Hi friends! I am back after taking last week off to enjoy vacation with my family and I am ready to hit the ground running back in the blog world. We loved our time away in Rosemary Beach (more on that trip later this week) but I would be lying if I said we weren’t all ready for a little structure and some homemade meals.

Today, I have spent hours doing laundry and playing catch up and grocery shopping. Anyone else feel me on the fact that the day after vacay can make you feel a little frazzled? But, cheer starts tomorrow and school starts next week so we are working on getting ourselves back organized and that includes meal planning.

I am an avid meal planner because if I wasn’t….we would eat out so often. I need to be organized and have a plan, I need a grocery list and to know what’s happening each week otherwise my brain will shut down in the everyday chaos and well, it’s either take out of cereal. Lol.

When I was meal planning today I thought, let me share that with my blog readers because I think after many years — I have finally found a simple meal plan process that works for me so hopefully you can take some pieces of it or all of it and implement it for your family too.

Usually on Friday’s I will spent about an hour prepping for the next week. I will write down any personal and business to-do’s, review my calendar for appointments and commitments etc so that I can head into the weekend knowing what is waiting for me next week. Then, on Sunday night I usually review everything quickly (like 5-10 mins) to get my mind ready for the week ahead.

As I prep for the following week, I add in my meal plan to my paper calendar. Yep, showing my age here but I still use a paper calendar in addition to my Google Calendar because it helps me stay organized. I look at my calendar and what we have going on and see what nights meals need to be made simple…do we have sports that night? Is Joe out of town for work? Am I working any evenings? Once I know what the week ahead looks like I can plan.

Here is my process and thinking on how I plan meals….

• On nights that either Joe or I won’t be home, we keep it super simple since one of us is solo parenting that night — spaghetti, tacos, soup and sandwiches, etc. The easy meals that don’t take more than 20-30 minutes to whip up while also maybe helping with homework, etc.

• On nights that we have sports I try to think ahead and do crockpot meals, meals I can make earlier in the day and just leave to bake when we get home, etc. I know that is a luxury since I work from home but I try to look at when I have time and try to plan around that. We will probably use the crockpot 3 nights a week in the thick of sports season (even if it is just took the meat and I will make rice and veggies when we get home)

• After I look at those busy nights, I look at the nights we will all be home. This is when I cook a bigger meal. I will make a casserole or big pasta dish or something a little more time consuming and the trick is, I always make sure we have leftovers with it because then I can use those on a busy night.

• I always schedule in a night for leftovers 1x a week and I always schedule in 1x a week to eat out (usually the weekend).

• Sunday is when I usually cook the biggest meal since we are usually home in the evening.

When I decide what meals to cook….

• I look at Pinterest and my cookbooks. I love cookbooks because they are simple to follow and it helps me change up my meals often because we get sick of eating the same thing over and over again.

• I figure out what I have that needs to be used….do I have veggies that need to be incorporated? Pasta I only used half a box? I really hate to waste food so I always try to see what ingredients I have on hand and make meals around those first.

• New recipe at least 1 time a week keeps things fun and less blah. We truthfully sometimes get sick of eating at home so this keeps it interesting.

• I ask the family is anyone has been craving anything so I can make it during the week.

I used to try and plan for a month at a time and it was so overwhelming. I like to plan 1 week at a time and then grocery shop 1 time a week (maybe stopping if we need something during the week) but I need streamlined processes and this works well. Usually we will grab groceries after church on Sunday’s or I will go during the week if I can squeeze it in. I have tried grocery delivery but I go through stages where I love it and then don’t enjoy it at all.

At the end of the day as a busy working mom I have to keep things easy to implement and streamlined so that I actually use the system I create. This has worked for me for years so if you need a new way to meal plan or a reason to start meal planning I hope these simple processes help!