Meal Planning!

It sounds daunting, and at first it is.  But planning our dinners has saved me a lot of 4pm frustration.  What do I make for dinner tonight?  What can I make in the time I have until everybody starts grumbling from hunger?

A friend gave me a binder with some very cute weekly meal planner pages in it, and I dove right in.  At first it was more difficult, so I only planned one week at a time.  We usually do our grocery shopping twice a month, so that left a good chunk unplanned.  But now that I have the hang of it, doing two weeks worth of planning takes me less than an hour.

This not only saves me money (little to no food goes to waste), but also time.  An hour of planning includes looking through my grocery store sale ad, their online coupons (which load onto the loyalty card), and browsing through old plans for meals I want to repeat.  Then if I don't have enough ideas, I check out my amply filled recipe box on AllRecipes.

I do my grocery list digitally through the OurGroceries app or website.  My husband and I both have the app on our phones, and it is very handy because it's immediately updated.  That means if one of us is at the store and the other remembers an item and adds it, it's instantly added to the list.  We also have separate lists on there for the grocery store, Costco, and the hardware store.  There are several list apps out there, so check them out.  Very handy and no notepad to lose or forget.

Back to meal planning.

The meal planner I have been using is one-week at a time, plus a column for the grocery list.  Since I do my list digitally and do two weeks at a time, I decided to whip up my own printable planner.  Now I'm sharing with you.

click to view/download

Some tips for getting started meal planning:

• Tip #1:  Use a template  Print out my printable meal planner in glorious color (or to save colored ink, set your printer to grayscale).  It can be used for multiple meals per day, but I only use it for dinners.  Or, use another planner (just do a search, there are many out there) that suits your shopping/cooking/organizing style better.  You can keep many copies in a binder, or hang it up on your fridge.  Whatever works best for you, do that!
  
• Tip #2:  Use pencil!
    I have no idea how many times I've accidentally ended up with three chicken meals in a row.  I need variety.  I change my mind.  Using pencil means I can erase as needed and not make a mess of things.
• Tip #3:  Consider cooking & prep time
    On days you know you'll be busy, plan a crockpot meal.  Plan a couple of easy dinners.  If you mostly cook from scratch, you will not want to make a more complex meal every night.
• Tip #4:  Be flexible
    Things come up.  You might not have time to make the meal you intended.  If you're lucky, somebody will take you out to dinner.  That will not ruin your plan.  You can shift your days or switch them around.  Just make sure nothing in your plan for the skipped day will go bad before you can use it.  This is another reason to use pencil!
• Tip #5:  Look ahead
    If you've frozen that whole chicken, don't expect to start cooking it an hour before dinnertime.  I once thought I had plenty of time to make Kalua Pig in my crockpot when I brought out the frozen pork roast first thing in the morning.  Then I looked at the recipe which said to cook it for 20 hours.  Oops.  This is where I forgot Tip #3 and remembered #4.  If something needs to be prepped the night before, make a note of it in the previous day's notes.  On occasion, I have also set reminders for myself on Google Calendar which sends me a text at a prescribed time.  Yes, I am that forgetful.