I've had several questions about meal planning lately and what a week of meals looks like at our house and so I thought I'd share my process and a few little tips and tricks that I use. First of all - I was anti-meal planning for YEARS but then it got to a point where I literally dreaded dinnertime not because I hate cooking (I actually love to cook), but because of the mental energy I was spending figuring it out every single day to say nothing of the grocery trips, etc.
I decided just to suck it up and be a grownup and start meal planning and it has been the BIGGEST HELP OF ALL TIME!
Essentially, on Friday afternoons/evenings or SOMETIMES Saturday mornings I meal plan. After I look at our calendars and make a plan I'll go through and place an online Walmart order and Instacart Costco order for delivery on Saturday morning. If there are other things that we need that are from a different grocery store (i.e. Trader Joe's, Market Street, etc.) Dave will typically grab those on Monday when he's off work because it's way more convenient and less busy that way.
I pretty much cook every night except for Friday nights. The calendar above has a bunch of empty Saturdays because I was traveling for track and wasn't home on those nights.
I try to mix things up and take requests from the kids and yes, cook nightly because my boys (and sometimes G) take leftovers for lunch pretty much daily.
Other little tips/tricks include:
- Plan EASY meals but just plan them! Sometimes thats grilled cheese and soup or hot dogs and french fries - even if it's going to be super simple put it on the plan!
- I keep a browser open throughout the week open to Walmart where I can add things that we run out of so I don't forget when I place my order
I really hope that you found this helpful - if you have any tips and/or dinner ideas I'd love it if you'd leave the in the coments!
I also use my online calendar and set each meal as 'tasks' within my google calendar. Then, after I've made the meal and if the majority of the family like it, I'll update the 'task' to a future date. So, for example, everyone liked the spaghetti bake I made, I'll edit the task to move it to another day, say two months from now. For me the hardest part is figuring out what to make so keeping my meal plan ongoing really helps!
ReplyDeleteI am here for alllllll the meal planning tips and tricks!
ReplyDeleteTheme nights have helped so much with dinner planning. You can use whatever themes have your family favorite recipes. For example right now we do: Monday -Soup night, Tuesday- International(Mexican, Chinese, Greek, etc.)Wednesday-Fish one week/Veggie or Salad Thursday-Comfort food/Raddish kids recipes Friday-Pizza one week/Pasta the next. Saturday is Chicken/Turkey night, Sunday-Family Traditions. It sure helps to narrow things down and everyone knows what to expect. It was a game changer for me!
ReplyDeleteTheme days have been a game changer! For example Monday nights are Soup night, Tuesday is International night-Mexican, Chinese, Greek, Friday alternates Pizza/Pasta. Make theme nights around favorite family recipes.
ReplyDelete