Day 78: Meal Planning
What: Meal Planning
Why: Have you ever gotten home from work and the first thing you hear is “what’s for dinner?” You frantically run around the house, trying to find something that will satisfy. Do you ever just not have the energy or time to make something? What if you had a dinner sitting in the freezer or refrigerator, ready to be eaten? What if you spent just a few extra minutes one day, to plan a week of meals so those frantic moments don’t occur? This is what meal planning can do. With a little prep and a little thinking ahead, you can have a stress free mealtime. Here’s how:
How:
1. Gather all of your cookbooks and recipes.
2. Find a quiet place to sit with a cup of coffee or tea in hand – make this time as enjoyable as you can.
3. Choose a timeframe for which you want to plan meals – start with 1 or 2 weeks if you are new to the process.
4. Create, print, draw a calendar to meal plan on. Divide it into days and within each day, divide into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you want, leave room at the bottom where you can list snack ideas.
5. Cross out any meals/days you will not have to cook for that week.
6. Think about leaving open spaces to eat leftovers.
7. Go through your cookbooks and choose recipes for the week. There are a few different ways to approach this, to keep variety:
- Choose a different type of meal for each night: mexican, italian, seafood, soup, sandwich, American (burgers), etc.
- Beef, chicken, fish, vegetable, etc.
- Oven, frozen, refrigerated, microwaved, etc.
8. Make a grocery list of all of the items you will need for that week. Prior to perusing your cookbooks, look through your cupboards to see what you have in stock. Don’t write down the ingredients you already have on your list.
9. Write down the recipe on your meal planning sheet – include which cookbook and page number. You can also bookmark the page for easier access later.
10. Mark next to the recipe if there needs to be prep work done the day before (such as meat taken out of the freezer)
11. Hang the menu in a visible spot so that you know what meals are coming up, in case prep works need to be done.
- A fun idea for a menu is to find an old picture frame, print the days on a piece of scrapbook paper and insert into the picture frame, and use an overhead marker to write down each meal for the week. This is an attractive way to display your meal planning ideas!
12. Cross off each meal as you make it.
13. Enjoy a stress free week because now you have all of your meals planned!
Confession of the Day: I do not always do a meal plan every week, but when I do, I must say it really is a stress reliever! I find we eat a wider variety of foods when I plan out our meals. I find we have more leftovers, which is a bonus because it saves time and we both enjoy them. I am also more intentional about what I buy at the grocery store. I am buying food with the intention of putting it on the table – I don’t just buy food because it is on sale. It does take some extra time in planning the meals each week, but there are definite benefits. Living with less means finding the best way you can make the most of your time so that you have time to do the things you WANT to do in life.
Do you meal plan? What benefits do you reap from meal planning? What are some of your favorite recipes?
I do some freezer cooking which helps with the planning. For example, one weekend I will 10 quart size batches of chili. I just make a big big pot full and however many bags it fills it fills. Then the next weekend I make stew etc. In the meal plans I can plan chili with cooked potato. Or stew with grill cheese sandwich. Another thing to do: instead of just cooking for two (like in our house) we cook triple or at least extra. And some left overs go into the fridge while others to the freezer for a meal later. — For people who are having a hard time starting: write down a list of all the meals you and family frequently eat (i.e. chili, hot dogs, grilled chicken) don't worry about the list being 'common' in that you always eat those foods. Then randomly add those meals to calendar days and make list of new meals to try and add those in between. Then come up with a side or two for the meals listed.
Here's a tip about type of meal. We like a "BBQ meal" but there are at least five different types of BBQ meals (i.e. roasted hot dogs with chips and melon or baked BBQ chicken with potato salad) so each category can have many different meals.
Thanks Jenny for your comment! This is a GREAT idea to write down all of the family's favorite meals. Then to do a big pot of "whatever you are making" and then fill bags – much easier to store. Thank you for sharing your ideas and I hope that you continue to as well :).