What is your current meal planning strategy? Does it go something like “what do you want for dinner tonight?” “I don’t know, what do you want for dinner tonight?” “I don’t know!” If you’re already doing this, awesome work! But if you’re not, read on.
Some people don’t love meal planning because of the time it takes. It does require some up front time investment, but you can find a way that works for you in less than 15 minutes a week, and I guarantee that will save you at least the same time in “I don’t knows!”
Why meal planning is amazing:
- It reduces the decisions you need to make each day. Decision fatigue is a real thing.
- You’ll save money on eating out.
- You’ll save money on groceries. Going to the grocery store with a list means you’re more likely to buy just what’s on it.
- Cuts down on food waste. You’ll only be buying what you need, and you’re less likely to throw out stuff that doesn’t get used.
- If you’re an omnivore, you can balance your meals to make sure you’re getting 1-2 vegetarian meals each week, 1 red meat meal a week, 1-2 fish meals a week, and the 2-3 meals can be chicken (this balance will be a topic for another time)
- You can effectively meal plan in 15 minutes a week once you’re set up to do it. It doesn’t need to take long.
- Making it a family activity is going to take some of the weight off or your shoulders but will also model this behaviour for your kids. Getting them involved in meal planning naturally will increase their engagement in food prep and what happens in the kitchen in general.
There are as many meal planning options as there are people, but here are three ways you could incorporate this into your routine.
1) Option one – Every week put a plan together for the week ahead. Make a grocery list from that plan and go pick up those groceries. Done!
2) Option two – Set aside some time (maybe a couple of hours) and map out a meal plan for 4 weeks in a row. Pull some resources together (cookbooks, recipe posts), and just start filling. Better yet, have this be an activity for the whole family. Have each of your kids pick a meal, and make sure it gets put somewhere in the grid. Have your partner contribute ideas as well. Once this plan is built, you may never need to meal plan again. A 4-week rotation is pretty doable for most people. You can eat spaghetti once a month and not get too tired of it.
Why I like this method:
- Once you do this once, you don’t really need to think about it again! You might want to redo it in a few months, or do different plans for summer/winter, but this can cut out the need for weekly planning entirely.
- It makes it easy to build your grocery list every week
- If you’re not feeling something in week 2, swap it out for something that you do like in week 3
3) Option three – Set aside some time, your favorite resources (cookbooks, recipes, blogs, whatever you have), and just start making lists of you (and your family’s) favorite recipes. If you’re an omnivore would even separate them into 5 categories: chicken, fish, red meat, vegetarian, and “meals that take less than 30 minutes”. That last category will come in handy!
Use a template to assign a category to each night of the week. For example, Monday on week 1, could always be chicken. Use your list of favorite meals to fill in one week at a time, at a time that’s convenient for you. So, maybe on a weekend morning before you go get groceries.
Why I like this method:
- It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes a week to plan, but you can be a bit more flexible week to week than option 2.
- You can adjust this to your schedule if your schedule changes weekly.
Setting Up the Habit
Whichever method you choose, you’re more likely to make this a habit if:
- You do this at the same time every week. You can set up a calendar reminder for yourself until it becomes a solid habit.
- You pair it with an already existing activity, like watching a TV show in the evening – bring those recipe books to the couch with you!
One Response