Maybe you can relate – I was tired after working on my feet all day. I parked my car in the driveway, walked up the stairs and walked straight to my bedroom where I kicked off my shoes and climbed in bed for a nice uninterrupted power nap. Well, that daydream ended abruptly with one simple question, “hi mom, what’s for dinner?” I dreaded that question because most days, I didn’t even know the answer myself. I’d usually throw something together or order takeout and neither option was particularly healthy. My frequent rider pass on the hot mom express was killing me! Then – I started meal planning and it was a game changer. I saved time, money and a whole lot of stressful cooking sessions in the kitchen.
Today, I’m sharing my win to help other moms get off their struggle bus because motherhood is much too sweet a time, that flies by way too fast – to NOT be intentional with our time. Are you ready for a game changer? Get off the struggle bus because here’s your stop – Thrive Avenue… Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
But First, What is Meal Planning?
In a nutshell meal planning is answering the what’s for dinner question once for the whole week, instead of every night, and then shopping for and prepping the ingredients before cooking. Meal planning is basically a 3 step process:
- Select dinners and their recipes, if needed
- Shop ingredients
- Prepare the ingredients
Understanding Your Why
Relax, I’m not going to make you take a deep dive into your soul…just a little assessment. When you know why you are interested in meal planning you can better decide how to accomplish your endgame. Ask yourself are you…
- Looking to save money?
- Eat better?
- Prevent food waste?
- Minimize your time in the kitchen?
- Or have an answer for when you are asked, what’s for dinner?
Honestly you can meal plan for all of the above but if you’re a beginner I highly suggest picking 1-2 why and keep them in mind when picking out recipes.
Create A Master Recipe List
Do not skip this step. It is probably the most important step in the meal planning process. Choosing recipes puts meal planning and why you are doing it into action. Unfortunately, this is the step where most beginners fail.
Most beginners will start from scratch and run to Pinterest for all the recipes. I think we can all agree that Pinterest is pretty but it can be a rabbit hole of overwhelming porportions. You don’t need Pinterest because no one knows your family better than YOU mama. Think about your family’s favorite foods. My kids love Macaroni and Cheese so I will incorporate that into my weekly meal plan. Since I want my kids to eat better I modified their favorite dish a year ago to a healthy cheeseless version and it’s a win-win.
My master recipe list consist of foods I know my family loves and a few new recipes we’ve tried and loved. I am slowly making healthy versions of their favorite dishes with very little (if any) protest. You can download my recipe template to use in your digital planner or print it out – right here!
Tips when selecting recipes:
- Choose meals that will give you the gift of leftovers
- Pick recipes you know by heart + one new recipe you’d like to try
- Pick recipes based on common ingredients
- Cook things you love to eat (if it’s not healthy and your goal is to eat healthier find ways to make it healthier)
Decide How Many Meals You Want To Plan For and What They Need To Do
Most people will meal plan for 5 nights. But, some people meal plan for 3 nights. Once you figure this out you can delve deeper. On the nights that you’re cooking what do those meals need to do?
I like to look at my calendar and see what I have going on. When Livi had soccer or cheerleading I made sure to plan for a slow cooker dinner because dinner would be ready when we got home and were all feeling hungry-tired. Sometimes I plan for leftovers because I knew the following day the kids would be home and needed lunch.
Before You Head To The Grocery Store Create Your List
Now that you have your recipes you will need to ask yourself what do you need to make them. I like to use a 3-step process:
- Check inventory
- Make a list
- Shop for ingredients
Check Your Inventory!
I spot clean daily and save cleaning my fridge for Fridays. The reason for that is because I can also take inventory of what I have in my fridge and meal plan around ingredients I have on hand. This method minimizes food waste and will save you money! Before I adopted this method I would always exceed my grocery budget by $50-$60. Yikes, that was $100 – $240 a month I was just wasting because I wasn’t being intentional. Now, there are weeks when I come under budget! I love the freedom to choose what I can do with that freed up money. Sometimes I will use it to buy something we need in the house or that the kids need. Sometimes I will use it for an outing with the family or to get ice cream from our favorite ice cream shop. I love that I’m no longer stressed over money and I’m able to do more with my family. That’s what I truly want for you mama so keep reading!
Always Good To Have a Plan B
Remember how I said my kids love macaroni and cheese? Well, I know that there will be days when I don’t feel like cooking from scratch or I just don’t have the time because the kids have a project to finish or extracurriculars. That’s why I make sure to always have a few staple foods like boxed mac and cheese. The kids also love homemade pancakes but there will be days when you don’t have time so I use to buy boxed pancake mix. But, now I meal prep my pancake mix so all I have to do is add the wet ingredients. I will do a post later on meal prepping.
