Five Meal Planning Tips

Every once in a while I notice facebook posts asking for dinner ideas. Not new recipes for a future date, but ideas for dinner that night. So I thought that I would share how I meal plan each week and hopefully help a few friends out. 😊

1. Recipe Organization

I'm not very good at just picking and choosing what to make for dinner. So my recipe book is organized in a way to choose for me.

When I got married my mom gave me a copy of her personal cookbook. It's printed pages in page protectors in a three ring binder. (That burn mark was not planned, but it sure looks cool!) Her recipes come from Betty Crocker, Kraft, and friends and family members. I have taken away and added to it over the years as well. It's divided into sections according to food type. The two sections I use weekly are: Meats and Main Dishes and Salads. Each dinner I choose a Main Dish and a Salad (fruit or vegetable, sometimes both). The Main Dishes are organized by Beef, Meatless, Chicken, and Pork (there was a fish section originally, but Gerson doesn't like fish).  The recipes in each section started out alphabetical, but as I've taken away and added, they are now just in the order in which they were received.

When I plan meals, I go in the order that they are printed in my cookbook. I have about double the number of beef and chicken recipes than I do meatless and pork, so my order pattern is: beef, meatless, chicken, beef, chicken, pork... Depending on how many servings a recipe makes, I generally make 2-4 dinners a week.

2. Visible Menu

Being able to see my planned menu out in the open makes it easier to plan for it and keep to it.

I used to write 5-7 meals on a lined peace of paper and stick it to my fridge, and as I would make one I would cross it off. Then as I memorized how many meals a dish would feed us for, and better scheduled our evenings, I started planning specific meals for specific days on my lined piece of paper. I would cross each day/meal off as we completed it.

I eventually got tired of using up lined paper. So, with the help of Pinterest, I made a weekly menu board in which I can write my meal plans with dry/erase marker. All it took was a picture frame,
decorative stationary and stickers. It sits on my kitchen table. Gerson likes having a visible menu as well because it helps him better plan his lunches and snacks at work.

3. Grocery Shopping

Having a set time to go grocery shopping and a written list has been very helpful for me.

I go grocery shopping at the end of each week for the next week - or do Walmart Pickup depending on how busy my week has been. I use my recipe book to plan my meals, then I write my shopping list. For fresh items, I buy them for that week. For canned and boxed items, I buy for my food storage rotation. And it's all based on the ingredients in my planned meals, that way I don't buy anything that won't get eaten. Of course, things get missed and I have to go back to the store, but that's why I start to prepare my meals the night before.

4. Prep up to 24 hours before

Looking at the menu and double checking the ingredients and instructions the night before helps make meal prep the next day easier.

Almost every night after I clean up from dinner, I look at the menu for the next night. If anything is frozen that needs to be thawed, I put in the fridge the night before. Also, if anything needs to be prepared earlier in the day - like a crockpot meal or a jello salad - then I write it down on my daily to-do list so that I don't forget and leave it too late. I also try to make sure I have all of the ingredients needed, and if not I have time to make a quick run to the store.



5. Set rules for new recipes 

If you are like me, you are constantly collecting new recipes. Setting rules as a family about new recipes will benefit everyone who eats at your dinner table every night.

I used to make a new meal once a week, but that became too much for Gerson. So now I only make a new meal every other week to once a month. I also avoid making new meals while I'm pregnant (of course I'll break that rule if something looks really good!). I also have what I call the three strikes rule. When I make a new meal and we don't love it, but it has potential, I'll make it again and change what I didn't like. I'll change it one more time if needed before I scrap it. Off the top of my mind, my baked Ziti recipe has benefited from this rule.

Obviously I don't perfectly keep to my menu 100% of the time. Stuff pops up in our schedule, the kids or pregnancy does something to inhibit me making dinner, etc. But having it all prepared does make it easier, and I just move all our meals over a day if something does happen. I hope this post was helpful! Following these tips has really helped my meal planning and prep be less stressful.