Hi friends! Can you believe that it’s already January 2023!? I feel like parts of this summer dragged on, but then other parts passed at hyperspeed!
With the start of school looming in front of me, I can’t help but also feel a little relief; we will finally start having more structure and routine to our days and weeks. For this Type A mom, that feels heavenly after the non-structured summer days we’ve been living. So in true fashion, I wanted to share with you my tips on getting a meal plan together. And I’m not talking about a super rigid schedule that will take you hours to cook and prep the meals, because that just isn’t sustainable.
So I want to share my let’s-have-a-general-plan-that-allows-for-flexibility-to-pivot-when-things-don’t-go-as-planned-that-week approach to planning meals for my family.
- Sit down and make a schedule for your week. This can be as detailed or as not detailed as you want it to be. But look at all of your appointments, lessons, and practices for a week and write it down. This will give you a good idea of what nights you will have time to cook and what nights you won’t. I suggest doing this with your partner or significant other and having it all written down in a visible place for you both. We have a dry erase board in our kitchen that has all of our commitments for the week and what I have planned for meals listed out by the day. Find what works best for you, but write. It. down.
- Pick out recipes based on your time availability. Have a super packed week with soccer practice every evening? Plan really simple basic meals or batch cook a couple recipes on the weekend for leftovers during the week. Pro hack, put together a list of 10-15 recipes that were winners and keep those on hand and rotate them out each week. Be sure you read the recipes prior to committing to them so you know what you’re getting into instead of realizing in the moment that the beef has to marinate overnight or the cook time is 1 hour.
- Once you have a schedule for your week and your recipes picked out, make a quick list of ingredients you will need. I like to order our groceries ahead of time, so I’ll save everything in the cart until I’m ready to purchase, but do what works best for you. The key is having a little bit of structure when you go to the grocery store. This will keep you efficient when walking through the aisles.
- Execute your plan as best you can, but give yourself grace if you have to pivot in the middle of the week. Most weeks I end up swapping our leftover night or the recipe I’m cooking because small things pop up and change the time I have available to cook. It’s ok. Be flexible. Having a plan going into the week just takes away some of the stress and will make your week more organized, but it doesn’t have to be set in stone.