Pantry and Menu Lists

As I mentioned earlier I read a lot of weblogs from SAHMs and they seem to treasure sharing their weekly menus; this seems to be a big help for them. I gather they use this menu to do their weekly shopping. I shopped this way when I still relied heavily on recipes and found it to be quite expensive. These days I keep a pantry stocked of ingredients I know how to make into meals, as advised by my Tightwad Gazette newsletters. My pantry list here in England is slightly different to what I used in the US, but having a starting point was helpful for me, so I'll share my pantry list with you:

Vegetables
Broccoli
Carrots
Frozen peas
Instant mashed potatoes
Onions
Bell peppers
Potatoes
Swede (turnip)
Tinned tomatoes
Others as in season

Dairy
UHT skimmed milk
Dry/powdered milk
Margarine
Eggs
Cheese

Beverages
Coffee
Hot chocolate
Diet tonic / lemonade / cola
Tea

Fruits
Bananas
Apples
Mandarin oranges (tinned)
Fruit cocktail (tinned)
Pineapple (tinned)
Olives
Others as in season

Grains
White flour, plain
Strong white flour
Strong wholemeal (wheat) flour
Popcorn
Rice
Wheatgerm
Oatmeal
Cornmeal

Baking
Vegetable oil
Olive oil
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Shortening
Yeast (machine and hand)
Sunflower seeds
Nuts
Raisins / Currants
Soy flour
Sugar
Gelatin
Cornstarch
Vinegar
Sprinkles
Food colourings
Vanilla

Condiments
Catsup
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Honey
Marmalade
Pickles
Jam
Garlic bulbs

Juices
Orange
Lemon
Grape
Apple
Cranberry

Legumes
Peanut butter
Dried beans
Lentils
Tinned beans
Tinned kidney beans

Meats / Poultry
Chicken
Turkey
Ground beef
Bacon / sausages
Pepperoni
Corned beef

Fish
Canned tuna
Canned salmon
Frozen miscellaneous white fish

Pasta
Pasta shapes (Bill hates spaghetti)

Seasonings
Bouillon cubes (all flavours)
Soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato paste / puree
Herbs & spices

We buy other items when they are on sale or for a special occasion, but these are the ingredients I try to always have around. I do a big shop at a green market once a month for fresh vegetables, which we prefer. When those begin to run out, we fill in with frozen and tinned veg until the next shop. I aim to keep topped up on other items from stores within walking distance. When this doesn't keep up, I use the car and stock up from several sources.

Then, being spoiled for choice with all this bounty and wanting to eat healthily and with variety, I drew up a rota for protein choices over 10 days. This aimed to eat red meat once a week or less, eat fish twice a week, have more vegetarian meals, low fat, etc. The 10-day rota I developed is:

Beans - Poultry - Fish - Beans - Cheese - Fish - Veggie - Meat - Beans - Eggs

Side dishes or casserole ingredients usually include a starch or grain (eg potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous) and vegetables. To make it easier to cook with dried beans, I'll soak and cook these up in advance, usually in the crockpot, and freeze portions for future use. I don't usually serve individual vegetables but instead fill a steamer basket with combinations of red, yellow, green and white vegetables. I do occasionally make a pie or cake, but if I do desserts at all they are most likely to be sliced or pureed fruit with or without whipped cream.

For each of these protein/main courses, I know one or two dead easy recipes. When we get bored with those, I look through my recipe books or use http://www.allrecipes.com/. The ingredient search on that website allows you to specify what you want to include and exclude from a recipe, which is brilliant.

We don't slavishly follow this list and of course many dishes include more than one source of protein, eg quiche or chili with beans. I like my system because I have something to look at for ideas. Then I just dig around in the cupboards or freezer to see what sort of fish or beans surface first. The race to eat the fruit and veg before it goes off makes us easily get a healthy number of servings; if all else fails I cook and freeze the surplus in soups or casseroles rather than throw it away.

Over the past 6 months, we have averaged just under £100 a month for our food. This has fed Bill and me and includes Thanksgiving dinner for 10, Christmas dinner for 6 and a few dinner parties for 4-6 people.