Is it just me or are evenings getting shorter?
Short evenings are bad news for working parents
who have to get home, make sure homework is done, meals are made and eaten,
dishes are done after the meal, baths are taken etc! All this has to be done
between 6pm and 10pm. As if that wasn’t tough enough, we now have permanent
traffic to worry about. Thanks to traffic, some days you will get home at
around 8PM or 9PM. So what should we cut from the evening and what should we
keep? Surely we can’t cut baths or homework! Good news is we can do something
to reduce the time it takes to prepare meals and that is where meal planning
comes in.
Basically, meal planning is the planning of the
menu for the next few days or even an entire month. It involves meals to be
prepared as well as the items needed to be purchased in order to prepare that
food.
Benefits of meal planning
ü Saves
you the time you would need to run to the shop everyday to grab items to cook
ü Saves
you the headache of thinking what dish could be made with the one tomato and
three potatoes you have in your pantry.
(Ever gone home and tried making a meal from what you have and the only thing
you have is dania? SMH!)
ü You
plan for healthy and delicious meals
ü You
can plan for variety (Has your son ever asked you why school food is better
than yours? Heartbreaking right?)
ü It
is cheaper in the long run
ü You
only buy the foods you plan to cook so food is not wasted
For how long should one plan?
This depends on the time it takes for you to go
shopping. If you shop weekly especially for vegetables you can make weekly meal
plans or make a two week plan then replenish what you run out of after a week.
Steps to meal planning;
Making
a menu for a week or two
When making your menu, remember to pick foods that
require equipment you already own.
Make
a shopping list
Use the menu you made in step one to determine the
items you need to buy. Check what you have in the house and add the items you
don’t have to the list.
Make your list flexible enough to be able to
substitute items just in case you don’t get what you planned for and to take
advantage of any bargains you find at the shop/market.
Actual
Shopping
Choose a shop or market where you can get all the
items on your list. If possible, do your shopping on a market day. That way you
get the freshest items and you also get variety.
Another tip is to eat before you go shopping.
Going shopping on an empty stomach makes you buy a lot of unhealthy junk food
and you also don’t stick to your shopping list.
If possible, buy foods you consume frequently in
bulk because it is cheaper that way. Another trend I have noticed coming up is
food chamas. This is where a few, say eight people, make a budget to buy food
in bulk then divide it amongst themselves. This makes it a lot cheaper because
when you buy sugar in a bag you get a better price.
Pre
prepare
When you get home, chop the foods that can be
stored chopped e.g. meat, sort items that need sorting and boil whatever that
can be boiled e.g. beans and githeri.
When storing food in the fridge, divide it into
portions your family consumes in a meal. E.g. if your family eats around ½ kg
of meat in a meal, freeze meat in ½ kg portions.
Cook
perishables first
Some foods don’t keep for long even when put in
the fridge. Cook those foods first. Later on, you can use the freezable foods
and other foods that are not perishable.
