With families becoming busier with the hustle and bustle of fall schedules, it is a great time to plan ahead and make your life a little easier. One of the areas that I enjoy planning ahead on is meals. If I have a plan of what we are going to eat each night for dinner then it makes my family less likely to eat out, more likely to stay on budget, and I always know how to answer the dreaded question of "Mom what's for dinner?"
Through trial and error, I found a system that worked well for me. Feel free to tailor the ideas listed below to meet the needs of your family.
Here's how to create a monthly meal plan that works:
1. Create a Pantry and Freezer List.
It is amazing the food that can be found in your pantry and freezer. I am always shocked to find numerous items that I had forgotten about. Go through all of your food and organize and get rid of anything that has gone bad. Next, I make a list of items that can be used in dinners, usually this is meat, potatoes/rice/pasta, and frozen vegetables.
2. Choose Your Recipes.
You will be pleasantly surprised how quickly you can find 30 recipes to fill in the month. I use the Paprika App to organize all of my recipes. I really like this App because after I choose a recipe I can easily add the needed items to my grocery list. My husband then has the App on his phone so he too can see our list if I send him to the store in my place. Find a system that works for you. I have other friends that use Alexa, so really it is up to you and the possibilities are endless. Also be sure to ask your family members if they are in the mood for any particular meal. If you can't come up with enough ideas, now is the time to go through all of your recipe Pins, Macaroni Kid EATS! ideas, your favorite food blogs, and any saved/printed recipes you have stashed away.
2. Plan!
Once you have a month of recipes, print out one of our Meal Planning Calendars. You can either choose monthly or weekly.
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I personally prefer the entire month and I always recommend writing the month and calendar days in pen, but meal planning in pencil so you can erase.
How to plan your calendar:
- Note any nights that aren't typical. Think about nights when you'll be away from home, or have other family obligations that necessitate a quick dinner.
- Schedule "easy" meals on days you're in a hurry. Slow cooker recipes are great on evenings when you need to have food ready and waiting. Same for any meals that you simply heat up (or eat cold). If you always have leftovers from a particular meal, schedule that for the night or two before a busy evening.
- Don't forget Pizza Fridays! Or meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays... you get the idea. My family always orders pizza on Friday as a reward for making it through the week! See meal planning does not mean never eating out.
- Fill in the holes. As you work to fill the remaining days on the calendar, think about shared ingredients that will need to be used up in a couple days. Also, consider ingredients that you can prep on one day and continue to use over the next day or two in order to cut down on your prep time.
3. Stick to the plan!
Be sure to check the meal plan often to make sure that you are sticking to it. On Sunday nights I review my meal plan for the week. I take anything out of the freezer that needs to thaw and prep any necessary chopping.
I like to grocery shop for two weeks at a time. This is usually the perfect amount of time for my family for perishable items. This also gives me a little flexibility in my schedule. If something comes up and I don't have time to create that more labor intensive meal I can easily swap it out for something that is easier.
4. Keep the momentum going.
Now that you have a framework started the following months will be even easier! Keep meals that you family really enjoy and scratch ones that were not their favorites. I only usually try maybe 1-3 new recipes a month. You might find that your family too enjoys the same familiar meals. Make a mental note of meals that create a ton of leftovers so you can account for that on future meal plans.
Meal planning has really helped my family to have less food waste. Grocery shopping is easier because I have a list and a plan and am not just picking things out randomly. It is also easier to spend less with a list. I also no longer make random grocery trips for items that I forgot because I had it on the list.
Thanks so much to The Little Pencil Company for creating meal planning calendars for the Macaroni Kid community.
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