Well Planned Day – Busy Gal

Whether we love to cook or not, meal preparation can be quite the nemesis in the middle of our full lives. Just about the time we have a great idea, we open the cabinet to discover that we don’t have all of the ingredients necessary to follow through with that great idea. By this time, the masses are starving, and it really is just easier to grab whatever’s hot at the local pizzeria. 

Like with anything else, making sure we are able to regularly offer nourishing meals without exploding the grocery budget or our sanity requires planning and organization. 

Start with Ideas

The best place to start is with an arsenal of at least one week’s worth of meal ideas. For some families, this need only be one main meal a day. Other families need to plan out every meal. Either way, a list of meals is helpful. 

There are several ways to go about this. 

• Create a list of family favorites that are easy to make. 
• Inventory your cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer. Armed with that inventory, consider what meals you can make with as few additional purchases as possible. 
• Take a look at the current sales, purchase those sale items, then determine what meals could be made from them. 
• Peruse a cookbook or recipe box and jot down meals that look like they would be a good fit for your needs. 

Make a Plan

The key to menu planning is to figure out how to work it in a way that will turn it into a habit for you. Here are some ideas: 

• Have a rotation. One easy approach is to build a two-week rotation. Once you’ve completed the rotation, just start it again. With this setup, you’ll only repeat a meal a couple of times each month.
• Enjoy taco Tuesday! Assign a specific meal to a specific day of the week, such as tacos on Tuesdays and pizza on Fridays. The specifics may change, with one week being traditional tacos while another week might see shrimp tacos. But, by knowing what general meal you are having each day of the week, much of the struggle is eliminated. 
• Choose a meat. Instead of a specific menu item, have a meat assigned to each day of the week (as well as a meatless day, if desired), then just figure out what to wrap around it. 
• Pick a meal—any meal. Create a list of crock pot, freezer, quick/take-out, or family favorite meals and store it in your planner. Every week, make sure the groceries are on hand for two or three suggestions from each category, then pick one from the list each day. 

There are many other ideas out there to help ensure that meal planning runs smoothly each week. The key is to figure out what works best for you, then do it! Some weeks will be better than others. But, being diligent to plan will always pay off.