Meal Planning Tips
This is my favorite meal planner tool other than good ole fashioned post it notes
Meal planning has made my working mom life easier. I don’t know about you, but in my family, we all eat different things. I avoid grains and fruit and that's all my kids want. How do I not go insane making 50 dishes per meal? Weekly I set aside some time to make a meal plan. It’s simply become a must at this point. It's really helped me stop wasting food and money and enjoy food time a little more as the primary home cook and a mega foodie at heart.
Make A Plan
Plan at least a few meals for the coming week and write them down somewhere. I love this dry erase meal planner sticker from Amazon that I keep inside one of my kitchen cabinets. This doesn’t have to be super formal, fancy, or extensive. I roughly follow a weekly theme template with Italian, Mexican, Asian, American, Crockpot as themes. I try to use leftovers every few days so I typically only plan a few meals and predict the rest will be more “throw and go” quick style.
🚸 I first think what can I get the kids to eat that isn't terrible for them? Usually starting with grain, protein, fruit. I try to use whole grains and minimal processed foods as much as possible. Sometimes I start with what I want if I have a specific craving, but often I save that for the weekends or lunchtime when it’s just me.
👸 Next I think, which veggies are good with that? Or do I have on hand? How can I adjust and add to that to make it gluten and dairy free for me? How can I make it gourmet for my inner foodie goddess? Throw an egg, feta, or avocado on it?!?
🍪 Lastly, I like to have a little treat most days. It's often chia pudding or a small peanut butter cup. On weekends I might bake some muffins or cookies. Food is joy for me.
Make Grocery List
As I make my grocery list I add things in order of the store I’m going to. I tend to rotate between a few stores for different reasons. I love Trader Joe’s for basics and go there most often. I go to a regular grocery store or our local co-op once per month for things I can’t get at TJ’s. I go to Costco once per month for meat, some produce, and pantry items that we use a lot of. I go to our weekly farmers market for produce when I can. Here are the following types of items to add to your list.
Run out of items. I keep a running list as we use things up. This has helped me stop having too much food in my pantry that went unused and cluttered my vision as I cook and prepare meals. Most of what I run out of is not an every day item.
Regular daily items. Those foods that we consume a lot that we don’t want to run out of. For us this is apples, bananas, apple sauce, bread, milk, cheese, hummus, sunflower butter, and a few others. I basically buy these every week, wherever I go.
Meal plan items. Anything that is not already on hand or listed that will be needed for the meal plan.
Special events treats or cravings. Try to plan for upcoming events, potlucks, birthdays, etc.
Bonus Tips
I try to only shop once per week. I feel like I overspend and overbuy if I shop more frequently. If I do one more trip a week, it’s ok, I just really try to keep it to the ingredient that I need that I forgot in my weekly trip, because I always forget at least one thing. This week it was toilet paper which is the worst thing to feel low on! Lol, remember the great covid toilet paper panic?!
Here is my current weekly template
I love my planning post-it’s! I use the smaller post-it’s that are completely sticky for this. I have posted these for meal inspiration in my same kitchen cabinet with the dry erase meal planning board and they really help on those days when I just cannot with the food. I have about 12 different lists! With the following…
Here are our favorite foods by type
This is a list of the grain like foods we eat often (oops where are the potatoes at?)
Weekly meal plan template. This is my template that I use as a guideline each week (see pic). This list has each day of the week and the meal theme. Example: Monday Italian, Tuesday Roasted / Leftovers, Wednesday Asian Rice Bowls.
Meal ideas by theme. For example, under Italian I’ve listed our favorite Italian foods like homemade pizza, tortellini, zoodles, pasta, meatballs, marinara, pesto.
Mom’s food restrictions. I always have something I’m not eating so I list it for motivation and for my partner for when he cooks he can be reminded.
A list for each of the following favorite food types that we eat often: grains, fruits, veggies for kids, veggies for grown ups, proteins, extras. For example, under grains I have listed cereal, oats, bread, bagels, crackers, tortialls, corn chips, rice,…
A family meal template reminder. This is a simple reminder of what a balanced meal has. Grain + Fruit + Protein + Veggie = Happy Family.
A kid breakfast template reminder. Grain + Fruit + Protein. Basically I don’t serve kids vegetables for breakfast and I don’t eat breakfast.
Love to the Home Cooks
Special shoutout to my OG meal planning index card that lived on my fridge for the last 8 years and inspired this post!
To any and all home cooks out there: I see you! You are doing magic feeding those around you and kuddos for trying to do it well. It is not easy. I have noticed that it feels like a thankless job yet it really help people in so many ways! I have blood sugar issues and a family history with food that always has me thinking about food sooner and differently than others would. So, perhaps that’s my gift to the world, the feeding of people well, before they think about it. Perhaps it’s your gift too. And remember, if day-to-day cooking and meal planning is not your jam, that’s ok too. You are allowed to take breaks, keep it simple, pay someone to help you, or live off of energy bars for a while. It’s all good! There are many ways to eat and feed yourself and others in this life. I noticed some of my wisdom momma friends hate cooking and I think I can’t blame them after they were not really given a choice in that role a generation or two ago, were they? I’m grateful for all the amazing, home cooked meals that I’ve eaten that I didn’t cook.
Any favorite meals or planning tips are appreciated!