Meal Plan 9/27: Less Meaty, More Snacky

For the past couple weeks now I haven’t been doing a very good job of sticking to my meal plan. I didn’t actually make a single one of the items on last weeks meal plan.

I’ve been keeping the house well stocked with foods I can use to make a variety of items on this list from Cheap Healthy Good: Last-Minute Little Dinners for One: Tips, Ideas, and 25 Recipes.

That stock includes things like eggs, cheese, hummus, fresh and frozen veggies, fresh fruit, beans, rice, pasta, and breads like bagels, English muffins, pitas, and tortillas.

I love meat and I don’t think I’ll ever become a vegetarian but I’ve noticed that I’m only pulling meat out of the freezer to cook one night a week and that usually makes 2-4 servings that I spread out over the course of the week. I’m also still eating meat when I eat out (3 times over the course of the last 7 days which represents a typical week) so I’m averaging one or fewer servings of meat per day.

Other than 2 packs of bacon (free after coupons and sales at Safeway) and 2 pounds of ground turkey (really great buy one, get one free sale at Safeway), I haven’t replenished my meat supply since my Costco trip in early July and I still have a few more weeks worth of that chicken and beef from Costco before I need to get more.

Cooking at home for one for about 85% of my meals, I’m currently using meat at a rate of about 1lb per week. This lower rate has translated to significant savings on groceries. I’m estimating a savings of $10-15 per week per person just by cutting my meat eating to a third of what it used to be.

Interestingly, this less meaty and more snacky style of eating has lead to some fairly significant weight loss without really trying. A few days ago I noticed that my staple pair of jeans, the pair that I thought was the only pair I owned that fit right and that I’ve been wearing 5-7 days a week for over a year, is now sagging off me and it turns out that all my old favorites (that haven’t fit in 3 or 4 years) are fitting nicely again. I’m also firmly under my driver’s license weight which is what I weighed when I was 16.

So meal plans from now until whenever my eating habits change again will include a couple ideas for recipes to make when I do cook but those are just ideas to remind me what recipes I’m craving and what I need to buy at the store so that I have everything for those recipes in the house.

• Chicken fajitas
• Baking: Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting from Real Simple magazine (cross your fingers that canned pumpkin is in stock this week)

Related posts:
Meal Plan 3/29
How to Make a Meal Plan
Meal Plan 11/1
Meal Plan 12/6
Meal Plan 3/22

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