Do you like cooking? Are you a meal planner or do you like deciding what to eat for dinner a couple of hours before eating?
I like to cook. Before I had kids, I really liked pouring over cookbooks and trying new things all the time. I never was very experimental, but I was much more flexible with my cooking.
But after having kids, I found that if I didn’t know what we we’re having for dinner that morning, and preferably a week ahead of time, I’ll be stressed out the entire day thinking about it.
So, out of all my house-related responsibilities for the week, I’m the most rigid with meal planning and prep.
I’ve developed my own personal routine that allows me to dream up some fun new recipes and also think about what favorites the family likes too, while at the same time putting those things on auto-pilot so I can focus on the things I’d rather be doing during the week.
If you’re super creative in the kitchen, love to make things up on the spot and that doesn’t stress you out at all, these tips probably won’t be the best for you (and I secretly envy you!).
However, if you enjoy cooking, but don’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about it and planning for it, I’ll share with you how I do things, and maybe you can find something you can tweak to make it work for you, too.
Meal Planning
Plan the Same Day Every Week
Every Tuesday I sit down and plan out meals for the following week. I’ve tried to make this more flexible, but I stress myself out even more by not having things I need on hand or just being too tired to think about what to make that night.
Lately, it’s been great because every Tuesday after I clean up from dinner, I sit down and plan meals while Steve plays with the kids. I’ve tried in the past to do this during the day, and it took twice as long with all the interruptions from the kids.
If you can get away and do it alone, that would be my best advice. (Or you can do this after kids are asleep. My son usually doesn’t get to sleep until 10:00 or 10:30, and I’m too beat to think clearly that late!)
3 Useful Tools for Planning: Sales Papers, Price Book and Notebook
On Tuesday, our sales papers come in the mail, so I sit down with the sales papers, my notebook of meals that we all enjoy, which is broken down into categories (chicken, beef, pasta, vegetarian, side dishes), and my price book.
I made my price book by tracking the prices of different food items for a period of six months. This way I know when something has reached its rock-bottom price. Then I try to stock up at much as I can (we have a deep freezer) until that item reaches its lowest price again.
I look at what we already have at home and try to make meals with that first. Then I look at the sales papers and see if there’s anything on sale for its rock bottom price. After that I look through my notebook of favorite meals we like and fill out the rest of the week with that.
I don’t ever plan out breakfasts or lunches. We have our usual things we eat for breakfast (fruits, cereals, toasts, waffles), so I just make sure we have that stuff stocked up. For lunch, we usually eat dinner leftovers, or have usual things we like to eat on hand too, like soups, deli meats and cheese, olives, and fruits and veggies.
I also get really bored with making the same things all the time and miss experimenting with new recipes, so if it’s not a super crazy week, I also like to look through recipes and try one new thing each week.
Check out Coupon Mom
After I have my list, I go to www.couponmom.com to see if there are any coupons I can use that match up with the items on my list. I’m not a big coupon person. I don’t clip them like crazy. But Coupon Mom makes it really easy to just cut out those coupons for what you need that week. This usually just takes about 10 minutes.
We usually average about $400 a month for food. This includes any treats we may pick up during the week, special birthday dinners, holidays, and bigger meals when extra people come over. We usually pick up food to bring home for two meals each week, too.
Decide on What Day I’ll Shop at the Beginning of the Week
I’m a little more flexible with the day I go shopping. On Tuesday when I’m done planning, I look at the calendar and think about other things we want to do, and then try to fit in a shopping trip around that. It’s almost always on Wednesday or Thursday, though. And I try to go in the morning.
Since I always bring the kids with me for grocery shopping, I’ve learned the hard way, that getting the shopping done before lunch is always best. Jared has been known when he was younger to climb to the top shelves at the store, so getting it out of the way when they are a tiny less crazy is always good J
I could write a lot more about how much my kids have learned going with me each week and give other tips, but that would take up its own post!
Meal Preparation
Laying Things out the Night Before
After cleaning up after dinner the night before, I try to remember to look at my list to see what I’m making the next day for dinner. Then I can thaw at anything I need in the fridge overnight, and layout anything else out on the counter. I don’t always do this, but when I do the next day runs more smoothly.
Getting Things Ready in the Morning
I try to get ready everything I can for dinner during the morning. I really like crock-pot meals and make at least one each week. Also, if I can cut up anything, or measure anything out ahead of time, than it makes it that much better later in the evening.
For some reason, the kids seem to need the most of my attention right before dinner and are the most independent first thing in the morning, so this works out the best for me.
Of course if there’s some place we’d like to go or thing we’d rather do earlier in the morning, I’ll skip this step altogether.
These are some of the things I do to make meal prep and planning more enjoyable for me and leave me with more time to play and do things with my family.
Photo Credit: LizMarie_AK
What tips do you have for creative and flexible routines around meal planning and prep?