Now, go through Steps 1-6 for Week Two, taking just as much care to create a Master List and adding notes about your trials and successes. Next time, consider a double batch of granola for school mornings and make the omelet over the weekend. Perhaps baking an omelet for breakfast on a school day wasn’t such a great idea, but your family loved the chocolate granola you served Saturday morning. Grab your Master List and make notes about things that didn’t work and what did. Get your shopping done and start serving meals based on your weekly menu plan. You might even find they start looking forward to Meatloaf or Pad Thai nights. Displaying your menu plan isn’t just about saving your voice: once they see you’ve got the week’s meals planned, and that none include the drive-through, they’ll stop asking for it as often. Next time they ask what’s for dinner, you can point to the list. Hang your weekly menu plan where family members can see it. For example, if you have a recipe that calls for ground beef but you’ve got ground turkey in the freezer, use what you have! Step 5. Don’t be afraid to substitute ingredients. If you’re short on something or don’t have it, put it on your grocery list. Look through your cupboards, refrigerator, freezer, and pantry to find what ingredients you don’t need to buy.
#SIMPLE MEAL PLANNING HOW TO#
(More on how to use that in a bit.) Step 4. Consolidate as you work, so instead of having “1 cup brown rice” on your list three times, you wind up with “brown rice: 3 cups.” This is your Master List for the week. Don’t forget to list the spices and condiments, too. On the other, list the ingredients required for each. List the meals you plan to serve on one half. Take a piece of paper and draw a line from top to bottom. Then I alternate the proteins so we aren’t eating the same one on two nights in a row.īy subscribing, I consent to receiving emails. If your list of trusty recipes is all chicken-based, head back to your recipe file and mix things up! For my family, I try to serve two chicken meals, 2 meatless meals, 2 fish meals, and one beef meal per week. Sort by proteinsĮven people who love chicken get tired of eating it for dinner every night. Doing so gives them ownership of the menu, and they’re less likely to complain when you serve something they’ve requested. Ask your family what they like, and plan your menu around that. Those approaches lead to a refrigerator of spoiled leftovers they won’t eat or ingredients you’re too tired to cook. Now isn’t the time to test a bunch of new recipes you saw on Pinterest or to try expanding your family’s tastes. Is dinner more your thing? Put your effort into crafting a dinner menu for the week. Does your family eat breakfast together in the morning? Start by planning a week of breakfasts they’ll love. Rather than jumping into planning every meal for the week, start by choosing one meal to focus on for the first week or two. Are they getting fruits and vegetables with each meal? What about whole grains? Making these part of your weekly menu plan improves nutrition, too. Once you’re not making decisions at the last minute, you’ll be able to think about whether your family is eating an appropriately varied diet. You’ll also spare yourself the anxiety and annoyance of trying to decide every single night what to make.
By properly planning your weekly menu, you’ll be able to turn leftovers into entirely new creations, saving you an enormous amount of time. Making just one trip to the store is just the beginning. A weekly menu plan lets you schedule meals everyone will happily eat. If your family is as picky as mine, you also have twenty-one small arguments. If your family eats three meals a day, seven days a week, you have to come up with meal ideas twenty-one times a week. As you grow more confident, you’ll be able to plan your menu around the store’s sales, too. Going to the grocery store once results in fewer temptations and impulse purchases. When you make a weekly meal plan, you also make a shopping list for the week. Setting aside time to make a weekly menu can solve a variety of problems. Planning and cooking meals can feel stressful, especially when you’ve already got a busy schedule.
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