Easy Meal Planning System
Let’s make meal planning easy and seamless.
As busy moms, the thought of meal planning will either feel like a blessing or a curse. I used to be in the latter category myself.
Whether you are a busy working mom or a busy stay-at-home mom or a busy work-at-home mom, or just a busy parent, it does not seem to matter. I have been all of the above and no matter what, meal planning is HARD! There I said it!
Meal planning felt like it took a lot of time and mental energy that I did not necessarily have to spend. In addition to that, I was terrible at sticking to a very specific shopping list at the grocery store. I am really more of a “go grocery shopping by the seat of my pants and buy what is on sale then make meal plans off what is in our pantry” type person. I believe the term “shelf cooking” is often used to describe my meal planning style. That part is still fairly true, BUT I do know that I need some type of plan to help take the mental energy out of constantly meal planning 3 meals and 2 snacks a day for my growing family.
I also need a plan so that I do not end up buying food at the grocery store that will end up not being used. Saving money and frugal meal planning are a necessity in this season of life.
The problem I have had with meal planning is that the decision-making process is too much to do on a regular basis when you are in the trenches of motherhood or just a difficult season of life. However, we know very well when we neglect to plan meals we often end up waiting until the last minute and then have to choose convivence over substance and I personally was not okay with that either.
Instead of continuing to let it defeat me, I knew I had to find a solution. And I did!
Does the thought of having to take inventory of your kitchen in order to come up with a meal plan make your head spin? Do you feel like pouring through cookbooks and recipes (while sometimes fun) in order to plan your families meals make you feel mentally exhausted? Me too, mama! I have a solution for that!
After searching through blogs and ideas for meal planning, I realized that I needed to take bits and pieces from what I found and form it into what works for me and my family. Ultimately, I cannot make a system work that just does not fit and you should not try to either.
Now this is not to say that you should not give different systems a good try. Pick one that you like and implement it for a couple months to see how it works. This might mean actively changing your habits and THAT’S OKAY! Changing ourselves for the better is always a good thing!
Something important that I realized that as moms, especially during those busy seasons of life, we need to be able to simplify and automate our processes so we are not overwhelming ourselves. We put too much pressure on ourselves to go above and beyond when in fact it is consistency and familiarity that bring peace to our homes.
Let us take consistency and familiarity and bring those to our daily meals that nourish our families. We are also adding an “easy” button to this as well. Instead of just “meal planning” we are creating a unique and personalized meal-planning system specifically to fit our family and lifestyle.
Now I am sure there are some of the best apps to help with meal planning, however, I am not an app person, I am a paper and pencil gal. A great way to use this system is to use my FREE meal plannings forms and put them in a binder or on the fridge where everyone can see and have access to them!
Here we go!
Step 1
First thing, download my free Easy Meal Planning System Handouts (or use a good old pen and notebook paper). I like the PDFs because they help to keep me organized and they just look pretty. Don’t ask me why, but pretty handouts just make things better. Whatever you are using just make sure it is organized, that is a big key in this process. I currently keep mine in a recipe binder so everything is handy!
Step 2
If you are using the PDFs then you have one for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and a blank copy that you can edit yourself. The pre-made forms already have categories listed on them to help give ideas and take off some of the mental load, but feel free to scratch them out and do what works best for you and your family members.
I am frequently changing ours as needed. In fact, our family just went gluten free and dairy free so I had to completely re-do my entire meal planning system! It was hard but helped me reduce the stress around making that major dietary change.
Step 3
The best way to do this is to use the categories on each page to generate meal ideas that YOUR family loves. Think of the meals that you make on a regular basis or meals that you all love to eat. The purpose here is to keep a running master list of meals and favorite recipes that you can refer to when planning your weekly or monthly meals. Personally, I make a few extra copies of the “dinner” and blank forms that I can add to as needed. I use a blank form to specifically list out “Side Dishes” as well. I go much more in depth on this section as well as give additional ways of using the forms for seasonal or monthly plans and how I adapt and use it as anchor for our nutrition in my Easy Meal Planning System Guide.
Some of the categories on your sheet may overlap and you may spend way too much time trying to figure out where to put which foods. I have both a slow cooker category and soup category. While I make most of my soups in my slow cooker, I use the slow cooker category for non-soup recipes that I can use my slow cooker for (roast, whole chicken, etc). The same concept goes with my freezer meals. I use my slow cooker to make a lot of my freezer meals but I am keeping those recipes separate to help my own brain function.
Here are some ideas for categories:
Dinner: Busy Nights, Quick and Easy Meals, Slow Cooker, Pasta Night, Family Favorites, Kid’s Choice, Special Occasion, Family Dinner, Pizza Night, New Recipes, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Allergy Friendly, Healthy Meals, Taco Tuesday, Home-Cooked Meals, Instant Pot.
Lunch: Hot Lunches, Cold Lunches, On-the-Go, Kid’s Favorites, Healthy Lunches, Snack Plate Lunches, Wraps, Special Events.
Breakfast–For Breakfast I break the categories down into food groups rather than breakfast types. This helps me to be able to choose an item from each food group for a balanced breakfast. I do also add a Special Events, Smoothie, and On-the-Go Category too!
Step 4
Fill in all the categories you need to for ALL of your daily meals. Yes, that is right, ALL daily meals.. and snacks if you need to. This part will take a little bit of time but I promise it is worth it! You are front loading your meal planning system now to make it easier to use later. In a sense, this will be a huge time saver down the road. You may not use all the categories for Breakfast and Lunch and that’s okay but do as much as you can to give yourself ready available ideas for future reference.
Step 5
Look at your weekly and monthly calendars. Do you have a consistent day of the week that you need an easy quick meal? Do you do special dinners on Saturday or Sunday? Make mental (or physical notes) of what days of the week you need to use which categories? For example, my husband usually has sports games on Monday or Tuesday night so I know that I need a Quick and Easy Meal or Kid’s Choice those nights. Friday night is pizza night in our house, busy days are usually a Slow-Cooker recipe or a Freezer Meal. If we have an appointment or activity in the middle of the day I know that I need an “On-the-Go” lunch or snack idea for that day. Thinking about your schedule up front will better help you generate ideas of what types of meals to choose and help with budgeting and grocery shopping. Don’t forget to get your entire family involved in the calendar planning.
Step 6
Write it down! This is where you take all the ideas you just generated and put them to use!
Use the attached weekly meal planner to generate a meal plan consisting of all your meals you need for the week. Make sure to coordinate the meal with your schedule so you are setting yourself up for success. You may choose to do this week-by-week or do a monthly meal plan. Do whichever is best for you.
Now that you have the meal planning system filled out with all your favorite meals, and a go-to list made, use that when planning your weekly meal plan or monthly meal plan. Just refer to the list to pick out what you want for each meal and write it down into your weekly meal planner. You have now just eliminated the need for searching through recipes or cookbooks to make a meal plan for the week (unless you need to refer to those cookbooks for recipes). You have also reduced your mental load by not having to worry about mental blocks when trying to think of a meal plan for the day/week (wahhoo!!!)
Congratulations on saving yourself so MUCH TIME in your meal planning and having a jump start to the ease of planning and creating nutritious meals for your family.
If you need some more help with meal planning then you may be interested in my Easy Meal Planning System Guide. I go more in depth on why meal planning is necessary, teach more in depth on each step in this process, talk about meal planning with selective eating kiddos, and have more printables available.
“Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our Lord. Do not be saddened by this day, for rejoicing in the Lord is your strength”
-Nehemiah 8:10
Do you have a meal planning system or tips that have worked for you? I would love to hear them in the comments below!