Meal Planning – 5 Tips & Tricks

Before I begin, I should be transparent. I’m good at making meal plans but not always following through.

In my house, I get the question, “What are we having for dinner?” from the boys. Sometimes Hubby will also ask me. It’s good to have an idea of what you are cooking for dinner.

Meal planning may seem daunting. It doesn’t need to be.

1. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
   I create plans that fall through ALL the time. There are days I get home from school where I feel exhausted. At those times, I know cooking a full dinner isn’t in the cards. That’s okay. You can certainly save your plan for the next week or the week afterwards.

2. It may seem hard at first. That is okay.
   It will be hard at first. Here are some tips to help with that.
   • Create a list of your family’s favorite meals. Refer to that list. Update that list when you discover a new family favorite.
     
   • Create theme nights for each day of the week.
     • Ethnic night – Mexican/ Asian/ Italian, etc . . .
     • Sandwich or Pizza Night
     • Breakfast for Dinner
     • Soup Night (Salad Night during the summer)
     • Vegetarian Night
     • Family Favorite
     • New to Us
     • Family Dinner Night
     • Crockpot/Instant Pot Night
     • Once you create your theme nights, then it may get easier to plug in meals for that night.
       
   • Find favorite blogs to help you with inspiration.
     
   • What are activities going on that might require you to have an easier meal? Or that might be the night you eat out? You know your family’s situation and schedule. Plan accordingly.
     
   • Meal prep on the weekend or double up a meal during the week.
     • You should only do an hour of meal prepping on Sundays. I’m using Sundays as a base but you may meal prep another day of the week. Plan for only an hour.
     • Cut up veggies for the week.
     • If you are doing something that requires cooked ground beef, cook that up.
     • Put on some music, a book on tape, trashy tv show, or a Podcast to listen/watch during your meal prep. I tell my friends that I’m going to watch a trashy tv show. You don’t actually need to watch that.
     • Use your freezer. Certain items can be frozen, so that will help with your prep times.
     • Appliances will help you. I have an Instant Pot, Ninja Air Fryer, and a crockpot. Each of those can help with my meal prep. You don’t need those appliances. Take stock in what you have and use them.

3. Don’t plan for ALL your meals at first.
   Yes, I said it. Don’t plan for all your meals at first. If all you can do is plan for your dinners, do that. At least you know what you are going to eat for dinner.
   You need to make the meal planning and prepping work for you.

4. Create a rotating list of breakfast/ lunch items.
   Have a list of items that you like to eat for breakfast and lunch. Keep the ingredients for those items in your fridge/ freezer/ pantry. If you like breakfast sandwiches, spend some time making those up. Place them in the freezer for a future breakfast.
   If you have that list written down, then it makes breakfast and lunch time so much simplier.
   
   Since I’m a teacher, I need to have an idea of lunch items that can be eaten quickly between interruptions. That’s just a fact of life when I’m at work. So I’ve created a list of food that is easy for me to eat. I don’t need to create a meal plan for work days because I already know what I’m going to eat.

4. You can plan to eat out.
   You don’t need to be a super person and cook ALL of your meals at home. There are times you can plan to eat out. Hubby and I like to go to local restaurants for dates. I can plan for those dinners or lunches.
   Last week, I put on the menu for us to eat breakfast for dinner. Then a friend asked me out to dinner. Since we were on break, I was able to changed the breakfast for dinner to lunchtime. We still followed the menu but just flipped some things around.

I hope these tips will help you plan your meals.

Happy eating,
Traci