It’s easy to get lost in Pinterest recipes boards. And before you know it, you’re overwhelmed with the “simple task” of making a meal plan.
Why is it so difficult to plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
I ask this question somewhat tongue & cheek, because obviously meal prepping isn’t for the faint of heart. If it was, then fast food and microwave dinners wouldn’t exist.
However, I do believe it’s often better to keep most things in life simple.
And so today, we’re going to discuss how to make meal planning simple and straightforward for you and your family.
Why meal planning can be surprisingly challenging
Even the most motivated meal planning intentions can fall off the rails once you start to adding in constraints:
- Time constraints
- Budget constraints
- Dietary constraints
- Space constraints for both food and equipment
- Limited culinary skills/experience
- And high standards (ahem, me) or picky eaters
- Little ones that need easy-to-eat foods
When you factor in these constraints, it’s no longer a mystery why many moms dread the question: “what’s for dinner?”
Figure out what’s most important for your family’s meal plan
Remember all those constraints we listed above? You’ll drive yourself bananas if you try to create a “perfect” meal plan menu that satisfies each one.
Like you could but should you?
To keep the meal planning process pleasant, try focusing on no more than 2 – 3 priorities at a time.
The big 5 meal planning priorities
For most families, meal planning priorities tend to focus on taste, budget, quality, convenience, or dietary restrictions.
But when it comes to designing a meal plan, you really need to know what’s most important for your family.
Do you need time-saving meals? And if so, what does that actually mean to you?
For some people, that means they want “dump-it-and-forget-it” crockpot meals. Or, they want recipes that allow them to cook frozen meat and skip the defrosting process.
Or, maybe they want recipes simple enough that their kids can help with the meal prep as well.
Be really, really specific with your meal planning goals
Defining what “time-saving” or “convenient” really means to you.
Being really specific on your priorities will help you to choose recipes that can actually hit the mark.
We’re currently in a phase where “easy clean-up” meals matter to me. I prefer mashed potatoes over rice, because our two-year old is still learning how to keep food on the plate.
Knowing these details about your preferences can help steer you in the right direction.
Remember that meal planning isn’t just about food
Meal planning is about more than what you’re eating, it’s about how you’re eating as well.
This is because mealtimes aren’t just about the food. Meals provide an opportunity to make new memories with our loved ones.
Traditions like Friday pizza night, or Sunday brunch, can become family-building traditions and help make food more fun.
With meal planning, we can consider the season of life our family is currently in. And from there, incorporate meals that support those unique needs.
What’s important to your family right now?
Make a list of your favorite meals to make
By making a list of your favorite meals to make, you are jump-starting the meal planning process.
This is because it gives a good visual of what you already know how to make. You can shorten the learning curve by choosing new recipes that work with similar ingredients or techniques.
For example, once you know how to make a really good meat lasagna, it’s not going to be a very big jump to master a veggie lasagna next.
You can also choose to omit this step altogether if you’re burnt out on those meals. But, I’d suggest you list them out anyways and find a way to refine or add some flair to them.
Choose a meal planning planning method that makes sense for your personality
Traditional meal planning is all about mapping meals to a calendar. Oftentimes, for a month or longer.
This method is best for someone who enjoys being highly precise by planning that far in advance.
Other meal planning methods, like batch prepping, focus on doubling (tripling, or quadrupling) recipes and freezing them for later. This approach also tends to repurpose a lot of the same proteins and pre-prepped ingredients throughout the week.
The batch prepping method is best for someone that wants to spend less time in the kitchen.
There is also grocery-sale based meal planning.This method is best for the highly organized person who doesn’t mind researching coupons and deals.
There is also theme-based meal planning like “Meatless Monday” and “Taco Tuesday” which can be a fun way to get the whole family to participate.
I have found something smack dab in the middle to work best for us.
Introducing… *drum roll*… the 7-day meal plan.
The weekly meal planning method
Personally, I need the rigidity of having a fixed meal plan (ie, “we’re making this on this day, etc.”). But I get overwhelmed with a monthly meal plan that’s ever-changing.
A weekly, 7-day meal plan means I only have to think about gathering ingredients for seven dinners.
It’s simple! And straightforward. It’s just what the doctor ordered.
We have further simplified our lives by opting to eat last-night leftovers for lunch the following day. Sure, this creates some redundancy but it means we have more time freed up to focus on other things.
We also repeat our weekly meal plan every single week (for the most part).
I do, of course, work in new recipes and foods. But at least 4-5 dinners per week are going to be the same as the last week.
Why a weekly, 7-day meal plan works wonders
Practice makes perfect. I’m not a seasoned chef but, with enough practice, anyone can learn how to cook a few dishes really well.
Especially when you’re eating the same thing every week!
I think of the 7-day meal planing method as similar to what a 5-star restaurant does:
They focus on doing a few meals really well.
It’s usually a bad sign when a restaurant has a menu that’s a mile long. Because, it’s unlikely their staff have perfected each recipe. And it’s even more unlikely that they’re able to stock fresh ingredients for a menu that long.
