Dinner. Every stinkin’ night, they insist we must feed them. And it’s usually while rolling underfoot and begging for fruit snacks. (Or is that just my kids?)
If you have struggled with the meal plan idea before, these questions can help you think about meal planning in a way that is actually easy, and not overwhelming at all.
Meal planning has helped me not only feed my family, but also maintain a reasonable level of sanity, and save us money and time. And I don’t (usually) stand in the kitchen wondering what we’re going to eat tonight.
What do you eat?
Meal planning doesn’t have to mean that you choose elaborate meals to prepare and serve with a flourish. It really just means you know what you’re going to eat, and approximately when you will eat it.
Think about the meals your family likes to eat. What is met with at least one “Yay!” when you announce it?
What do you really like to eat? I enjoy a good salad, and a good burger, and honestly, anything somebody else prepared. (So sometimes the plan is to go out.)
Do the kids love hot dogs and mac & cheese? Then by all means, plan those sometimes.
Do they eat frozen chicken nuggets? Then plan on that once in a while. If you plan it, you don’t have to feel guilty about it. Slice some apples and call it done.
What do you make?
Now, please don’t get idealistic here. It’s not time to imagine what you would like to make.
You have meals that you are good at and you like to make.
You have meals you are good at
and you like to make
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I don’t really love spaghetti, but I know the family does; therefore it’s a no-brainer, and we eat it almost every week.
If your pantry typically holds cans of beans and diced tomatoes, it won’t be hard to throw chili together once or twice a month. If you enjoy making pizzas together, or are as obsessed with your Instant Pot like I am, you probably have some favorites that you return to frequently. Don’t forget these.
What does your week look like?
What nights do you have practices, lessons, or other commitments around dinner time?
Don’t try to make an elaborate new recipe when you have to be out the door at 5:30 for practice. Look at your actual calendar, and recognize which days you have more or less time to actually be in the kitchen and around the table.
We have lessons one night a week, and immediately upon Sam returning home from work, I leave with the baby and our violinist. Those nights I make soup–those of us who leave eat early, and those who stay home eat together later. I don’t have to fuss with dinner while wrangling some of us out the door, and everyone gets to eat a hot meal when they’re ready.
Once a week Sam is out for a group class after work; often that is our “waffles for dinner” night.
Think about some of the things you don’t usually have on the calendar: when you typically do your shopping, when the trash goes out and you clean the fridge, which days you’re busier so you’ll want to avoid meals with lots of prep work, and when you might opt to buy dinner.
Plan for some failure
I usually anticipate a little bit of failure into my meal plan.
You didn’t expect that tip, did you? The menu can fail, but factoring that in can make it less likely that you will fail.
What I mean is I don’t over-plan, loading something for every single night of the week.
I’ve tried that before: When I plan to cook a meal for every single night of the month, I start to burn out, the refrigerator becomes cluttered with leftovers and half-used bags of cilantro, and I start to panic, trying to squeeze every meal out, because that bag of brussels sprouts and that package of chicken need to be used. Then the next week I give it up because it’s way too much work.
The plan is not the boss of you.
Meal planning
is a fluid process, it is not static.
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Last week, right as I was getting ready to start making dinner, I discovered the water was shut off “for 4-6 hours” because of a leak down the street–we couldn’t even wash our hands! We went out to dinner that night. That’s OK. Then I knew I had to use the stew meat the next day and that shifted everything back.
Meal planning involves a lot of problem solving. It is a fluid process, not static.
Something might come up, maybe I waited too long to start dinner and it won’t be ready until 7:30, I’ll pull something out of the freezer, or we just don’t feel like eating another chicken-based meal and make nachos instead.
Remind yourself that serving nachos or drive-thru chicken nuggets for dinner is not failure. It’s feeding your family–and that is never failure.
Do you still have mental roadblocks to meal planning? What is the hardest part of it for you? Was this stupid easy?
Stay tuned this weekend for more practical tips to planning, some helpful tools I’ve found, links to some of our favorite recipes, and the best meal planning app I’ve ever used.