Meal planning is something that happens whether you have a plan or not. Your family will, by default, eat one way or another. So instead of feeling caught off guard each day, why not take a few hours to learn how to meal plan like a genius. Then creating a weekly meal plan for your family will be streamlined and easy to do. Not only will you put hours back into your week, you’ll even find time to try those new recipes you pinned on Pinterest, when you learn how to make a weekly meal plan.
5 Tips to Effectively Meal Planning
Growing up, we ate at 5:30 pm every single day. Our days were fairly similar and there weren’t too many surprises. When I married, I was in for a shock!
My husband’s work schedule was very varied, switching from nights to day every several weeks. He also worked outside a lot on farming, construction projects, and hunting. Then we took a year to build our first home, doing much of the work. Later, in our married life, we completely remodeled our next home and started cattle farming. Talk about crazy schedule. Trying to meal plan and get dinner to the table while exhausted and with a different schedule each night was something I had to learn.
In my book, Meal Planning for the Family on the Go, I share how to learn to meal plan so that it works for your family. Following a meal plan that someone else has set up can be fun for a break. But you know your family best, their likes, allergies, special needs, and crazy schedule. So why not learn the basics of effectively meal planning so that you can then create a meal plan with just a few minutes of time each week, specifically geared for YOUR family.
Let me share a few secret tips that I delve into in my Meal Planning for the Family on the Go book!
1. Organize Your Recipes for Meal Planning
If you read “organize recipes” and started breaking out into a cold sweat thinking I’m talking about color coding all your recipes, don’t worry. You do not need to have all your recipes in a super cute binder or all color coded. But we do need to take some time to put our meals into several categories.
In my book, Meal Planning for the Family on the Go, I will teach you how to take an hour or two and put all your recipes into several categories. This will help you know exactly what meals are going to work best for each day of the week.
Slowing down to organize your recipes, will take longer than just printing off someone else’s meal plan for the week. But in the long run, organizing your recipes, in the specific way I show you, will save you hours and hours of time. And your family is going to be much happier!
2. Change Meal Planning for Different Seasons
Are you stuck in panic mode meal planning? If your family has experienced an emergency then naturally you will shift and just do what you need to do eat for the week.
But if the reality is that your family is facing several months of carrying for a sick loved one, tackling a large project, or experiencing a job change, then you need to shift out of emergency meal planning. You are NOT in an emergency. You are in a different season or a new “normal”.
In my downloadable book, Meal Planning for the Family on the Go, I will teach you how to identify those different life seasons. You’ll learn how to shift your meal planning template to match the season you are in. This cuts down on wasted money, unplanned trips through the drive-thru, and needless added stress.
3. Make Your Kitchen Work for You
Your kitchen may not be HGTV worthy, but it can still work for you. Is your kitchen set up to work hard for you to facilitate in meal planning?
One of the kitchen tools that I reach for the most are my measuring spoons. So why only have one set. In fact, I have three sets! With only a little bit of money and room, I easily purchased additional sets. Less time spent recleaning my measuring spoons. Just one way you can set up your kitchen to work for you!
In Meal Planning for the Family on the Go, I’ll teach you how to look at your kitchen more critically. It’s less about making your kitchen look pretty and more about putting your kitchen to work.
4. Meal Prep is Essential for Meal Planning
Meal prepping will be the guard rails that keep you on track. When you come into the kitchen in the evening, exhausted and hungry, your meal prep will prevent you from just reaching for some microwaveable junk food or ordering take-out.
When I mention meal prep, you may have a vision of those women who spend one day a month making 30 meals that they store in pretty containers that actually have matching lids! While I think that works great for some, that doesn’t mean that is the only kind of meal prepping.
In fact, in my book, Meal Planning for the Family on the Go, I’ll show you how to meal prep even if you only have 5 minutes in the morning!
5. Make Your Grocery Trips Count
Lastly, we need to get our grocery trips under control. Running into the grocery store to just grab a few things, multiple times a week is costly and time sapping! We don’t have time or money for that.
With your simple meal plan for the week, you’ll be able to easily create a shopping list, using my printables. That way you can breeze into the grocery, get what you need and avoid the grocery store like the plague the rest of the week. Less wasted time, fewer splurge purchases because you were too hungry or you had all the kids with you and they kept adding things to your cart!
Ready to Purchase Your Meal Planner?
Ready to get started?
Excited to start creating a weekly menu plan that will work for your family, save you money, and create more time to just enjoy family dinners?
Head over here to get started! Read about all the goodies that are included in your digital Meal Planner for the Family on the Go. Enter your card or Paypal information! Then INSTANTLY DOWNLOAD and go!
