Welcome to Afghan Dastarkhwan: Eating Healthy on a budget in the United States.
This video focuses on saving money by meal planning. Meal planning is when you plan out the food you need for a certain period of time, usually a week. By planning your meals before you shop for food, you can save money, eat healthy, and reduce food waste. You can also spend less time at the grocery store.
Meal planning is simple. First you check what food ingredients you already have in your home. Then you look for food sales and coupons you can use. Based on this, you decide on the meals and snacks you will have for the week. Finally, you make a shopping list.
Let’s go over this again.
1. Check what food ingredients you already have in your home.
Use the food you have at home before buying new food. This can be food in your freezer, stored or canned food, or other ingredients. If you use a food pantry, plan your meals after receiving your food so you can use those ingredients in your meal planning. If you are not familiar with food pantries, they are organizations that give bags or boxes of food to people in need. When you plan your meals around the food you already have, you spend less.
2. Look for food sales and coupons.
Before planning your meals for the week, look for what is on sale or what coupons may be available. You can find a list of weekly deals or coupons online, or in your local coupon booklet from the mail, or the grocery shop itself.
3. Decide on the meals and snacks you will have.
Now that you know what food you already have and what might be on sale, you can plan your meals. People usually plan for a week. Make sure you plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and for snacks. Choose ingredients and meals that you can repeat or repurpose for other meals.
For example, you may be able to get a whole chicken and use the ingredients for several meals. Or you may plan several meals with a vegetable that is on sale or beans that you can buy in bulk. Here is what this can look like:
Monday you can have Kaddo Bourani - pumpkin with Yogurt sauce - as a healthy side dish with your meat or bean protein.
Tuesday you use the uncooked left-over pumpkin to make pumpkin soup.
Later in the week you can use up the remaining pumpkin to make Challaw Kadu (Pumpkin with Meat and Yogurt Sauce and Rice). It can also help you save money if you plan to have at least one stew or soup that can be easily reheated as leftovers or be frozen for later. Because meat can be expensive, consider planning only a few meat-based meals a week.
4. Make your shopping list.
Now that you know the meals you plan to have, you can create a shopping list. Look at each meal and snack you have planned and write down the ingredients you need to buy. You can also use your phone to record your list using your voice. This will be your grocery list that you take with you when shopping, so you know what to buy. Some people even prefer to organize their grocery list by sections of the grocery store like “fruit and vegetables” or “dairy” so it’s easier to find the items and not get distracted by grocery items not on the list. Having a grocery list and a meal plan are important ways to make sure your family eats well and on a budget.
Be sure and watch all the videos in our video series on eating healthy on a budget in the US.
3 апр 2024
