So, before I began meal planning, we would have nothing in the house for dinner. I’m not even kidding. Chris or I would be running to the store on our lunch breaks or after work to pick up something quick to cook. Since this is how we did it, we rarely had anything new and exciting for dinner. We were just grabbing simple things that we could grab and go. OR, even worse, we were just grabbing fast food on our way home. It was awful. We were spending way more money than we should have been, wasting time, and not really enjoying our meals.
Once I began meal planning, things changed. We hardly ever eat fast food anymore and we all enjoy dinner more. I plan dinners for two weeks, do my grocery shopping during the weekend, and then we are all set for the next two weeks.
When I meal plan for breakfast and lunch it’s pretty simple and honestly, we hardly ever have what is actually on the plan for these meals. I only put it on the plan so I know what food to buy and have an idea of what options we have. We always have eggs, bread, ingredients for pancakes, bagels, lunch meat, frozen pizza (on days we need a quick lunch), PB&J, on hand anyway so we stick with this most times. On the weekends our breakfasts get a little fancier because we have more time. During the week Chris, Peyton, and Nevaeh have to leave for work and school pretty early so we do quick stuff. My toddlers are so easy when it comes to breakfast… Sylas always wants Honey Bunches of Oats (in our house these are known as Honey and Boats since Sylas couldn’t say the whole thing when he first started eating them a couple years ago) and a banana, and JoJo always wants eggs, toast, milk, and a banana. Liam eats whatever is put in front of him, so it varies.
Anyhow… back to my meal plan.
So, the way that I do it is super simple.
- Make a list of the meals you plan to have. Don’t bother writing the ingredients out just yet. Simply make a list of however many meals you are planning for. I do two weeks at a time, so 14 meals. We do eat leftovers once a week, but I still put “leftovers” on the list just so I don’t get confused thinking I missed two days.
- Plan for events and late nights. If you have big kids who have sporting events or school activities, make sure you think about that when you are planning your meals. You will want to plan a crockpot meal or a leftover night on those nights. Peyton has baseball on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we normally do a crockpot meal on Tuesdays and leftovers on Thursdays.
- Write the ingredients for one meal at a time. I don’t look at all the meals that include one pound of chicken and then write, “3 pounds of chicken” on my list. I only look at one meal at a time and write out the ingredients for only that meal. It seems tedious, but I find that I stay more organized and don’t miss ingredients or add too many of a certain thing to the grocery list. I do this on a piece of scrap paper or on the back of the printable (included below) and add the ingredients to the grocery list on my printable later.
- Check your pantry. Sometimes I forget what I have on hand and I hate wasting money. Nothing irritates me more than buying something and then discovering the exact ingredient is already in my pantry at home. I learned my lesson quickly here. Once my list is finished, I go through my cupboards and pantry and cross any items off the list that I already have.
- Re-write the ingredients in an organized way. So now that you have all the ingredients written out separately and you crossed off any items you already have, it’s time to organize. The way that I do this is by imagining my grocery store and starting in the back of the store. Anything that is in the back, I put at the beginning of my list. I go through all the individualized ingredient lists for meals and THEN I combine all the ingredients. This is where the “3 pounds of chicken” gets written instead of “1 pound of chicken”. I visually work my way to the front of the store, writing my list in the order that I will shop. This organized list gets written on the printable.
- Check your meal plan each night. Don’t mess up your meal plan and be stuck with fast food for dinner because you forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer!! Can you tell we eat a lot of chicken? It’s been my example every time. LOL. But seriously, this has happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. I start getting my ingredients out to make dinner only to realize I never took the frozen meat out of the freezer the night before. UGH. Then I have to do the “call of shame” to my husband and tell him we have nothing for dinner. Oops.
I didn’t get a picture of my Meal Plan list filled out before I tossed it (I clearly wasn’t thinking), but I’ll share a list of the dinners I have planned for the next two weeks.
Mon: Slow Cooker Potato Soup – This is the best potato soup recipe I have EVER tried and I have tried a bunch of them. I do leave the bacon out, however.
Tues: Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells – When I made this before, I thought it has too much spinach so I am going to put less spinach this time.
Wed: 30-min Garlic Parmesan Pasta With Crispy Chicken
Thurs: Leftovers
Fri: Tacos
Sat: Taco Stuffed Potatoes
Sun: Pizza
Mon: Stuffing Topped Pork Chops
Tues: Chicken Enchilada Soup
Wed: Corn Chowder
Thurs: Leftovers
Fri: Ham and Turkey Club Sliders
Sat: Chicken Fried Rice – One of my husband’s FAVORITE recipes. He takes the leftovers to work with him every time.
Sun: Pizza
Every recipe for this current meal plan we have tried before and loved EXCEPT the corn chowder. That is the only recipe we haven’t tried yet. For the Taco Stuffed Potatoes, we use taco leftovers from the day before. We have also tried it with chicken tacos and it is just as delicious (if not MORE delicious).
Tell me what is on your meal plan for the week! I’d like to see your yummy ideas. Oh, and tell me which version of the Meal Plan printable you downloaded. I couldn’t decide which one was the cutest!
