Meal Planning Tips
Life is busy. Deciding what is for dinner each night after a long day is just too much sometimes. (Decision fatigue is real!) Meal planning can make these busy weeknights a little bit easier to navigate.
Here are my tips for creating a meal plan that works for you and your family’s schedule.
Tip #1 - Find time to plan for the week ahead
Figure out when it makes sense to plan your week. For many, it could be Sunday, but for someone else, it could be Wednesday. Think about your schedule and when it makes sense for you to sit down and organize your week.
In my house, I do the planning on Sundays, ideally in the mornings, before or after church, with time to do the grocery shopping later that afternoon.
Tip #2 - Have your expectations match your time and energy
Now it’s time to figure out when you have time to cook this week - time to break out the calendar!
This is the MOST important tip of them all. You should not do any planning until you know what your week looks like. Look at your calendar and ask yourself these questions.
- What days do the kids have activities, and when are we driving the carpool?
- What days are we commuting to the office and getting home later?
- What days do the parents have evening obligations? (PTA Meetings, Exercise Class, Book Club, etc.)
- What days are we eating on the sidelines or in the car?
We keep a weekly whiteboard calendar in our kitchen so I fill this out each Sunday for the upcoming week while figuring out what our upcoming week will look like.
Tip #3 - Plan meals based on your schedule
Now that I know what our week looks like in terms of activities, I take a piece of paper and write down when I have the time to cook and which nights we need to be eating leftovers or leaning on the freezer or takeout. This helps me focus on the meal planning part rather than having my head spin by continuing to look at the calendar.
My list may look something like this:
Mon - cook
Tues - leftovers
Wed - cook
Thurs - leftovers
Fri - freezer/takeout
Sat - dinner out
Sun - cook
So now I know that I need to make two meals that are big enough for leftovers, and I need to make sure I have some options in the freezer. Actually, I always make sure I have options in the freezer…see Tip #6!
Now you may be asking yourself - how do I decide what to make? (This is sometimes the worst part!)
Well, to make it easier, I keep a list of recipes that I like to make. This is just a handwritten list on a piece of printer paper and it’s organized by type of protein. I usually pull my ideas from here or the giant pile of recipes I’ve been wanting to try. I like a lot of variety, but there’s nothing wrong with eating the same seven meals on repeat each week, either. Or maybe you have “categories” for your days to make the deciding easier - Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesday, etc. There is not right or wrong way to meal plan - you have to do what’s best for you!
If it’s going to be a really busy week where I am struggling to find any time to cook, I look for recipes that will stretch over several days (chili, pulled pork, a ham, a turkey breast, etc.).
If you have time to do a little prep on Sundays, there are also some cookbooks that focus on heavy meal prep on Sundays for quicker and easier meal prep during the week. I’ve cooked from this one and found it tasty and easy to use: Cook Once, Eat All Week.
Tip #4 - Create the shopping list
Once I’ve picked my recipes for the week, I write down what ingredients I need to buy for them. I add this to the list on my fridge of items that we need to restock. Yes, I actually have a paper list on my fridge. This works for my family because we are always running out of food while in the kitchen, so it makes sense at our house to jot down those items while in the kitchen.
I have a magnetic list and pen caddy that stick to my fridge so these items don’t get lost. I usually pick up the list pads at TJ Maxx, but here is a link to a list pad available online and my favorite pen caddy.
Tip #5 - Figure out who is getting the groceries and when (Delegate that shopping if you can!)
Okay, the list is complete. Time to figure out who is buying the groceries. Are you placing an order to pickup? Are you having groceries delivered? Is someone from your family going to the store? Can it be the other adult - the one who didn’t already take a lot of time out of their day to make the plan?
Tip #5a - Rewrite that shopping list (What?!?)
If someone in your family is physically going to the store to do the shopping, do not skip this step!
It’s time to rewrite your shopping list. What?!? Why are we rewriting the list? Trust me, I’ll explain.
Right now, your list is in a completely random order. If you take it to the store, you are going to be constantly scanning this list up and down to make sure you get everything and most likely you are going to have to double back at least once to grab something you missed. Plus, you are more likely to go down extra aisles and be tempted to grab something you weren’t planning on buying.
If you can spare five minutes to rewrite your list, I promise you that it will shave 10-15 minutes off of your time in the grocery store. You can either be super detailed and write out the list in aisle order (my husband started this technique, but I’ve adopted it) or you can simply group things in categories - dairy, produce, meats, cookies/snacks, baking, condiments, etc.
This may sound like a silly waste of time, but try it. It’s life-changing.
Tip #6 - Prepare to pivot (Because, you know…life)
Planning is great, but guess what, life happens. Either the activities change or your energy changes, but most weeks you may need to pivot on at least one day. This is where the freezer comes in handy. Perhaps you froze an extra entree a few weeks ago or maybe you simply stocked up on frozen pizzas and veggies, but either way, you want to make sure that you have food in the freezer for everyone to eat when the planned cooking just can’t happen. This will help keep those Door Dash costs to a minimum too!
Okay, so in summary, here are my tips:
Tip #1 - Block time to plan for the week ahead.
Tip #2 - Have your expectations match your time and energy
Tip #3 - Plan meals based on your schedule
Tip #4 - Create the shopping list
Tip #5 - Figure out who is getting the groceries and when
Tip #5a - Rewrite that shopping list
Tip #6 - Prepare to pivot
