta, or cream-of-something soup. They think of french fries with ketchup as TWO servings of vegetables. Rather than be critical of them and their choices, I feel badly for them.

I used to be a frequent visitor to the Budget Board... it was always my first choice here on the Dis. But I got tired of the snippy comments so I started avoiding it.... and now I remember why. But I have enjoyed reading about the IDEA of yearly meal planning and for the recipes and links to other articles..........................P

 

[Mom21]

I'm confused. Guess I am one of the ignorant masses that have no clue how to feed a child. I really didn't see anything that bad about her menu. HH? BELCH but I see it was 2 times a month. I know I eat something not so good for me at least 2 times a month. It's 9:30 am right now and I'm munching on chips Is that a daily thing? No maybe a one time every 6 months thing, but you caught me at a bad time.

I see things like grilled meat, mahi mahi, roasted chicken, etc. I did see potatoes often scheduled with mac and cheese. Maybe though she has some that like pots and some that like mac. I saw some sort of veggie at every meal including lots of salads. And about the potatoes and corn thing...if I make potatoes I better have corn so my dd mixes them together. So she doesn't have 2 servings, it ends up being a smaller portion of each. Soup and grilled cheese? Isn't that common (well not here as dd doesn't like it)? Also tacos seem common. I don't serve them here much as dd doesn't like them. It doesn't say though about her ingredients. Maybe she uses turkey and homemade whole wheat tortillas. Nowhere did it say she loaded her veggies with butter or anything. Homemade pizza? Can make it much healthier that some of that stuff people pick up on Friday nights.

So for those of you that only feed your family healthy menus give us some ideas. I read all of the posts on what people are having for dinner, and it didn't seem any different than the daily posts on here.

So tell me what I'm missing so I can make better meals for my dd. Before anyone jumps on me I might add my dd is a lean, mean fighting machine. She is a competitive athlete that won a gold, a silver, and a bronze yesterday (YEA BABY!!!). She almost always drinks water even when we go out. She will occasionally get a soda. If I have to give her frozen meals (1 or 2 times a week due to schedules) she like Lean Cuisines and Kashi. I know not the best but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do. But in this house we have what I consider normal food. And yes sometimes I throw some Manwich on a bun with some chips and call it dinner---GASP! Doesn't mean I always do it but hey life is busy.

 

[rumrunnergirl]

.

 

[fakereadhed]

It would be easier to move on when you don't slip in those little snippets that still sound like attacks on people that don't cook to your standards. Was that truly necessary?

 

[Heidict]

I haven't had hamburger helper in probably over 15 years. It was a quick, cheap and easy meal though when I was living alone in my early 20's. Now you all have me wanting to get some, but I know I will hate it.

Overall, I don't think her menu was that bad. Some of the food choices weren't my or my families tastes, but it's customized to her family, not mine. If she didn't double up on starches and added some more veggies and more fish, it would probably be a lot healthier.

There is nothing wrong with eating a couple of unhealthy meals every month as long as it's balanced out with healthier food overall. Whether it be HH or hamburger and fries or fried chicken and mac & cheese. Heck at least she's making the burgers at home and not running down to the local fast food place and loading up on that, which is way more unhealthy then homemade.

There is no way that I could make out a menu for a whole year. I have enough difficulty doing it for one week and sticking with it. Things are always changing and I end up only making about 1/2 of what I said I would.

 

[TxRabbit]

I didn't hit the link earlier to the year long meal plan, but after all this talk, and this last post, I just had to. If you are seriously sincere (is that redundant?) in wondering what is nutritionally deficient in her menu, let's take a look at the month of August in the menu. It's pretty and all colorful to look at. LOL.

This is a summer month, eating seasonally, you might expect to see WAY more vegetables. Granted, this is not a kid favorite, especially green ones, but in August, we have ONE salad, FOUR green beans, TWO brocolli, ONE spinach, ONE grilled veggie, ONE with peppers, and ONE fried okra. So, we have veggies being served for dinner for 11 of 31 meals.

That means that two-thirds of dinners have NO veggies.

Sorry, but corn is a grain. And potatoes, while technically a root veggie is generally classified as a starch nutritionally.

The menu is VERY starch/bread heavy. There are combos of a main dish that is bread intensive (sandwich, pasta) served with another bread intensive side (pasta, bread); See these dates 2, 3 17, 21, 25, 30. We see side dish combos that are both starch heavy like potatoes and corn, or potatoes and pasta; See 1, 4, 10, 12, 15, 16, 28, 31 (assuming the fried okra is breaded). Or we see a carb heavy main dish (not necessarily bread-based) combined with a carby side dish; See 6, 11 (either corn or flour tortillas with beans&rice), and possibly 23 (depending on casserole recipe).

That's 17 of 31 meals that are carb INTENSIVE. And not the good fiber filled carbs. Nutritionally, this can be okay, depending on servings and what is being eaten for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

The deal is that this is a typical American menu, and unfortunately, Americans by and large are overweight and malnurished.