SHELLEY HEAPHY
With fall around the corner and the hope of a normal start back to school and extra curriculars (amidst COVID), meal planning is on my mind. We have been trying to . . .
go to the grocery store less and less making one trip more lasting, but that requires planning. Summertime has us terrible at planning meals, opting for quick sandwiches, eggs, bbq’ing and salads but I know once fall gets here I’ll need to get my organizing back on track. Getting something healthy, yummy and nutritious meals to the table at a good time is hard to do without a plan. Meal planning can save you money, save you time, help you avoid wasting food, help you keep a balanced plate and help you provide a variety of different meals. If this is you, then read on for some great meal planning tips.
1- Start small; OK, full disclosure, planning and executing a full weeklong menu plan when you’ve never done it can be hard to stick to. So, start small, plan two nights for the first week, then increase then when you’re ready and figure out what works best for you. Some people plan a week at a time; others plan for longer amounts of time at once also.
2- Map out your plan; this could be in a notebook, on a chalkboard, on your phone, on an old envelope – writing it out helps you commit and stay accountable. In terms of making the actual menu you can use any recipes you’ve saved on pinterest, or in magazines, old favorites, basic meals, family recipes and if you really don’t know what to put in your plan there are tons of apps and sites online to help you get started.
3- Groceries: Organize your list based on category; or the layout of the store. Itemizing your list to include the ingredients that you need for your menu will help you avoid impulse buys.
4- Meal prep. – Meal planning and prepping are two different tasks. Once you have your menu chosen you can start planning when to prep which items. For example if you are having chicken wraps on Wednesday and bbq chicken on Monday you can make all the chicken Monday and save what you will need for Wednesday’s meal. To keep yourself organized write down what needs to be done when for the week, it’ll save you time in the long run.
5- Take stock: take stock of your pantry, fridge and freezer before you come up with your menu. Use ingredients you have in stock to avoid food waste, if you see something that’ll be going bad soon use it in your first recipe of the week.
6- Cook in bulk: When you have a menu item that freezes well try and choose that for a time when you have extra time to make a few batches. I love making double batches of things like shepherds pie, lasagna, spaghetti sauce and soups. These all freeze well and are heavenly when you need a quick meal for a busy week. The extra time it takes you to create it is well worth it on a night when you have no time to put in. A lot of these also make for great leftovers and Thermos lunches.
7- Make one meal…. This is not only helpful with meal planning but also with stopping your kids from being picky eaters. As long as there’s one thing they like in the meal, they won’t starve. It’ll also save you time and sanity…
8- Take a night off: it’s great to cook and serve up healthy, made from scratch meals but everyone needs a night off. Choose a night that you can use for leftovers, making breakfast for supper, splurging on take out or everyone fending for themselves.
9- Involve the kids: kids love to have a say in what they are eating. This is true for lunch boxes and suppertime. We often have weeks where everyone chooses a meal – this makes for coming up with our menu plan super easy. It helps get through the meals they don’t like or aren’t happy with when they know their choice is coming soon.
10- Plan theme nights: Taco Tuesday, Meatless Monday, Wacky Wednesday, Pasta Thursday, Fish Friday…or whatever else you can come up with. Mixing it up keeps everyone interested.
Cut this out and tape it up if you think these tips may come in handy sometime in the future. I plan to put them to good use come fall.
