Making a meal plan can be difficult! These seven meal planning tips will make your life easier.
Meal planning also saves you time and money. By meal planning you can buy only what you need for the week, which means less trips to the grocery store and less food waste.
Give these tips a try, and let me know below what your favorite tips are!
Plan to plan
Try to find a time in your week when you can make a plan. This time should include time to search for recipes, check out grocery sales, and make your meal plan and grocery list.
Saturday night is my planning time. I look over the grocery ads, my calendar for the week's activities, and the weather to help me make my plan for the upcoming week's meals.
Keep track of your finds
Just because it's not time to make your meal plan doesn't mean you can't search for recipes! If you find yourself with a few minutes while you're waiting somewhere, flip through Pinterest or your favorite website for dinner recipes.
You can either pin the recipes to a weekly dinner board, or you can copy the links to a doc for quick access later.
Have a rotation
When it comes to meals, it's ok to have favorites! About half of our dinners are tried-and-true favorites and the other half are new recipes.
Having those favorites makes it easier to plan! You can keep track of your favorite recipes in a planner, in a doc, or in a note.
Get your family involved
Chances are, the members of your family all have different favorite meals. When you're making your list of tried-and-true recipes, consider adding a category for individual favorites.
When I'm running low on inspiration, I can pull from those recipes, and I know that at least one person will be excited about what we're having for dinner!
Put your leftovers to work
First, it's important to understand how you feel about leftovers. Some people are ok reheating and re-eating a meal day after day. Other people don't like to eat the same meal twice in a row.
If you're the type of person who can eat the same meal every day, then plan to reheat your leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day, and that's one less meal to make!
If you're the type of person who doesn't like to eat the same thing two nights in a row, plan to repurpose your leftovers. Either way, it's important to plan to eat the food you've already made.
Don't forget your freezer
I highly recommend either taking an afternoon and making a few freezer meals or doubling up when you make freezer-friendly dinners. I started making freezer meals when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, and I loved the convenience so much that I've never stopped.
Since I have those meals as a backup, I can plan for a freezer meal on a busy night (or when I just don't think I'll feel like cooking). That way I don't have to stress or hit a drive through.
Keep your pantry stocked
It's important to have a well-stocked pantry. I rely on my pantry in two ways.
First, I try to build in a buffer day if I know that I'm going to have a packed week. This allows me to shuffle around my meal plan and move a recipe that takes more cooking time to another night if necessary. When I do that, I grab something quick, like pasta and spaghetti sauce, from my pantry to make a super quick and easy dinner.
If I don't need to use that buffer day, I pull ingredients out of my pantry to make an easy dinner so that I don't have to hit the grocery store for more food.
With these seven meal planning tips, you can make your meal planning sessions faster and easier. You'll be able to find time to plan, keep track of your recipes, make meal time easier on yourself, and save money by not eating out as much.
Give meal planning a try and see how it can help you!
Leave a Reply