Vegan MoFo, Day 14: Meal Planning

Almost half way! Is it a glass half full or half empty? I tend to lean towards a glass half empty...because I'm all depressing and shit. No really, I will miss Vegan MoFo when it is gone again. Last year I made a kitschy tribute. Thinking about another one...still rolling it around in my mind. Maybe I'll make a tribute painting.

ANYWAY, welcome to the weekend! Hello, friend. I've missed you. Weekends are such fair weather friends...the bastards.

Today, I thought I would let you into my meal-planning world. How do I think up my vegan meals each week? What is my strategy?

First off, I carry around a small notebook that I got from Barnes & Noble. It's always in my work bag, along with my planner and some other junk. Notebooks, to me, are awesomeness. Without them, I'm just a loser in life.

Right now, during Vegan MoFo, I try to plan around 3 or maybe 4 "foodie" posts, but during normal weeks, I try to keep in mind what I already have on hand. That's one thing I have been working on this past year--stocking my pantry (because pantries are equally as awesome as notebooks!) and making sure to use up some of the stuff in there weekly. I've been making a big pot of beans each Sunday that I store in the cooking liquid and use all week. I have some black beans right now that are destined for some super-fun burgers on Sunday...you'll have to check back to see!

Also, I get a lot of magazines in the mail. "A lot," in this case, equals 10. Except for VegNews and Vegetarian Times, I go through the magazines and cut out recipes that are vegan/vegetarian OR that I know I can veganize. Did you see those white binders on the bottom of my cookbook shelf? That's full of magazine clippings and web print-outs. It's pretty fun, actually.

I take these ideas and form a menu out of things I want to try that are within (mostly) my budget and use some of the items I already have on hand.

{as you can see, I make a lot of changes...}

And since I'm usually just cooking for myself, the leftovers instantly become my lunch the next day. I love the Sundays that I make a big dish, though. Sometimes the extras last all week.

I also try to use coupons. We don't usually save any more than about 15% of our grocery bill, but that's 15% that we didn't have to spend. Sometimes we use coupons for items that we don't regularly buy, but it's more often for products we use weekly. Since I changed my mailing address for my Dillons PlusCard account, I got an awesome packet in the mail yesterday. It has tons of awesome coupons, like $5 off any $50 transaction (pretty much a given) and $1 off $5 in produce (also a given). RAD!

What do you do to plan meals? Do you have kids, and if so, do you think it is easier or more difficult to meal plan?

Jes

PS--Holy shiz, check out this new post from Laura at Vegansaurus! Leslie Hall is frakking awesome, and I kind of want to be her for Halloween. And she's vegan!!!! Hells to the yes.

PSS--Sleepy Doggie Cutenesssss.