Stocking Up: Veggie Vs. Meat Based Meal Prep for Lean Times

I’ve seen some things. From almost being homeless more than once, to being unemployed for a stretch of six months. Going to the food pantry because I couldn’t afford groceries. Having $0 in savings while paying off $126K worth of debt. It’s not been an easy road. But I’ve learned a few things along the way to soften the blow when I’ve seen lean times. In this post I’ll talk about those lessons, and also ways you can plan in advance for running your household with things like meal prep, that will help to lessen uncertainty during difficult times.

Realizing You Need a Plan

When I first realized I had a cornucopia of debt, I took the deep dive into my budget and where my funds were going. I found that I was eating out and drinking to excess. With beer, mixed drinks and coffee costing $8 plus a pop, going out to dinner could cost up to $110 for two people. If you go out two times a week, it adds up. A conservative estimate is about $11K a year. If you’re making less than $40K like I was before I decided to take my career seriously, you’re running at a deficit. That was a little more than a quarter of my annual salary. No wonder I had so much debt. So how did I go from being in the red to abundance? It started in the kitchen.

Stocking Your Stores

Prepping Your Pantry

This isn’t a post about your budget. That said, saving money on your groceries will help you stretch your food funds. And going vegetarian is something that helped me significantly to reduce my grocery bill. Asides from the health benefits, lentils and rice cost less than meat. I did an intensive shopping list for both meat and veggie based eating, and the price difference is considerable. The criteria I used is, 30 days of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, using Instacart for Market Basket, the cheapest local grocery store in my area, shopping store brands when available, and I tried to keep the same recipes, but subbing veggie alternatives for the meat in the meat based recipes to make them vegetarian. And if there wasn’t a good substitute, I chose a veggie recipe I make regularly. The recipes I used are linked in the recipe names below, and I got the suggested serving sizes for meat based meals here. Here are the shopping lists:

Notes on building the shopping lists:

I didn’t add many snacks and drinks since they are personal preference, and I went with popular options for the ones listed. All lunches are the same for brevity’s sake and I used coffee for a morning beverage since it’s the most popular. I also left out some ingredients/sides for meals. For example, rice as a side for porkchops. I put the rice in the shopping list, knowing there would be more than what is needed for the fried rice recipe, and the remainder can be used as a side for other meals. I also assumed that you have some pantry staples like spices and cooking oils. The shopping list is organized by ingredient / brand name. For example, 1lbs margarin (the ingredient) / Imperial (the brand, and SB means Store Brand). Some of the recipes have links, but the basics don’t, like cereal and eggs. The recipes are underlined and italicized with the servings listed to their right. I.e., Banana Bread Servings 8.

Meat ‖ Veggie

Recipes

The difference is drastic. Per month meat eaters spend about $75 more than their veggie counterparts. This may not seem like a lot, but that’s almost $900 more on groceries a year as compared to veggie shoppers. That’s a lot of money. And if you go out to eat in the Boston area, where I live, it’s even more expensive.

Eating Out

At a local pub, the cheapest burger and two domestic beers will cost around $32 with a 20% tip. The veggie Rubin and two domestic beers at the same restaurant costs $28 with a 20% tip. If you go out once a week that adds up. $138 a month, $1,651 annually for meat eaters, and $120 a month, $1,445 a year for veg heads. That’s not including your AM coffee habit. At Starbucks, a peppermint mocha, my old go-to, costs roughly $8 with a $1 tip. If you get coffee out twice a week that’s $64 a month, $768 a year. For context, one year’s worth of coffees using these criteria could buy you 3 month’s of groceries.

Totals =

Add them all together, the morning coffee ritual, our monthly grocery bill, and our weekly meal out, and we’re spending a lot on food. About $534 a month and $6,408 annually for meat eaters, and $442 a month and $5,304 annually for vegetarians. That’s an eleven hundred dollar difference between meat and veggie meals. And if we figure the costs between cooking at home and eating out, for meat eaters you can save $2,422, and veg eaters about the same, $2,213, And that’s for one person! And please don’t take this as marching orders to deprive yo’self of your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant with your favorite friends. Only think about your budget before you go, and ask yourself, “do I really want to go out? Or am I just doing it to do it?”

A New Recipe for Eating Well & Saving Money

Luckily, if you learn how to cook, and exercise some self discipline, the food you make will be better than the restaurants you go to. And you can buy a travel mug to bring your morning coffee with you. If you really want to, you can make or buy your own chocolate syrup for your morning mocha. I have a lot of restaurant experience, so I know how to cook. But if your not practiced in the kitchen, don’t worry. Cooking well is a skill you can develop. The more you cook, the better you’ll understand what you like while honing your skill. This will result in tastier meals

One of the ways that I’ve found that helps me to keep my food budget in check is batch cooking. I like to cook, which helps. It’s relaxing to me if I take it slow and one thing at a time. I’m taking care of myself by making the things I enjoy. But I also think this mindset stems from my mother working long hours and cooking large batches so we could eat all week while she was busy at work supporting us. Also working in restaurants and cooking for hundreds of people daily is something I’ve been doing for a long time. Only now I’m doing it for myself.

Cooking at Home

When I went veggie I needed to get new recipes. Luckily I found Minimalist Baker‘s site. Along with her recipes being super flavorful, she has loads of options for people with all sorts of food restrictions. Most of them plant based as well. This is perfect for me and my needs. My method for batch cooking? Pick a day, three to four recipes, make a shopping list, shop only for what I need, then when the day comes, put on some tunes and start cooking. So let’s jump in with the prep work.

Meal Prep

When putting together your menu for your meal prep cooking session, it’s good to find sites with recipes that speak to your palate. This way you’ll know you’ll have a place to go where you’ll like the meals you’re choosing. My friend and the former owner of a local bakery/cafe loves the site Love & Lemons. Another idea I hadn’t thought of until my parents turned me onto it, is picking recipes from the cookbooks you already have on your shelves. This seems like such a no-brainer. And it is. But if you’re like me you’re so used to going to the internet for all your recipes (and everything else) that you’ve been completely neglecting the recipes that are on your book shelves. Also, If you’re used to cooking the same recipes on repeat, this is a good way to switch things up a bit.

When it comes to meal prep, I usually choose three to four recipes each session. But for the sake of this article I’ll be focusing on one recipe. If you like ramen, this coconut curry ramen from Minimalist Baker is a great place to start, and the recipe I’ll be using below. It’s easy, uses simple and cheap ingredients, and tastes amazing.

What’s the Yield?

The first thing to do is find the recipe’s yield, aka how much food one batch will make. I usually double or triple the recipe, and freeze half to rotate into my weekly meals for variety. If you go this route, it’s good to check the yield so you know what you’ll be freezing and the space you’ll need in your fridge. This recipe doesn’t list a specific volume, but if you add the ingredients up for a triple batch, you get roughly 22 cups. That’s 1.25 gallons including the noodles and other add-ins. That’s a lot of soup. Good thing we did the math. Otherwise the fridge would be overflowing with soup. And here’s a bonus recipe for marinated soft boiled eggs that I love as an added treat for your tastebuds.

Shopping List

When you make your meal prep list, it’s good practice to list only the ingredients you need. Before I started cooking my meals with intention, I would go to the store and throw items in my cart without a plan. I bought the same items week after week, not having a recipe to put them in. I think this is normal for a lot of folks. But it leads to food waste, which equals throwing money away. And if you cook every night without a plan, you may not have any idea of what’s in your pantry, which equals not have the ingredients you’ll need and a stressful run to the store, mid-meal prep. Add wrangling the kids for the trip… No bueno. So let’s take a look at how we put together our shopping list.

Buying Only What You Need for Meal Prep

The ramen recipe calls for two onions, something you can get in the bulk bins to avoid having to buy a five pound bag. Your grocery bill will be lower, and you’ll waste less food. Win, win. But if you do have to buy a lot of an ingredient, but don’t need all of it for your meal prep cooking session, try getting items that store well, like onions. Foods like root vegetables, canned goods and preserved foods are examples of foods with long shelf lives. For example if you need to replace the berries for your oatmeal for whatever reason, you can sub preserves for fresh, which stay indefinitely in the fridge. And you can meal prep oatmeal as well and store it in your fridge. Just remember to add some liquid to the pan while reheating, and cover the pan.

And speaking of buying what you need, for the ramen recipe, Dana calls for rice noodles. I like rice noodles, but depending where you go and how much you need, they may be more expensive and sold in units that are more than what you need. Which means you’ll have a package of partially used noodles, as I do right now, in your pantry for a long, long time. I’ve had one package of rice noodles in my pantry for maybe two years (update, I broke into the package and am using them for this recipe).

For ramen I like the classic Maruchan noodles. They taste good, they’re filling, and they cost .35₵ a pack. And you’re able to buy only the number of servings you need. Plus they come with a pack of stock that you can toss into the soup for some of the broth that the recipe calls for (not to mention I feel like Harrison Ford in “Blade Runner” while eating them). Another win. And you don’t always have to follow the recipe to a T. Improvision and tailoring it to your tastes is where you’ll find and develop the recipes you’ll love making, and want to pass along to your family and friends. What next?

Cook & Storage

I usually pick a day every two weeks or so and batch cook/meal prep, doubling or tripling the three to four recipes I chose. After cooking, I store my meals in Ball jars. I like being able to see my food in the fridge, all lined up like little colorful soldiers ready to feed me. The jars freeze well, and each one has about two-three servings, sometimes four, so I know how many meals I have left by looking at them. Also, I didn’t realize this when I started using Ball jars, but when you put warm or hot things in them, and put the lids on right away and let them cool, the lids hermetically seal. Knowledge that was common place 75 years ago but I had to learn over again by accident. Listen to your elders, or better yet, ask them to cook with you!

It also makes your food last longer if unopened¹. My leftovers have lasted me for weeks, if not a month plus if unopened. I don’t know exactly how long because I use them before they go bad, but that’s still pretty impressive.

Cleaning Up

When you think about it, I’m not doing anything new. Farmers do the same when they can and put up their harvest for the winter. I’m following their lead and adapting my meal prep to city living. Urban homesteading, guarding against a loss of job or planning for emergencies.

I hope I’ve convinced you to give your food budge a little more consideration, if not to go veg completely. It’s not only better for your wallet, but also your physical and mental health, knowing you’re prepared incase you fall on tough times. But also meal prep can be fun, especially if you have someone to share the load with. Let me know if you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes in the comments. I’d love to hear about them and what you’re doing in the kitchen. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in two weeks when I talk about cleaning up around the house. Peace & thanks for reading 🏔️🌙🕯️

1. I know some of you are freaking out right now (like my dad). I took Servesafe classes many times and I know the risks of not sterilizing your vessels. That being said, use non-sterilized jars at your own risk. Here’s a link to some food safety procedures if you are worried about bacteria growth. After reading apparently you don’t have to sterilize the jars after each use. Just a good wash and use a new lid. But if you have any questions, ask a professional. I am not an expert on food safety and this article should not be used for sanitation guildlines. ↩︎