Meal planning saved my life
Okay, the title may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it has had a significant impact on my life & my family. About 3 years ago, my husband and I were busy working and raising 2 very active & busy teenage daughters; neither of which had a driver’s license yet! Often times, we needed to be leaving for a practice/game shortly after we arrived home from work, with no time to prepare a nutritious meal for our kids, let alone ourselves. I was feeling increasingly stressed about meal time, and wanting to ensure that my kids were eating well to fuel their growing bodies. I had tried “meal prep” before in the past- you do a bunch of cooking on the week-end and pre-package your meals & snacks in individual containers for the week. A great idea and works for some, but it never appealed to me. Also, with a family of 4 (all of whom ate like adults), this involved a lot of food prep and storage up front.
I like cooking and if I have all the ingredients on hand, when I find a recipe, and the time to prepare it, I actually find it quite enjoyable. So at my wits end & surfing the internet one day, I came across “Weelicious” (https://weelicious.com) . This web-site was created by Catherine, a trained chef and Mom, who was looking to provide quick, easy & healthy meals for the family. At the time she was offering a meal planning program, where every Friday, she sent you a 5 day meal plan for the next week, including a grocery list, pantry items you would need & complete recipes. (I think at the time I paid about $10 CAD/month). I signed up and have never looked back. (I subscribed to her weekly plan for about 18 months, but now the habit has been established and I just do my own planning, using recipes I have on hand). I used the meal plan as a template and inspiration. Every week-end I would look at our family calendar for the following week and determine which nights I had more time to cook, which nights I needed something ready after school so the kids could eat before I was home from work. I used the meal plan from Weelicious as a starting point- which recipes did I think my family would enjoy. Maybe I would use 2 or 3 in a given week, but then just fill in the rest from my own recipe box. Having the reminder each Friday, to plan & a few ideas to get me started was all I needed.
I will be honest, it was a little time consuming at first. Sitting down and trying to decide what to cook, who would like what, trying to ensure it was balanced etc. But with time, this has gotten easier. I also realized, that I didn’t need a significantly varied menu- we could rotate the same meals every few weeks, and most people in the family were happy! Grocery shopping became much more efficient when I shopped from a list and didn’t need to try and think/plan in the store. I have less food waste and most importantly my stress around meal time has gone way down. I know what I will be preparing each day and it will work with my families schedule, simply because I took a little extra time planning for the week.
How to get started;
Make a list of all family upcoming activities for the following week- or use your existing calendar. This step will help determine the pace of the week and style of meals you need; 15-30 minute meals, crockpot, instapot or do you have some quiet nights where you can take more time.
Decide how many times you would like/need to cook- do you plan to eat out or have a work function to attend, or will you eat leftovers? You can get overwhelmed when thinking about planning to cook 7 meals, but if you eat out once and have leftovers twice, that leaves 4 nights you actually need to cook. You got this!
How long do you have each night to make dinner? Your schedule may dictate this answer, or maybe you are not a big chef and like to get in and out as fast as possible. Whatever your reason, search for recipes that fit your time constraints. Pinterest is a great resource for quick & healthy meals. There are lots of meal planning aps available as well, for a pretty reasonable monthly cost. Most allow for a lot of customization, to meet your dietary likes/dislikes & allergies. I have only used Weelicious, but search out a few and give one a free trial period and see how you like it!
Hang your meal plan somewhere visible- fridge or pantry door or mark it on the calendar. This way you can consult it every morning/evening to ensure you defrost the necessary ingredients. If you have older kids at home, they can help out by assembling or starting meals when they return from school. They will groan and complain, but politely remind them why you are going to all this trouble and how they are benefiting. If this doesn’t work, just tell them, “because I said so!”
KISS- keep meals simple to start. Use common ingredients and not overly complicated recipes. This will give you the best shot at staying on the “meal plan train”.
Happy planning!! Let me know how it goes!