Write Your List Down!
Mom brain is REAL y’all. Stop trying to remember everything in your head and use tools that work for you. If that is old school pen and paper – then use pen and paper. Maybe you are more of a digital mama – then go digital. There’s an app for almost everything, find your app sidekick. Regardless how you do it, just make sure you’re using tools that help you be more productive and intentional. If you don’t then you’ll probably end up with no ketchup when you meal planned for fries and hot dogs or end up like me before becoming a meal planner, with 5 bottles of Worcestershire sauce – gah! Seriously, I’m not sure what my thoughts were with that – was I thinking there was going to be a shortage of Worcestershire sauce? Luckily, those days are behind me.
My Write it Down process
My process is to write a line down the middle of a piece of paper. One side is for writing down ingredients I have and want to use because they’ll go bad or they are pricey so I know it’ll save me money on that weeks grocery shopping. On the other column I write down things I need to shop for. For example Last week, I had salmon in the freezer we didn’t use because we ended up getting home late and ordered takeout. We also had extra shrimp because Walmart did a substitution for an online grocery order and I ended up with a larger amount than what I originally ordered. I knew I wanted to use the salmon and shrimp and wrote those on the column for with “Ingredients on hand”. I then go to my meal plan and grocery list sheet on my digital planner and plan my meals. Now I do a final run through inventory to make sure I have all the ingredients needed. Ingredients I don’t have on hand was written on the other column “Ingredients to buy”. Next I would transfer my ingredients to buy onto my Grocery List template. Lately, I’ve been ordering online so I’ve been using this Meal Planner and Grocery List template. Both work but you can decide which one works best for you.
Tip: Using a digital meal planner allows me to cut and paste a meal. A meal we didn’t use can always be moved onto the following week with little effort.
Meal Prep
You have picked your recipes, made your grocery list, shopped for the ingredients – you are in the final stretch. Let’s bring it home with some prep work. Set aside 1-2 hours of time on Saturday or Sunday to batch cooking and chopping.
It all depends on your recipes but it’s always helpful to chop veggies, wash lettuce, season meats, cook chicken thighs ahead of time.
Yay! You Did It! Now Do It Again!
Meal planning isn’t all that hard but it isn’t a breeze either – especially when you are first starting out. But, if you stopped by my blog post in hopes to make your time in the kitchen a bit more calmer then you’re already well on your way. Every time you go through the process of meal planning you will learn what not to do, things you can do to improve for the following week, what you can skip or do a little differently to meet your needs. Sticking with it will only make you better not worse my friend.
Tips
- Double the recipes you know your family will enjoy. Leftovers are not a bad thing. Cook it once and get more bang for your buck is worth it.
- Keep it simple – meal prep doesn’t have to be fancy. It only needs to be fancy. I’m not super picky and don’t mind eating the same thing for lunch all week or leftovers. My kids on the other hand don’t mind leftovers but like different things for lunch. With them I will give them the same thing 2 times a week and space it out so they aren’t eating it back to back. Friday I would pay for them to have school pizza or spaghetti.
- Keep your pantry stocked – pantry basics you use over and over are key to getting dinner on the table. They are also helpful when life doesn’t go as planned and you need aback pocket recipe. Pantry staples will turn rice into a one-pot wonder, pasta into a 3-ingredient no-brainer and eggs into a delicious frittata.
- Shop your kitchen first – Always shop your kitchen first and take advantage of leftovers and ingredients you already have. It minimizes food waste and saves you money.
- Remember to take a final inventory before shopping – before finalizing your list and heading to the store, always double check ingredients with what’s already in the pantry and fridge. If you need butter for a recipe and have a tub in your fridge – open it to see how much you actually have.
And There You Have It, Meal Planning All Wrapped Up!
Whoa – I feel like this post took me forever to write because I have so much to say about the topic. I’ve tried many different methods and this one just works for us in the season that we are in. I hope this was helpful to those interested in meal planning and starting their own routine but not sure where to start. If there is anything I didn’t touch on or if you have a question or maybe you have your own suggestion, leave them in the comments below – I’ll be here waiting!
If you prefer contacting me more privately you send me a message through the contact button in the navigation bar. Best of luck and until next time…
Keep Planning + Living a Life You Love
