this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Starting at planning menus - Any advice? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 15 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I'm looking to have tasty and balanced food while maintaining a reasonable budget and being more organised.
I know how to cook. I already have tasty yet not complicated meals I'm use to make but I never needed to be organised about it before.

So I decided to start to write menu in advance, do a some meal prepping probably a bit of batch cooking.
I found resources online to start following a plan but maybe you have advices for the beginner that I am.

Thank you!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago
  1. Look at the grocery ad and pick one or two items on sale that you can use to cook a meal you'll enjoy.
  2. Add all of the ingredients to your cart.
  3. Write down all of the ingredients that won't be used entirely by your meal. For instance, maybe you need to buy milk but will only use 1C, or will buy an onion but only use half of it.
  4. Create a different meal that includes those ingredients. Add any additional ingredients you'll need to your cart.
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 until you have a week's worth of meals with zero waste.

Example: I want to make tacos, so I add:

  • Ground turkey.
  • Tortillas.
  • Cheddar cheese.
  • Romaine lettuce.
  • Red onion.

I'll have plenty of everything left over except the ground turkey. Maybe my 2nd meal will be a salad to use the romaine, red onion, and cheddar. But I would have to buy chicken breast and garlic bread.

So I'll have tortillas, chicken breast, and garlic bread left. Maybe I can make spaghetti w/ garlic bread and chicken caesar wraps.

Rinse and repeat.