Organized & Inspired: Meal Planning

1.03.2011

There are certain aspects of parenthood that seem like a never ending cycle. That each time you do the laundry, you know a new load of dirty clothes will appear tomorrow. This goes for tidying up, vacuuming, doing dishes, etc. One area that becomes sheer drudgery for me if I don't plan ahead is cooking meals. Leaving this to the last minute produces panic and, more often than not, ramen noodles.

Over the past few years I have found a plan that works well for me. Using two different printable sheets I can make grocery shopping and meal time MUCH more organized.



Step 1: The first step is writing a document in a word processing program. You are going to save this document for future reference and add to it often. Each family's will be different. It is a MASTER MEAL LIST. This is a list of every single meal your family eats on a regular basis. I separate mine by proteins. You'll want to think about this over the course of a few days and add to it as meals your family makes come to you.

Step 2: Print out a WEEKLY MEAL PLANNER. It's available for free download here (along with the GROCERY LIST). There are two per sheet.  Cut down the middle to use.  If you want to plan by two weeks (like I do...it coincides with our paychecks) or by month, print multiple lists. Grab a pen. Now, open your MASTER MEAL LIST and start with Monday and plan a week's worth of meals...varying proteins for variety. My family always does Meatless Monday. Then you could add a beef meal on Monday, Chicken on Tuesday, Ham on Wednesday, Fish on Thursday, etc. We always do Leftovers on Friday (to clean out the fridge for Saturday's shopping) and Pizza on Saturday.

When you plan next week's meals, don't repeat any from the prior week. This is why planning a month would be excellent. You could make sure there are no meal repeats in a 30 day period!


Step 3: Grab your printed GROCERY LIST. Go through each night of your meal plan for the week and write each ingredient you need in the appropriate category. If two different meals need the same ingredient (say onions) than add a tick mark after the ingredient you already wrote down.

Now, hit the grocery store! You'll be sure to save time and not have to double back on any isles because your list is already arranged into sections! And saving time in the grocery store frees up more time to craft...am I right?

Oh, and one more thought about your MASTER MEAL LIST. Once you have this system worked out for monthly meal planning, try adding new meals at regular intervals. Make a goal to try a new recipe once a week or once a month. If it passes the family taste-test...add the recipe to your files (more on that topic later in the month!) and add the meal to your master list. When you see all of the meals on your master list arranged by protein you'll get a great sense of what area of your recipe file can be expanded.

Now, it's your turn to add to this post! 
What works well for you as far as family meal planning? 
Do you have an organized system or wing it?
Please leave a comment.


17 comments:

Adriana said...

I plan out all of our weekly meals when I do our grocery shopping also. I try and do it on Saturday when the coupons come out in the paper so I can shop the sales too. One other tip I have found useful is to have two backup meals at all times. That way if something planned doesn't sound good or if I am lazy and want something easier. Two of our back up meals is breakfast for dinner (pancakes/waffles, bacon or sausage, eggs, etc) and spaghetti and meatballs.

BBQGAL said...

I do planning my meals 3-4 days ahead for three reasons:
1. I shop twice a week for fresh produce
2. My hubby seems to have mood for "somthing" once a while that is NOT on the menu. I don't want to wait for weeks or month to feed him that something special.
3. I can plan my meals based on what's on sale that week.

I have a master to buy item list for stuff running low around the house so when there is sale, I can catch right the way.

Deanna said...

Oh, my heck. As a home ec major, I should have this down to a science, but alas, I'm lazy, and 'one of those moms' who says, "what do you guys wanna eat" when it's dinner time. LOL!

Goal for this year: To be a better me. THat includes planning meals for my family so we can eat healthier, and happier. LOL!

Thanks for this fab post!

jill said...

This is perfect!! I woke up this morning and decided I needed to make a menu and then was checking the blogroll...and viola! Emilie saves me again. :) Thanks!

Mandy said...

