Meal
planning is a major part of family life. It takes concentrated effort
to
stay on top of this important family chore, so the purpose of this page
is to provide you with ideas and resources to help you succeed.
Keys to successful meal
planning:
- Have a routine for meal
planning
- Set and stick to a
budget
- Be consistent in meal
planning
- Use coupons to get deals
and save money
- Find recipes that work
for your family
- Use a grocery form each time
you shop
- Include the kids in meal
prep, setting and clearing the table
Do
you have a routine for meal planning?
Do you shop weekly, monthly, or daily?
Do you make and work a plan or are you haphazard in routine? Learn more
about setting up a routine and planning out your meals here:
Do you need to be more
consistent in meal planning?
Do you need to set a
regular time for
grocery shopping and stick to it? Choose a time, write it down, and
make it happen this week.
If you struggle with
consistency in meal planning, set a plan and tell a friend. Ask them to
hold you accountable to the plan. Maybe you can even shop together or
get together on a Saturday afternoon to plan your meals for the month.
Do you have a budget for groceries?
Do you put effort into saving money on groceries or are you careless in
your efforts to save money?
Are you spending more or
less than the
budget? If you've never set a budget, now's the time. Maybe you have a
budget but aren't working it. Could you save money with a little
planning? You bet you could! Could you find and use coupons to save
money? Yes!
Take a few minutes to ask yourself the above questions. How are you
doing? Most of us need to grow in consistency in our meal planning
routine.
Start by writing down a few goals for your family. Do you want to save
money on groceries? What will you do in order to save money?
Are you in a rut with the same old recipes?
Does your family cringe when you put the main course on the table?
The internet is FULL of resources. You can find any recipe you want
online. You can set up online recipe boxes and add or delete recipes
with the click of a button. Why not try a new recipe for dinner tonight?
Visit Kraft
Foods and set up a free
recipe card
box.
You can search for recipes by main ingredients (such
as hamburger or
chicken), print and/or copy the recipe to your online recipe box, and
create a shopping list all at the same time.
You can also print a grocery list based on the recipes
you select. This
is a great site for meal planning!
Monthly
Menu
Planner
You'll
notice on the menu planner that I've planned in “Choice
Nights." The purpose of a choice night is to use up leftovers and give
everyone the chance to
choose on their own what they’d like to eat. This works especially well
when
your kids are a bit older and are going different directions (sports,
music, work, etc.), Sometimes family members just need to help
themselves to a healthy meal. Planning "choice nights" during busy
times can be the perfect way to alleviate stress in everyone's
schedule. Sometimes, I just pull
leftovers out of the fridge and heat them all up, giving several
options on the
counter from which to choose.
I
also plan in weekly crockpot meals. I can put all ingredients into the
crockpot before I leave for work in the morning, or I can quickly put
the meal together when I'm home for a lunch break during the day. It's
so nice to have a meal ready when you get home from work. If that
happens even once a week, it's a mental and physical stress reliever
for you and can provide the motivation to keep going the next day.
If
I use a monthly
menu plan, I write in any changes that I make along the way. Just
because there's a written plan does not mean that I follow it to the
detail. For example, if I follow the
plan for the first three days, but then on the fourth day find that
something sounds better for dinner, I’ll just move the planned meal to
another
night. Another thing that happens is that a choice (leftover) night
falls on a night
where we don’t have any leftovers in the fridge, so I need to pull one
of the
menu plans for a different day into that day and move the leftover
night to a
different night. The key is to have a written plan, because it
minimizes the mental energy exerted, but plans
change and the menu plan should be flexible.
I
also try to keep side dish options and favorite recipes easily
accessible or even posted somewhere in the kitchen. Providing a variety
of options, including vegetables is easier when you don't have to think
too hard about it.
I
am in the process of designing monthly
menu plans according to each season. In the summer months, we use our
barbecue several times a week, so my meal choices are different than in
the winter
months when it’s snowing outside and the crockpot is the preferred
cooking appliance of choice. When these menu planners are ready,
you'll be able to use them to create your own!
Want
someone
to
do your meal planning
and create your grocery list for
you? Sounds like a dream come true, doesn't it? Well, it is. Check out:
Try MyOnlineMeals
to get recipes and a shopping list delivered to your email inbox each
Wednesday. You can even get a sample weekly plan to try out before you
sign up!
Savings on
Groceries
Visit 1
Frugal Friend
2 Another to get ideas for saving money on groceries and
other great tips about meal planning.
Crockpot
Cooking
If you're a
working parent, a great method of cooking is the crockpot.
Some of the most delicious meals are made in the crockpot and there's
nothing like walking in the door to the aroma of an all-day cooked
potroast or homemade soup.
Other links for
recipes and
food ideas:
For
over 750 secret copycat recipes from your favorite restaurants, click
here!
Kraft Foods
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Free Printable Charts
Monthly
Menu
Planner
Menu
Planning
Chart
Grocery
List
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Do you have a
hard time
getting your family to eat their vegetables?
Here's an idea:
Just before
dinner, when everyone is starving and can’t
wait to
eat, put a plate of fresh veggies (carrots, celery, cauliflower,
broccoli, mushrooms – whatever veggies are most likely to be
appreciated in
your home) with some ranch dip on the table. This snack won’t spoil
dinner. It’s part of dinner and they won’t even know it.
I think one reason teens don't eat veggies is because it takes work to
prepare them. If I make a salad in a bowl for my teen daughter
before dinner, she'll eat it everytime. Who says she must eat it
on her plate at the dinner table. It can be a healthy, pre-dinner
appetizer!
Diet
& Nutrition News
To learn more about how you can be more
healthy, visit
My
Pyramid
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