Give Yourself a Break with Meal Planning: It works!

Mom is a super hero. Everyone in the family depends on her. She keeps the house clean, gets the laundry done, monitors home work, plans activities and family time, keeps up with the relatives, plans holidays. The list goes on and on and she keeps going and going, until one day: crash!

If you’re a mom, you know what I mean. When I was a single, working mom with three young kids I had to be creative about how to get a break so that I didn’t crash. One of my secret weapons was meal planning. I actually hired a consultant to teach me how to make meal time easier at home.

Today, I’m sharing what I learned about planning and shopping for family meals in hopes that it will help make life for all you super moms a little easier. You may say you don’t have time to sit down and do the work of meal planning, but trust me you’ll be so glad that you did. I’ve used this tool for years and it works!

Here are a few ways that meal planning will make your life easier and your family happier:

• ·      It will save you at least 3 to 4 hours a week.
• ·      It will save you money especially—not more last minute take out or restaurant meals
• ·      Everyone will know what’s for dinner, most importantly you!  
• ·      Home cooked meals are healthy for the body and the soul: they bring families together to share and relate.

How Meal Planning Works

Make the Commitment

First, set aside a time to get organized and do some preliminary work. Then decide on a day and time to write up your weekly plan. You will thank me, I promise!

Get Organized

Take an inventory of the contents of your fridge, pantry and cabinets so you know what you have when you start your planning. Who knows, you may not even need to go shopping for a few days depending on what’s there!

Put all your recipes on one place.

Make a list of family favorites and/or quick and easy meals.

Create Your Plan

Make your list of meals and then build your grocery list.

Plan three or four dinners from scratch, and one or two dinners using leftovers from previous evenings.

Give yourself a break and go out to eat or order in one night a week. When my kids were growing up, Sunday was my night. I still refuse to cook on Sundays unless I have company!

Make a weekly schedule for shopping, food preparation and cooking and stick with it. We are creatures of habit and all these tasks get easier over time.

Tips for Success

Bring your family into the process. Ask them what they’d like to eat and bring your kids with you when you shop. You can even get them involved in meal preparation a few days a week.

Plan meals that use lots of the same ingredients to make shopping easier and take advantage of seasonal vegetables.

Stick with vegetables and other foods that your family likes and introduce something new once a week. 

Simplify weekday mornings by offering only two choices for breakfast. Save the big family breakfast for the weekends and then you can get everyone helping with the cooking and cleaning.

I hope you have as much success with planning your meals as I do. Send us your recipes and experiences. We are always happy to hear from you!