Meal planning. I feel that you either love it or hate it. For the most part I do enjoy meal planning, although it hasn’t always been that way. I’ve been meal planning ever since Matt and I got married 16 years ago. Over those years I have learned a great deal about how to make meal planning less stressful, and dare I say fun.
If you prefer videos, you can scroll to the bottom of this post for my YouTube video.
What is meal planning?
So incase you are new to the game, meal planning is simply planning out in advanced what you are going to eat for dinner. You can plan a few days at time, a week, or even months at a time. Personally I like to plan two weeks at a time as I have been trying to do most of my grocery shopping every two weeks.
Why should I meal plan?
So there are lots of reasons to meal plan, but these are mine:
- So I know what to buy at the grocery store. By planning my meals, I can write down the ingredients I need and then know what I need to shop for. This saves me money since I am buying things I know I will need, then skipping those items that may just end up rotting in my fridge.
- The dreaded question: When my kids ask “what’s for dinner” I can look at my plan and let them know.
- Plan around classes and sports: I can look at my schedule and make sure to plan something simple on nights that we have lots of stuff going on.
- It saves me a headache of having to figure out what to eat every night. With my plan written down I know when I need to take something out of the freezer, or what meals may be more involved.
What do I need for meal planning?
Now I know that some people buy planners or other journals to plan, but you don’t need anything fancy.
- Really all you need is someplace to write down what meals you are going to eat. I simply go to printabulls and print up a blank calendar. My August meal plan is below. You can also see how I include appointments, playdates, or other things to better help me know what I can cook for that day.
- A place to write down your grocery list. You can search for templates that have ingredients broken down by type, but that isn’t what I do. I simply use a scrap of paper to write down my grocery list. What I think is helpful is writing your list in the order that you shop the store. For example when I go to Aldi I start at the fruit, so that’s the first thing on my list. The last stop is frozen so those items go on the bottom of my list.
Other helpful items
The next few items are not things I have always used. In the last few years I have added them and they have made life so. much. easier in terms of meal planning.
A list of what is in your freezer.
For those of you who follow me regularly you may know that Matt and I buy 1/2 a cow each year. When Matt brings it home we vacuum seal the meat and put it our freezers. I write everything down so I know what cuts of meat we have (we also have a ton of ground beef from the cow, but I don’t write that down, I just know we have a ton of it). Once I use an item I cross it off.
If I am shopping and see that chicken is on sale I will buy a few packs, freeze it, then write it on my list.
I think another important part of meal planning is not letting leftovers go to waste. When we end up with a lot of leftovers (like when we smoke a meal, or make a big batch of soup) we will freeze some. I always like to record what we have frozen so on those days that are super busy I can just pull out a meal. You can get your own blank What’s in the Freezer PDF here.
A list of your favorite meals
This is a new addition to my meal planning and I wish I did it earlier. I asked Matt and my daughters what meals they love, and created a master list of our family favorites. I then took it a step further and typed them up based on what type of meals they are (i.e. baked, crockpot, grilled). If you are anything like my family then in the summer you may grill a lot, but winter = all the soup. I also broke them down even more based on the type of meat, since I am trying to get a larger variety in our rotation.
Now when I meal plan 70%-80% of what we eat comes from this list. Then for the other meals I will try a new recipe I found on Pinterest, or in a cookbook. I do love trying new recipes, so some days we may try a few new meals. If we like them, they get added onto the list. You can get our Family Favorites List here, if you are looking for ideas for your own family. If you want your own blank copy, find it here.
PS: If you have any favorite crock pot or instant pot meals please leave them in the comments! As you can see I am lacking.
A place to keep it all
If you look at my calendar earlier in the post you will see it is on a clipboard. I keep my calendar, list of what’s in the freezer, family favorites, and our grocery list all on that clipboard. I then keep the clipboard on our kitchen desk, since it is easily accessible.
If you prefer videos, you can check out my YouTube video where I talk about meal planning and kind of walk you through what a meal planning session looks like.