Planning dinners ahead of time is such a saving grace for me when the evenings roll around. I plan our weekly menu on Mondays and post it on my blog. Then I write it on my Dry Erase Menu board I made. It sits right by the stove...
http://creativecents.blogspot.com/2010/09/dry-erase-menu.html

Veronica said...

I have been following Rachael Ray's "Week in a Day" planning 5 meals on one day. It has worked! I've found meals my family LOVES and others, well, they'll do in a pinch. Now if I could corporate it in a "Monthly" system, all will be great. Gonna use your grocery list idea! Can't wait to see what you have in store for the rest of the month!!!

Marie said...

I mainly wing it and you are right, it sucks and is chaotic. I am a new mom and I work full-time, so meal planning is not my main priority. But that means that we eat out a lot or pull the ol' cereal for dinner card! I need to be better about it and this has definitely motivated me. Thanks Emilie!

Jessica said...

I have gotten out of the habit of planning meals in advance--especially with school. This is just what I need to get things moving again. Thanks, Emilie!

Jessica said...

This is great! I have gotten out of the habit of planning meals. This is just what I need to get things moving for this year. Thanks, Emilie!

Christina said...

We have a few major grocery stores within a few minutes of us so I look at their flyers online (the stores email them to me) on Thursdays then make a list of the best sale items or things we regularly use. I used to circle items in the paper flyers but I found it confusing to be flipping back and forth and trying to remember I saw something on sale. Our flyer delivery guy isn;t very reliable either!

On Friday I use the 'master sale list' to make our meal plan for the week. I also pull my coupons out and see what I can match up or use. We try to alternate vegetarian with a meat dinner. Then I make the grocery list based on the meal plan.

I go shopping at 7:30 saturday morning to avoid the crowds. Sometimes I have to go to 2 or 3 stores but the one I do the majority of our shopping at matches most prices.

Rebecca said...

Thanks so much for this Emilie... it is one of my goals this year to get meal planning sorted, and I think you may have made that little bit easier! I hope you don't mind if I refer to these sheets in a future blog post?

Thanks,
Rebecca

Amy said...

this is one of my new year's resolutions to plan out meals and so far i've been failing miserably!!! thank you for your downloads ~ hoping they'll help me get organized and get this together :)

Angie said...

I wing it. Almost always. Every once in a while, I'll plan a meal. But winging it works for me. Especially now when I'm pregnant...there are just days when I don't feel like cooking and there are days that I don't mind spending 1 hour+ working on dinner.
When I shop, I shop the sales and stock up on things we use on a regular basis. And I've learned to be versatile with the staples and make a lot of things from scratch (like one time I didn't have Onion Soup Mix so I looked up the recipe on the Internet and our meatloaf turned out better than usual!). And sometimes I'll make double and freeze the extra. (Love your Freeze Happy tips with that!)
But that, oddly, works for me!

vyc said...

I plan my meals in advance on a fortnightly basis and have a shopping sheet & a weekly sheet (which goes on the fridge). And since my husband does my shopping (woohoo), I make sure the final shopping list is matched to the aisles at the supermarket. On holidays I try to relax a little and do without my lists, but it just doesn't as work....

Jenny said...

I just sat and filled out the meals on the printable 2 week meal list. Phew! It's been awhile since I've sat down and planned a menu for 2 weeks straight... and I've been needing too. This has been just the motivation that I needed and just in time. Tomorrow I hit Walmart and so I will be ready to go in {with Todd & Kate} and get out.
We also will ALL appreciate not having repeat meals, which happens a lot when I am not inspired meal-wise.

jennj42 said...

My husband and I take out two weeks worth of recipes and make a grocery list. Much better than when I was single and wandered the isles of the grocery store looking for something good...

aka Mrs. Kindergarten said...

Well, Emilie, you have done it again. Saved.my.patoot. I have been thinking of getting a meal planning system going for months. :-) Yeah. thinking doesn't get it done, does it? Thank you, thank you, thank you for the download. I am now on my way to being the organized goddess of my dreams. Well, maybe. :-)