The same holds true for our household kitchen. So, keep it simple!
Potential cons of the weekly meal planning method
A potential drawback of this weekly, 7-day meal planning method is that it requires being in the kitchen every day.
Although, I do not have to make lunch (because lunch is simply reheating leftovers), I do need to be in the kitchen once a day to make dinner.
I like dinner to be made fresh and on the day of, if possible. So this works for me.
I also like being in the kitchen on a daily basis. But not everyone does.
An alternative option to weekly meal planning
For those that don’t want to be in the kitchen every day, I would recommend the batch-cooking approach instead.
You can quadruple a tried-and-true recipe and then freeze those meals for later in the week or month, so that you can have entire days when you don’t have to dirty a dish or be in the kitchen at all!
I don’t recommend batch cooking a recipe until it’s been proven as a family favorite. Otherwise, you could be spending a lot of money on ingredients and effort for a so-so result.
Note: a GREAT resource for this method of meal planning is Becky from Acre Homestead on YouTube. She’s very inspiring to watch!
Time-block your meal prep time
For years, I tried to make dinner right before the dinner hour. Or worse yet, at dinner-time.
There’s no worse time for making dinner then when everyone is already feeling hangry!
Now I suppose I’ve really grown-up, because I typically prep our dinner in the mornings. And this means, I’m usually pulling food items out of the freezer to defrost and checking ingredients the night before.
Yes, you’ve read that correctly. I start our dinner prep the night before.
I like to know if I have everything I need for the next day. Or, if I’ll need to schedule a pit stop at the store.
If you can, make sure you’ve:
- gathered your ingredients in advance
- pencil in your meal prepping time on your calendar
These two steps are half the battle of meal planning!
Coordinate your grocery shopping trips
Grocery shopping is obviously very location dependent.
Where we live, I coordinate our grocery trips as follows:
- Local food co-op two to three times per week (specialty produce and herbs)
- Safeway once-a-week (for run-of-the mill produce items, milk, and random one-off ingredients)
- Costco twice monthly (mostly for butter, eggs, protein powder, and paper products)
- Azure Standard two to three times per year (for bulk flour, nuts, oils and spices)
- Local butcher twice a year (for bulk meat and tallow)
As you can see above, it’s mostly our local food co-op and Safeway that I’m visiting on a routine basis.
This helps me to not buy more produce than I need, because I know I’ll be there later in the week. Instead, I can really buy what I’m sure we’ll use.
Big grocery hauls are reserved for non-perishable pantry food and freezer items.
Delegate after meal clean-up
It took me a long time to accept help with the kitchen clean up. I had a weird Martha Stewart expectation to not only have dinner expertly made but the kitchen perfectly clean, too.
Sounds wonderful but it’s not always obtainable.
Even though I try to clean the kitchen as I’m cooking, there will inevitably be a few dirty pans and bowls. At a minimum, we will always have leftovers that need to be doled out into Tupperwares for the following day.
Accepting that the kitchen probably won’t be clean before 8pm and that I should gladly accept any help I can get has been a game-changer for us. I highly recommend delegating what you can!
Review your meal plan at the end of the week
Doing an end-of-week review of your meal plan gives you an opportunity to make changes.
Ideally, you can review your meal plan for anything that needs to be adjusted before your next grocery shopping trip.
You can also review your grocery store receipts to see if there are any ingredients in your recipes you want to change or buy elsewhere.
I also like to pick a part our meals from the week and think about what I can do to make them better or more “yummy” as my two-year-old would say.
This end-of-week review doesn’t need to be more than 20 minutes. Keep it simple!
Give yourself a pat on the back for all of that meal plan mastery
When meal planning is done well, you have have the power to:
- Feed your family extremely nutritious food (which sets the stage for a whole host of other wonderful outcomes)
- Make memories
- Save money
- Save time
- And just all in all, make life more calm and convenient for everyone in your house
My experiences with making a family meal plan (and sticking to it)
Despite all of my helpful shortcuts and experience thus far, I still find myself missing the mark on an almost daily basis:
Something gets left in the oven too long. I forget a key ingredient at the grocery store. Or, I don’t make enough for leftovers for everyone (and so on).
But I’m never going to stop trying to master the art of meal planning.
Because, over the course of several years, I have made such massive strides. I can hardly recognize where I started from:
Three years ago, I could barely make boxed macaroni and cheese. And now, I’m making Pad See Ew 100% from scratch.
It’s easy to focus on our day-to-day meal mishaps and kitchen fails. But it’s much better to examine how your efforts are performing over time.
If you share in this struggle, I hope we can connect in the comments below!
I also hope these meal planning tips will help spare you some of the inevitable mess that comes with being the kitchen.
Last but not least, I hope that you give yourself some grace if you find yourself falling off the wagon with your meal planning efforts.
That grace may be the most important ingredient you have in your kitchen!
