Whenever you hear the phrase “Meal Planning” do you cringe a little bit inside? There was once a time in my life that I hated meal planning and then I realized how easy and budget friendly it can be.
When I am really on top of organizing my meals I find I am less stressed and dinnertime is actually an enjoyable experience rather than a chaotic time during the day. It’s nice to know what I am preparing for dinner early in the day rather than scrambling in the evening to come up with something last minute!
THINGS THAT WORK FOR ME & MY FAMILY
- Find a day during the week that works for you to organize your week, what meals you want to prepare, and what food you have leftover from the previous week that you can use in the meals for this week. I have found that Sunday is the best day for me to do this. It’s the start of a new week and it makes it easier for me to plan that way.
- Ask your children what meals they like best and try to incorporate one or two of those in your weekly meal plan. I find that if I am making meals my kids really enjoy, they eat more and are happier during meal time.
- My biggest tip of all is grocery pick up! If you haven’t heard of the Rosie App or any other grocery pick up program, you definitely need to look into it! Having five kids with a million different schedules, grocery pick up has absolutely saved my life! I have the app on my phone and it makes it easy to order my groceries from anywhere!
- Do your best to stick to the meals you have planned. Sometimes our schedules and plans change, but I do my very best to prepare the meals I have planned and budgeted for. If something comes up, I try and rearrange our meals to make it work moving forward in the week. For instance- sometimes we get invited over to a friends house for dinner, baseball schedules change, or sometimes my day doesn’t go as planned and we end up ordering out one night. If things like this occur during the week, I usually just bump that meal back a night or reorganize my meal schedule.
- Plan with a budget. I have a weekly budget that I try to stay within. However- if an item is on sale that I use all the time, often times I will buy more of that one item even if it means I go over my weekly budget. At the end of the month, my budget usually evens out if I’ve spent more one week and less another week. I try and plan my meals around items that are on sale in general. I also try and plan meals that use some of the same ingredients that I can use throughout the week.
APPLIANCES AND TRICKS
- I love using my Crock Pot or Instant Pot when I need to. I have a large family and so I have the 8 quart Instant Pot. The smaller one would be fine if you have a smaller family. If I am in a time crunch, the Instant Pot helps me prepare meals fast. If I am using a freezer meal or don’t have a lot of prep time during the day, I will use my Crock Pot in the morning so I have a meal ready that evening.
- A food processor is something I use constantly to prepare meals faster! This is a huge life saver for me!
- My friend recently introduced me to the Alligator 2-in-1 Vegetable Chopper Set and I love this appliance too! I had one a long time ago when I was first married but I never used it so I sold it at a garage sale. I bought a new one and now I use it all the time! It chops your produce evenly and a lot faster than hand chopping!
Also- If you love freezer meals, I highly suggest taking a class from Citrus Pear. My friends and I took a class last weekend and it was so much fun! We made 70 meals in under two hours!
Meal prep takes a little while to get used to, but once you get a routine, I promise it makes life so much easier and less stressful! I hope some of these tips help get you motivated to meal plan if you don’t already. Try the Rosie App if you haven’t ever used it before! If you have any tips or tricks that work for you, I’d love to hear them too!
