15 practical tips to be a meal planning pro

briohny-plan-eat-play-01

I am very lucky to have a guest post today from Briohny at www.PlanEatPlay.com

Briohny is a meal planning whiz and has some fantastic, USEFUL tips for us.

 

Take it away Briohny…

(oh, and below is a Free dinner and shopping list print out for you all from Briohny)

What’s on the table dinner and shopping list planner.

————–

For many people, cooking dinner each and every night is frustrating, time-consuming and painful. Meal planning can ease this, truly it can. The secret is to find what works for you, a process that is effective and painless.

The reasons for meal planning are varied. For some it’s about the need for organisation, for others it’s to assist in an already busy schedule, it can also be beneficial to prevent take-out dinners and binge eating, some meal plan to assist in healthy eating, weight loss or budget control.

Personally, apart from the above, I meal plan to prevent my family from asking me, ‘what’s for dinner?’ In our house, you ask this question at your own risk.

I get that meal planning can be time consuming and brain draining and quite often, the last thing you want to do on a weekend.

You have to trust me here and know that your body, mind and bank balance will thank you for it.

Why should you meal plan?

  • You’ll save money by sticking to set food on a shopping list, it also reduces the amount of ‘ducking to the shop’ moments.
  • You can order your groceries online meaning you won’t be tempted by in-store specials
  • Food waste is less, every food has a purpose and you are less likely to keep things ‘just in case’
  • One less stress – no more worrying about what’s for dinner
  • You can get everyone involved – dinner is transparent, other people can take on cooking duties
  • Cook ahead and eat later – cook a big batch of mince on a Sunday for a pasta dish, Monday in tacos, Tuesday in a pie and Wednesday on toast
  • There are no rules – do it when you want and make it what you want

There are degrees of meal planning.

There’s those of us who fill out templates in great detail and make sure it’s all colour coded and aligned to the family diary schedule, then there’s meal planning where you have a rough idea of what is being eaten when. It may be jotted down or you just know. I’m a great believer that detailed meal planning is not for everyone. It’s a personality trait thing. We are of the group who have to-do lists for our to-do lists and compartmentalised sections in a diary. That’s why this post is not about getting you to fill out templates or give you the secret to being more organised.

15 useful and practical hints to meal planning.

————-

1) Meal Planning can be as complicated or casual as you like.

Some weeks it’s a survey of the fridge and freezer and I write on a whiteboard on the fridge. Other weeks it’s organised in detail. It depends on how busy life gets. Don’t stress about changing how you meal plan, the key is to just meal plan. Some days I meal plan on a Saturday morning, other times it’s on a Friday night. Does it matter? No. Have I meal planned? Yes.

2) Life gets busy.

It’s important to acknowledge the fact and be organised around the time you have. I find the best laid plans go to rest when I try to control the organisation and don’t allow for any flexibility. This is where back up frozen dinners is a life-saver.

3) Factor in grocery shopping

this is where meal planning can fall down. You can have the most amazing plan organised but have not taken into account when you are going to buy groceries for the meal plan. Schedule it in the diary, let everyone know and get it done. I have a grocery list template that I use. It helps me be efficient when shopping.

4) Include your go-to or back-up meals in your planning.

I rotate regulars through the plans. For us this includes, chicken curry, pasta bakes, beef stew, spaghetti bolognaise, quiche, oven fish and baked chicken, all of which freeze well.

5) Plan your meals with your diary.

On our kitchen bench sits a weekly diary that is divided into four (one column for each of us). In it go our schedules for the week outside of our work hours. This helps me determine what meals are going to be best to have when. For example, Thursday nights is sport nights for all of us and my son’s girlfriend also stays over. There’s no point trying to cook a meal for five of us at 8:30 at night after we’ve all been training. This is where slow cooked meals are your best friend.

6) Make best friends with your slow cooker.

Honestly, a slow cooker is a must-have in everyone’s kitchen and slow cooked meals should feature in everyone’s meal planning. Some weeks we’ll have three slow cooked dinners. Slow cooked dinners are perfect for repurposing meals too.

7) Repurpose your meals.

Slow cooked beef stew or curry is a perfect filling for home-made pies. Place the filling in a casserole dish and top with a piece of filo or puff pastry and bake. Roast from the slow cooker one night can be wraps the next. Baked chicken fillets can also be repurposed as a pizza topping.

8) Decide what you are serving with the main.

Suggestions include rice or root vegetables and then ‘above ground food’. Chicken one night can be served with rice and vegetables and repurposed the next night with sweet potato chips and green salad.

9) Plan with a theme for six nights,

the seventh is always good as left-overs, incidentals or toasted sandwiches. Then all you have to do is find the specifics. This saves an enormous amount of time. For example:

  • Monday – vegetarian, sweet potato
  • Tuesday – slow cook, above-ground vegetables and rice
  • Wednesday – Meat and vegetables, pumpkin
  • Thursday – bread based (pizza, burger, wraps)
  • Friday – Meat and salad
  • Saturday – left overs or freezer food
  • Sunday – Pasta based (or spiralised vegetable)

10) Eat and Repeat

In our house, the cook holds a large portion of power. For this reason, it’s perfectly fine and encouraged to repeat two (or more) of your meals the following week, thereby cutting down on how many meals you are actually planning for. Your time and emotional health are precious and shouldn’t be jeopardised because someone is sick of chicken and vegetables. If they don’t like what the cook’s cooking, then let them get something else.

11) Protect your food

from those who would eat it outside of a meal plan. I’m serious. Those of you with teenage children will understand that if it’s not nailed down it gets eaten. I’ve resorted to writing what meal it belongs to on the packets to stop it going missing. The rule is, if it’s written on forget it, it’s not fair game.

12) Have a back-up plan

Non refrigerated/freezer meal these are for those nights where it’s in between grocery shops, you want someone else to cook or you just couldn’t be bothered. For us this is a pasta bake or pasta and sauce with frozen vegetables. The recipe base is from a bottle, the pasta lives in the cupboard and the vegetables get thrown in.

13) Cook an extra serve

When dinner is served I always have at least one container with the plates. This gets filled first and becomes lunch the next day. Then everyone else’s dinner is served. I also tend to not put food on people’s plates. It stays in what it was cooked in, I announce dinner is ready and everybody gets how much they want. It limits food waste and arguments over ‘I’m full’. Often there will be another serve left over that can be had as another left-over lunch.

14) Prepare the night before,

or in the morning. This may mean getting the non-perishable items out of the cupboard and sitting them on the bench, moving the dinner food to the front of the fridge. It takes a few seconds but it means you don’t have to worry about rummaging for ingredients before cooking dinner. I find it also helps if I’m running late and someone else has to start dinner, it’s all in one spot together.

15) Keep the recipes with the meal plan

Make a copy of the recipe (if there’s one) and attach it to the meal plan. As with the previous tip, no rummaging and others can take responsibility. It also means you can begin to build a bank of meal plans. At the end of the week, add the plan and recipes to a plastic sleeve and store in a folder. These pre-organised meal plans can be grabbed when you haven’t had time to plan.

—————-

There you have it, 15 easy, do-able, practical, simple hints to becoming a meal planning pro. My final message,

Be flexible, let those that live with you know what you’re doing, pick one things from the above list to implement and build from there.