Meal Planning
Hi friends! Happy Wednesday from my house to yours!
If you were sitting with me right now, you would hopefully be joining me for a cup of hot coffee and would also be enjoying my 2000’s country music radio playing behind me. I’ve already been to an Honor Roll ceremony at school and I am now home enjoying coffee #2 and working.
I am sitting at my kitchen table trying to focus on my massive to do list but all I keep thinking of is that when the leftover Chipotle catering from last nights Gathered event is gone, my fridge is empty. Again. Any other moms feel me on this…no matter how much food I buy there is never any food. Lol. Part of me may be in denial that the girls are big now and I have to stop buying like they aren’t eating as much as the 3 adults in the house 🤪
As I was thinking about where and how I am going to fit in a grocery run I was thinking about meal planning and realized that I haven’t ever shared on the blog my simple system for meal planning so today, we are changing that.
I know that if you go onto Pinterest, you can find many many ways to meal plan - I know this because I have done this. Lol. I have planned a week at a time, a month at a time, I have bought in bulk and not and after trying dozens of ways, this is what works best for us. My hope here is that through finding your own system, something I share will help you…every family is so different so I am a huge fan of mixing a bunch of different ways to figure out what works best for you.
So, here is my meal planning system and tips -
I have found that meal planning and shopping mid-week is what works best. The stores are less crowded and we’ve had a weekend to eat leftovers and snacks. It gives me a more real idea of what we actually need. I found that when I went shopping on a Friday or Saturday everything was eaten on the weekend because everyone was home and just snacking constantly because it was new stuff. Now, by the time the weekend comes they’ve seen the snacks for a few days and don’t go crazy.
A couple years ago Target had a super simple meal planner tablet in the dollar section and I bought a bunch. I am almost out of them so I searched on Canva and found one very similar. I edited it a big and included it below. Feel free to print, I definitely am! The simple format works well for me.
I only plan dinners. I try to buy a variety of things for lunches and breakfast so everyone can choose what they want throughout the week but dinner, I plan and everyone eats the same thing. So on the imagine below, I only write the dinners that are planned and stick it in the pantry for everyone to be able to see.
I always plan for 1 night eating out and 1 night leftovers…every single week. I know that one night I am going to be tired or sports will run late or whatever and we will eat out. And, I know that one night all the leftovers will pile up in the fridge and we will have a night of feed yourself whatever is in there. So typically each week, I am planning 5 meals.
My #1 tip is to look at your calendar….I see when we have sports that will get us home later, when Joe is out of town, when I have a pop up, etc. and I plan meals around that. If we have sports on Monday, I need something quick to make because we are getting home at 5pm. Or, I need to prep the crockpot. If I have a pop up, I need to have the meal be something super simple for Joe or Cam to make. Looking at your calendar will help you see what is realistic to actually cook.
After I see what we have going on I look and see what we have on hand…is there meat or veggies or whatever that we need to cook and use? If so, I plan meals around what I already have on hand. I usually go to cookbook I love or Pinterest to find meals. After I plan with what I have, I look for new recipes. Sometimes, we don’t have a lot and I need to fully plan all new meals.
About once a month I stock up on things like all the ingredients to make spaghetti and other shelf stable meals that we can use in a pinch. For example, did we plan to eat out after cheer but cheer was cancelled so we can be home? I will make spaghetti then instead of eating out. Or, did we not have any leftovers and I need a quick meal to make. It is always nice to have those cheap, easy meals you can whip up to save on eating out.
I don’t stick to we have to eat “x” on Tuesday or whatever….I plan the meals and then decide throughout the week what to make. So if I said Taco’s on Tuesday but we want them on Monday instead, we do it. I have a plan but let it be flexible which has helped me stayed consistent on meal planning because I don’t feel tied to it but I have a plan.
That’s it! Really, I keep it simple and flexible and try to do my best to feed my family at home most of the week. Sometimes the week goes sideways and we eat out more but for the most part we are able to keep with this easily in our busy schedules!
I hope this was helpful and if you have any great tips/tricks post them below, I always love learning what others are doing and seeing how I can incoroporate it into what we are doing.
