New Year , New Habits. Start with a good meal planning.

I know I should have started this year with this blog post, but intentionally I’ve posted a sweet recipe as the first one, just to wish everyone of you, a sweet year ahead 🙂

With the starting of the new year, each one of us makes some vows, willing to fulfil each one of them. For example, my top 5 list is :

  1. Cherish my family and spent good quality time with my loved ones
  2. Be a kind person
  3. Eat well and don’t waste food
  4. Reduce expenses
  5. Lose weight (well, I am so bad at this one haha)

I can assure you that my list is way too longer, but I just wanted to get a point here.

I start my January by making an inventory list of the food I have in my Pantry, Fridge and Freezer. I think, just as me, you buy extra food on December, to be prepared for a good feast for Christmas and the New Year’s dinner. So, despite of the expenses we all end up with a huge amount of food.

That’s why I think that making an inventory list is a great idea. It helps me focus on the food I have and create a list of the meals I’m going to prepare during this month. Being aware of what you have can save you time and money (and you won’t double your groceries).

I love to get to the table with the kids and plan with them our lunches and dinners. Beside of being fun, it makes them aware to eat everything, after all, they’ve chose the meals, right?

After making my January’s inventory list, I realized that I had a lot of food and most probably I won’t go shopping anytime soon (beside of eggs, diary, veggies and fruits of course).

I’ve divided my food supply in 4 main groups:

  • Legumes:

I have in my pantry a lot of beans, chickpeas, lentils (green and red). These will cover my meatless Mondays for about a month. I had also canned legumes for easy and quick dinner side dishes.

  • Grains:

I am fully stocked with quinoa, wheat, millet, rice (basmati, parboiled, sushi rice etc…), rolled oats, whole oats, pounded wheat. So my salads and some of the breakfasts are covered 🙂

  • Meats, Poultry, Fish:

Luckily I have my freezer stocked with chicken breasts, grounded beef, beef steaks, beef chops,  de-shelled shrimps, beef bones, lamb (it’s a small portion leftover lamb leg, but it’s enough for a lunch for 4). So I am ok for my protein filled lunches for this month.

  • Veggies and fruits:

Last but not least, my favourite part of the inventory list are veggies and fruits. Of course the fruits & veggies don’t have  a long shelf life, so you’ll need to get to the groceries shop to refurnish, but  I had stocked my freezer with fresh veggies and fruits while on season. Here I can list a few like: peas, corn on the cob, porcini mushrooms, sugar snap peas and green beans, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, strawberries and cornelian berries.

After my inventory is done, the main focus will be meal planning.

I will do my best to post my meal plan for this month, hoping to help you with the struggle of “What should I cook for tomorrow”.

 

If you want to be part of this journey, just hit Subscribe and you’ll be notified of new postings via email.

So, don’t worry, just bake your day happy 🙂

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discover more from Bake My Day Happy

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading