Meal Planning 101

Once upon a time there was this beautiful princess…ur…lovely young…uhh…mildly exhausted…

Ok…Once upon a time there was a seriously burnt out housewife.

She spent her day raising her beautiful yet messy boys, washing laundry, cleaning spills and trying to keep her sanity all at the same time. And although she was wickedly brilliant (was) and in her pre-children life, tidy and organized (with way perkier boobs), she was too exhausted by suppertime to make the simple decision of what to cook.

Sound familiar?

Ok confession time. This was me…I know…you must be shocked.

I hate deciding what to cook. Seriously. HATE. IT. After a long day at work I have no decision-making capacity left. I’m curious how many of us are driving home with only one thought in our tired little heads;

Meal planning was not a quick fix for me. I went on and off of them a few times before the system stuck. But I can honestly say I would be lost without the meal plans now.

Meal planning did four things for me.

1. It brought my shopping bills down.

2. We have much less wasted food.

3. I am not plagued with the mealtime decisions at my most tired time of day.

4. We were not opting to Eat Out as frequently.

The first thing I do is pull out the family calendar. I plan for two weeks at a time. I look at all our weekly activities and choose meals that will work with our schedule. Wednesdays are our busiest days so I usually opt for a crockpot supper that evening. I also look at what will be leftover from one day to another. If it’s a beef roast on Monday, then we will probably have beef barley soup on Tuesday. Another factor is what items expire quickly in the fridge. I find that things like spinach won’t last for two weeks so I will schedule anything containing food with a shorter lifespan earlier in the plan.

The next thing I do is pull out the shopping list. I make my shopping list at the same time I make the meal plan. Then I know I have all the ingredients to make everything on the schedule. This was one of my biggest hang-ups before adopting a meal planning. I wouldn’t have all the supplies required to make slam together a supper option and this often lead to us ordering in. A costly compromise.

My boys are responsible for cooking on Mondays, so it’s up to them to make sure they know all the ingredients they need and that those items hit the grocery list. Their responsibility to cook a meal each week has brought more diversity to our meal plan (after I ruled out choosing pizza or subs every time). They are interested in trying things they find online or see on TV. I love it!

The nice part about the plan is no matter what, you have your supplies. Maybe on Tuesday I don’t feel like cooking a lasagne or something came up and I need a quicker meal, I can simply swap it for another day. I can also have some of the prep done the night before if I feel so inclined.

I’ve seen some fantastic meal play display boards and meal planning guides– mostly on Pinterest. Some are quite elaborate. Some a little too complicated to be considered a time saver. There is a great printable chart at StrawberryMommyCakes. Personally, I just jot it down on my calendar with the rest of our life events.

One thing I find helpful is a list of meal ideas (I know…another list). Most of us are rotating about 15-20 meal ideas. It’s a good way to keep track of what you like as well as the items that weren’t hits in your household. If there are meals that are the go to for last minute meals then make sure those ingredients are staples in your pantry. Ours would be soup and grilled cheese.

I’ve been utilizing the meal plan for about 5 years now. It has evolved along with the rest of the changes that our family has seen. I’m grateful that we can be a little more adventurous in our meal ideas now that my boys are older. The biggest bonus is that I enjoy cooking more now that I haven’t completely stressed about what I was going to make.

Try it!

A client showed me a brilliant e-book recently by Mystie Winckler called Simplified Dinners that not only supplied recipes but gave several adaptations of each based on time, tastes and available ingredients. Worth checking out!