How I Meal Plan Without Meal Planning

The 25 Must-Have Ingredients for Cheap, Easy and Delicious Meals

I learned meal planning from my mom, bless her heart! (Texan speak for “Oy”) She would pull out cookbooks and start finding recipes then make meal plans. There were 552 ingredients to buy each week because there wasn’t any continuity amongst ingredients and then many of them went to waste. She to this day hates cooking.

I guess I would too if I hadn’t figured out a different way and today I’m happily sharing with you exactly what I do.

Meal Planning Without Meal Planning

My way was born out of necessity. We were living in Napa Valley, where I had access to the absolute freshest ingredients, but we had no money. We moved there literally on a prayer with no job and no home with 2 small boys. Though my husband got a job in the wine industry as was the plan, it barely paid the rent.

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So I asked a local farm if they would leave me a free box of veggies from their CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture) in exchange for me gathering other families to buy the boxes. They agreed and I had fresh veggies waiting for me on the porch each Thursday.

Chicken, ground beef and eggs were the main sources of protein and along with the veggies, would form my meal plans. The secret “sauce” to making meals that were super delicious even on the cheap were these 25 essential ingredients. As long as I had most of them on hand at any given time, I could make dinners that the whole family, including 4- & 8-year-old boys, loved.

Categories

Some items in the list below are more like categories, and you don’t have to have every item in every category, except spices…a good spice cabinet will make you a GREAT home cook.

Spices

Theres a short list of spices I always have in a separate post so visit here for the list plus 11 of my favorite easy DIY spice blend recipes.

Baking Aisle

• Sweeteners - Your choice: coconut sugar, organic cane sugar, maple syrup and/or honey. I use maple syrup and coconut sugar the most.

• Flour - This is going to be a personal choice, in my house I have Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour and assorted grain free flours. If you tolerate gluten, my rec is to have organic unbleached flour on hand. You can use it in everything and it’s free of chemicals and additives.

• Nuts - I keep several kinds of nuts but use organic peauts, sliced almonds and walnuts the most.

• Nut Butters - The nut butter I use most is Kirkland Organic Valencia Peanut Butter (it’s the cheapest and cleanest I’ve found) followed by cashew butter but only rarely.

Condiments

• Avocado Oil - I use this for cooking since you can cook at very high temps. For best health, avoid canola, vegetable, grapeseed and other seed oils.

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - I use EVOO for salad dressings, drizzling over cooked veggies and cooking at low temps. Costco has one of my favorites.

• Mayonnaise (Primal Kitchen is the cleanest no-soy brand use code RFSVIP for 10% off order)

• Dijon Mustard - Trader Joe’s or other store brands are good and cheaper than Grey Poupon. This is a go-to for salads and quick fish dishes.

• Ketchup - Find a natural or organic ketchup without high fructose corn syrup or artifical sweeteners. Better yet one without any sweeteners. (Primal Kitchen has a no sugar version that tastes great without any fake sugars)

• Green Chiles - I use the 505 brand medium (mild works too) combined with canned whole organic tomatoes to make salsa in under 5 minutes. It tastes as good or better than any you will buy and is so much cheaper.

• Coconut Aminos - Soy free sub for soy sauce and tamari. Feel free to use organic soy sauce or tamari if you tolerate gluten. Non-organic soy products have tons of pesticides and herbicides and are GMO. This may be in Asian foods. Trader Joe’s brand is by far the cheapest but this one on Amazon is almost as good a deal.

• Chile Garlic Sauce or Sriracha - Chile garlic sauce is sugar free and Sriracha has some form of sweetener depending on brand. This may be in Asian foods.

• Toasted Sesame Oil - This is one of two secret ingredients for making fried rice which is my favorite way to make a last-minute pantry meal. This may be in Asian foods.

• Vinegars - Apple Cider Vinegar can be used in almost anything but consider these others, too, for a well-rounded pantry:

  • Balsamic - slightly sweet and mild it’s great for drizzling over grilled meats, salads, and even berries

  • Red Wine, White Wine, Champagne or Sherry - I personally only keep Sherry vinegar because it can be used in place of red wine vinegar but has a more interesting flavor.

  • Rice Wine Vinegar - This one is cheap but really necessary for making Asian dishes. The other secret to fried rice. This may be in Asian foods.

Dry Goods/Canned Goods

• Organic Tomato Products - whole tomatoes and tomato paste (Tip: look for it in a tube)

• Chicken Broth - I think we all know the myriad of uses for chicken broth. I try to keep one box on hand just in case. I’m not a bone broth drinker. If you are you will want to keep more on hand.

• Pasta - Whether you eat gluten or not, having dry pasta around means you have dinner in 15-20 minutes. My favorite GF pasta is Trader Joe’s brown rice but corn blends from Italy are great too and can be found at many stores, especially Aldi’s

• Jasmine Rice - I won’t go into the health reasons why I don’t eat brown rice (maybe another post…or ask me on the chat…see below) but I do have rice on hand at all times. My rice cooking method doesn’t require a rice cooker but comes out great every. single. time.

  Use 1 cup rice to 1.5 cups water. Add a pinch of salt and a drizzle of avocado oil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed then remove from heat then place a clean kitchen towel between the lid and pan. Let sit for 5-10 minutes then fluff with fork.

• Canned Fish - This is the biggest life saver when I’ve exhausted the meat/fish/chicken supply in my fridge. I have 4 cans of tuna always and sometimes salmon. If you're really adventurous, go for other canned fish. It’s one of the best protein sources and stays good for years.

Proteins (other than canned fish)

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts - there are cheaper cuts, but I find I just don’t use them. Frozen chicken breasts can be cooked in the Instant Pot for 12 minutes so I end up going to this at least once or twice a month.

• Ground Beef or Turkey - I can use either of these a million different ways so I’m never without them.

• Eggs - This is the most versatile complete protein and by far the cheapest. So many ways to use eggs for making a complete meal whether breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

• Wild Caught Fish - I can literally have a complete meal from freezer to table in 20 minutes. This is a more expensive protein, but frozen fish is the freshest you can buy and sometimes less than the rising cost of beef depending on where you live. Wild shrimp is about the same as beef here in Texas.

Produce

• Onions - I always have 2 yellow onions. Almost any meal starts with an onion. Feel free to use other colors as well but yellow is usually the cheapest.

• Garlic - Either full heads which you get to peel and chop or the already peeled garlic cloves in a box or bag, these you just have to chop or mince in a mini food processor. You can also keep frozen cubes on hand for ease. (Doirot is one brand but there are others)

• Citrus - Limes or Lemons. These along with salt will amp up almost any dish and is integral in some sauces and dressings.

How I Meal Plan Without Meal Planning

Here’s how meal planning goes for me:

1. Keep the PDF below on my fridge (scroll down and click button)

2. Buy vegetables (Grocery Tip: Farmers’ Market produce is awesome as are local veggie boxes, but I realize that’s not possible for all. At grocery stores, look for what’s on sale…that’s usually what’s seasonal and freshest! Check out this beautiful post from

   Hetty Lui McKinnon
   of
   To Vegetables, With Love
   for both sides of the story.)

3. Mix and match proteins, veggies and the essential ingredients to form meals

Usually by the end of the week, the fridge is getting bare since I just buy what is needed for that week. I’ve found with this plan I save so much money over just buying what sounds good or planning meals from random recipes. I make sure everything I make requires nothing more than what’s on the list above plus seasonal vegetables.

Here’s this week:

Want four meal plans made with only two proteins planned FOR you each week complete with grocery list and recipes? Click here.