Summer is officially here and with it brings (super) long sunshiny days and a million fun things to do outside. Meal planning can be put on the back burner when there is sunscreen to apply and play dates to attend, but I have found it to be a worthwhile use of my time. And it absolutely doesn’t have to be complicated.
Over the past 12 years of being a wife and the past 6 1/2 of being a mom, my meal planning strategy has changed and evolved. Cooking a meal for two is drastically different than cooking a meal for five, especially when little people are involved.
This year at MOPS a super smart mom talked to our group about meal planning. Jayme writes over at Mom Saves Money and had so many great ideas, but my one big takeaway was to make a list of go-to meals. Life-changing. That go-to meal list is the master list I use to meal plan each week. Jayme gave us permission to repeat meals and encouraged us to do what works.
I ran with her wise words and created my own list of go-to dinners for the spring and summer. The list is comprised of 10 meals (mostly) everyone in our family will eat and I can prepare almost all of them without a recipe. And it is saving my life. Here is my current meal planning strategy:
1. Make a list of go-to dinners
I am thinking I will do this seasonly or whenever we get in a rut. I asked my family what they enjoyed and added the recipes to the list. I keep my list in the back of my planner so it is always handy. The list eliminates a bunch of decision fatigue. I only have 10 meals on my list, but if you need more variety go with 15-20. I tried to brainstorm meals when everyone was happily eating and Kevin and I weren’t begging our kids to take just ONE bite.
My Current List of Dinners
Tacos
Steaks and veggies
Burgers and veggies
Pork loin and veggies
Spaghetti
2. Use the list and a calendar to meal plan
I like to meal plan on Thursday or Friday for the next week so I’m not thinking about it over the weekend. It doesn’t matter when it gets done, just that it gets done.
I choose a dinner for each day of the week based on our calendar. Sunday nights is always pizza and one night is always leftovers. If we will be out of the house at night, I usually opt for something easy in the crockpot, a picnic, leftovers, or take out.
3. Make a grocery list
While I am meal planning for the following week, I also make a grocery list in my Notes App on my phone. Sometimes I even put in my grocery order while I am meal planning to take out a step. I use the Wal-Mart Grocery app because it’s super easy and I have found I save a lot buying the bulk of my groceries there. We currently are involved in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), so all our veggies from the week come from the share we collect each Monday. We also purchase a quarter of beef a few times a year from a neighbor, so much of our meat is already in our freezer.
You might have noticed many of the meals on my go-to list are meat and veggies. There are two reasons for this: 1. Because my kids like meat and veggies are just the natural accompaniment. 2. The CSA lends itself well to this type of meal. I can have the meat ready and use whatever veggies we get for the week.
This meal planning strategy is simple and only requires a bit of work on the front end to compile the list of go-to meals. My time spent on Pinterest has decreased immensely because I am not searching and clicking on new recipes each week. I still find new recipes occasionally, but I am doing it out of enjoyment and not necessity.
Tell me, what are some of your go-to meals? I would love to add them to my list!
Yay!!!! Glad my talk was useful to you!
Thank you so much for sharing with us!!
This is basically my system as well. I have the app called “Our Groceries” and I have all of our meals that we ever eat in there. It’s a bit of work to set up at first, but it makes it incredibly simple every time after that. Under each meal I added the ingredients and chose a side or two that we will always have with that specific meal. So when I’m ready to make my grocery list, I just click “Tacos, Burgers, Spaghetti” (or whatever) and it adds each of those meals’ ingredients and their sides to my shopping list. SO SIMPLE.
Oh! And one other thing I do is make a Reminder list on my phone called “Shopping” and whenever I run out of something, I yell to my phone which is usually in the room “Hey Siri, add butter to my shopping list.”
So when I go to get groceries (or rather, let’s be honest, when I’m clicking around trying to place my online grocery order) I look through my “Our Groceries” app list and my phone Reminders list.
I love this, Andrea! And I am going to look into the Our Groceries app. Such a good idea!