An Easy Guide to Meal Planning
Let’s talk about meal planning! It’s something I get questions about all the time and something I have not consistently done well. I am doing so much better and today I’m going to share with you what has worked for me. When I stick with these processes they are so beneficial.
Why should we meal plan?
It saves money! We plan when we are going to eat out rather than spur of the moment spending $40 for mediocre take out.
It saves time! No standing in front of the fridge each night and then defrosting the chicken in the microwave and eating dinner an hour later than you wanted to. When you have planned ahead it saves so much time.
It so much less stressful! When I look at my week and I see I have a crazy day on Wednesday - that is the perfect day for a crock pot meal. I put it together that morning and then dinner is ready when I am.
Today I’m going to share a few different ways that I meal plan.
The first step you always want to take is to make a list of the meals you and your family eat often. What do you enjoy eating? This is my problem with meal plans you purchase. We all eat so differently. You can sit down and think and ask your family to help you remember all the things you eat. Be sure to keep adding to this meal list as you find more things you enjoy.
This doesn’t mean you can’t try a new recipe! Just plan for it! Do you want to really mix things up and try a new recipe 2 times this month? Just be sure to write those ingredients down that you need and plan for. (Side note: I keep all of my recipes in Evernote. Check that out HERE. I also keep my list of our go-to meals there as well.)
The next thing you want to do is take stock what you have in your freezer, fridge, and pantry. It is very expensive to just make a meal plan and then go buy ALL the ingredients. So use what you have on hand first!
Now you have 2 options - you can do this monthly or weekly. Today I’m really just going to share some tips with you and you can make this process your own. Choose the things that work best for you.
I like to make a big monthly Costco haul. We get most of our meat from there. We also have a local store that sells their chicken breasts and ground beef for a great special once a week.
After I have made this big shopping trip I am going to create a list of what I have purchased and then create a meal plan from that.
If you are doing this monthly, look at your calendar and decide how many meals you need. I am looking at the upcoming month and we do not have any travel planned. But I do have a weekend we are having friends in town and then a few more events. Now I know that I need to plan for 25 meals.
For example - I bought 1 pack of Roasts (they come 2 to a pack.) So for meal 1 and 2 I’m going to write down “Roast”. Next I see that I have 3 packs of pork chops. We love grilled pork chops and I marinate them in various ways. So meals 3, 4, and 5 are going to be pork chops. I have 4 packs of ground beef. Now I’m going to choose 4 of my favorite ground beef meals. Meal 6 will be stuffed peppers. Meal 7 will be Spaghetti and because I am so excited cool air is finally on it’s way, meals 8 and 9 will be chili and leftover chili. Tip - it’s so great to make things that make more than 1 meal! I think you get the point.
Then I’m going to look at what other things I have frozen. I made a delicious soup last month and it had a ton of leftovers - so I’m going to mark down “Poblano Chicken Soup - Freezer” for meal number 10.
I will continue until I have completed all but the last 4 - we are going to leave one night a week for leftovers. (more on that later.)
So now I have my list.
Roast
Roast
Pork chops
Pork chops
Pork chops
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Spaghetti
Chili (x2)
Chili - Freezer
Poblano soup - Freezer
Risotto with RT (rotisserie chicken)
Enchiladas with RT
Fajitas (steak-freezer)
RT Burrito bowl
White Chicken Chili
Greek Chicken Skewers
Hobo Packs
Balsamic Chicken & Salad
Red Beans and Rice
King Ranch Chicken
Chicken Orzo w/ asparagus
Leftovers - Family Potluck
Leftovers - Family Potluck
Leftovers - Family Potluck
Leftovers - Family Potluck
Now let’s look at this week - What is going on each night? What do I need to pull from my monthly list for this week? I am then going to create my list for this week. When I do this I am also going to choose sides for this week. I look at what I have in the fridge and pantry to help me use what I have on hand first. Now I only have to shop for the remaining ingredients - mostly what I need for sides since I already have the main course meat in my freezer.
You can find my blog post and video on my evening routine HERE. One of the things I do each night is look at what we are eating tomorrow. What do I need to pop in the fridge to be prepared for dinner tomorrow night? Or do I need to go ahead and sit the crock pot out on the counter for a reminder the next morning.
This way has worked so well for us. What I love about this system is you can make this as rigid or as fluid as you would like. If you want to only look at your meal plan weekly, you can totally do that. Or you can take it a step further and plan the whole month. You can even write down your sides for each meal for the monthly plan or just the main entree and decide the sides when you get to that week.
So to recap let’s review:
Step 1 - Make (and continually add to) a list of meals you enjoy.
Step 2 - If you go monthly - look at the upcoming month and decide how many meals you need to plan for.
Step 3 - Create a meal list for that month. First, chose meals based on what you have in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. Then you can add to the list and add the ingredients to your shopping list.
Step 4 - Before each week (I do this during my weekend prep time on Saturday) create your final meal list of the upcoming week. I like to add things to my grocery pickup order at this time and pick it up on Sunday afternoon.
Waking up each day and knowing what we are having for dinner is the only reason I need to meal plan. This takes such a load off of my mind! I truly believe that taking 30 minutes each month to do this will give you margin in your life.