Meal Planning Part 2

Its 5pm and it has been one of those days. You knew it would be with all your appointments and car pooling. Right about now you are probably thinking,  ‘I wish I would have stuck something in the crockpot’ or ‘These fast food trips are getting too expensive’. There is a solution to the 5pm "whats for dinner?’‘ problem...meal planning.

Meal Planning does not have to be difficult. You can meal plan for a week, 2 weeks, or a month.  When our daughters were little I planned monthly.  Now, I meal plan every two weeks. Plan as many days as you’d like; it is up to you and your family schedule.

First thing I do is ask my family if there is any particular meal I make that they might be wanting. This doesn’t guarantee that I will make it this time around but I will write it down in my planner so I can get it on the schedule. 

Next, I gather my supplies which are my planner, a note pad, pen, the weekly grocery ads and my phone (because it has my list of meats I have in the freezer). Also, cookbooks with recipes I want to try and my list of meals I do regularly.  

My supplies minus the cookbooks

I then look at my planner and see what I have on the schedule such as doctor appointments, date day, church, etc.

In the note pad I number 1-14. This will be the list of my dinners.  Also written down are a list of 3-4 breakfast ideas, and snacks. I don't include lunches because we really don't eat lunch any more.  However, when our girls were little I did plan 3 different lunches. 

Now here comes the actual planning:

I fill in the lines for date day and friends night out first because those are the days I know for sure I won't cook. 

Then, I check my phone to see what meats I have in the freezer. I keep this list on the phone instead of paper because I always have my phone. If I go somewhere and lets say chicken breasts are on sale, I look to see how much I already have in the freezer so as not to overstock and waste it.

Also, I look at whats on sale. If my family has requested something and I have the meat or its on sale I add those to the dinner list. If I have a lot of appointments in one day then I know that would have to be a slow cooker meal or one of my easiest meals. I also plan for two ‘fend for yourself’ nights. That is more than likely leftovers or a salad I have prepped at the beginning of the week. 

**Sidenote** You can actually do the dates with the days of the week that you want to cook a particular dinner. I like the flexibility of just picking what I want when I want to cook it. But it is important to know how many and the types(i.e. slow cooker) of meals you are going to need for the timeframe you are planning for.

After my list is compete I start on my grocery list, writing down any ingredients I don’t have. After the grocery list is made I double check that I don’t have those ingredients on hand. (I can’t tell you how many times I've bought something I already had 2-3 of.) When I’m done the meal plan should look something like this.

I keep my list on the fridge making it easily available. (I will cover how I coupon in a different post but I will say that I use mostly digital.)

A little time planning makes for less money spent on fast food and not having to make extra trips to the store. I mean lets face it; no one ever really goes to the store and just sticks to the list. ;) 

Meal planning reduces stress by giving you confidence that you are prepared to have nutritious, homemade meals on the table each night.  

I hope this has inspired you to meal plan. It really will make such a difference. Let me know if you have any questions. 
Thanks!

Lar