So, you have your two lists. Items your family loves, and new things to try. First, figure out if you'd like to start with a weekly plan, or dive in and try an entire month. Let's look first at a weekly plan.
How does your week look? For myself, my daughter has a dance class one night of the week that creeps into our dinner hour. I love my crockpot (will do a future post on this!) and I make sure that her dance night I have either a dinner in the crockpot, or later in the month, that it is a re-heat and serve day. My kids (especially the littlest) like to eat rather early. When we get home there is NO time to prep. I need to have a dinner that is quick to get on the table.
Now that you have figured out your busy days, do you tend to have a free day or two where you have time to prepare a meal? Jot down a meal on that day that takes you a bit more time where you won't have the stress of trying to squeeze meal prep in.
You now have perhaps two days figured out. A meal for a busy day and a meal for an easy day. Take a look at your favorite list, and pick four more off that list and jot them onto your calendar. You now have six days covered and one left to fill. Fill that last spot up with a new dish to try (I like to make new meals on a day where I have more time as I'm not as familiar with the recipe). As always, this plan will be different for each family. For myself, I usually eat at my parents home one night a week, and only need to fill in six dinners at home. Perhaps your family likes to do a pizza or take out night? Figure these all into your weekly plan.
Are you wanting to make the leap to a monthly plan? Last month (April) was the first time I gave this a go, and I loved it. Obviously it is similar to planning a weekly meal plan, however, at the beginning of the month, I ensured that the meals I prepared, I made double of. The remainder I froze, and at the end of the month, I had essentially no meal prep. Because there were four weeks in the month, eating items in the fourth week we had eaten in the first week, did not seem like we were always eating the same thing. As things changed over the course of the month (an unexpected night out for instance), I'd write down on the May calendar, items that were unused in our freezer from April that I could transfer over. I like that we are entering May with a few items at the ready. At a glimpse, week 1 and week 2 were all different items. No repetition. There were also probably two new dishes we tried. Week 3 and week 4 had 'leftover' meals from the first two weeks, but also with a couple fresh meals (just to keep interest up).
Any questions? Do you have a meal plan now written down either for the upcoming week, or month? I'll do a post tomorrow with the final step - creating your grocery list.
This may all seem a little time consuming, but the end result is worth it. Less effort in the kitchen on a daily basis, and more money saved at the grocery store!
Our first week of May will look like:
L/O frozen macaroni - homemade with sweet potato hidden inside (I enjoy fooling the kids) ;)
Chicken Fingers & fries with salad
Spaghetti
Pizza - my daughters 4th birthday dinner choice!
L/O Burritos
One night dinner out
How 'bout yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment