Meal planning 101
Do you ever get overwhelmed as you think about making dinner… another day, another 3 meals, forever?
The idea of feeding yourself and feeding your family can feel daunting; and it is a lot! There are SO MANY decisions that go into feeding and making a meal.
Things like…
What to eat?
When and where to buy?
Who is prepping?
Will my daughter eat it?
Will there be enough leftovers?
What about my son who has to leave early for soccer?
Do we still have ground beef in the freezer…?
It’s a lot of decisions to make!
We know if you’re feeling some burnout, making decisions is hard. And when we leave things to chance we don’t always make the best decisions. This is why I’ve created the habit for myself and my family to plan meals for the week. It’s made a HUGE difference in our day-to-day lives.
These are two reasons I think meal planning can be so important:
1. Streamline the number of decisions to make
(so you can preserve your mental capacity for really hard things!)
2. Put the thought into more balanced meal choices.
(Most of you know what a balanced meal looks like, but on busy days you don’t always have the time or energy to put thought into that!)
So, that being said, how do you meal plan without it feeling like a whole other job?
A few things that can be helpful…
One is to create a master meal list, jot down all of your favorite go-to meals. Ask your neighbour, partner, friend, and kids for ideas too. If someone tells you about a great and easy meal they made recently, put it on this list as well. This list can include scrambled eggs and bacon, all of the things you might eat for dinner.
When you're sitting down to make your plan, open up this list and plug the dinners into the days that make sense and then write your grocery list accordingly.
Another strategy that works for some people is to have themed days such as:
Meatless Monday
Taco Tuesday
Pasta Wednesday
Bowls Thursday
Fish Friday
Stir Fry Saturday
Slow Cooker Sunday
These themes sometimes help you to come up with ideas that might be more specific. You could have a take out day, a breakfast-for-dinner day, soup/stew day, curry day, and a leftovers day too.
If you have specific ideas - put them on a Master Meal List to refer back to in future! If you find a plan you like - maybe you can repeat it weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly!
Sometimes we overthink how hard it is to put a meal plan together. If you're in that boat I encourage you to sit down and time yourself one day to see how long it actually takes you. I did and had my meal plan and grocery list, and grocery order together in 15 minutes. It feels like a way more daunting task in my head than it truly is.
We really don’t want food to stress you out. While this change might feel a little bit intimidating at first, many find it makes their weeks flow much easier and they have more capacity to address other important things in their lives!
Looking for support with meal planning? Book a visit today and let’s get started on the right foot heading into the new year!