Budget Friendly Meal Planning Tips

Over the last two weeks I have had the honor to work on the meal plan for our Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training which begins tomorrow. Two years ago, when we had our last training, the meal planning felt like a daunting task - managing the budget, variety, dietary restrictions while offering hearty, nutrient dense meals.  An angel in our community made the brilliant suggestion to focus each day on a different type of cuisine. She made a list of different flavor profiles, ingredients and recipes and we were off with a solid, exciting meal plan with a good bit of variety.  Making notes on what worked and didn't during each week of training helped me prepare for this year's course.  While we are cooking on a larger scale, these are tips you can apply to meal planning whether it's for yourself or your family.  Meal planning helps to save money because we can focus on sale and in season items and when we know what we are cooking for the week, there is less temptation to eat out or grab something on the run. 

Here are a few more of my meal planning tips:

• Trying different cuisines throughout the week brings in variety and encourages us to try new foods. During training we pull from Mediterranean, Latin, East Asian, Indian & American influences.
• Plan for simpler meals on the busier days and make something more ambitious when you have the time. I love making enchiladas, but it takes a couple of hours so I save this for a Sunday afternoon.
• If you do a weekly grocery run, consider using leafy greens or items that may wilt faster toward the beginning of the week and heartier items toward the end of the week
• Look for common ingredients across recipes. We have all purchased celery for a recipe only to use 2 stalks and have the rest wilting in the fridge.  I like to make a soup toward the end of the week to use up left over veggies and herbs. Something simple like a lentil soup is a great base for the extra carrots, onions, celery, cilantro and other veggies that may still be in the crisper at the end of the week. Soup is quick, easy and forgiving - a nice thing to have cooking away on the stove while you spend time with your family or finishing up work.

I would love to hear from you too, what are your meal planning tips?