Good news, friends!
This tip will get you back in the game.
First. I want to tell you that it doesn’t have to be complicated.
You don’t have to invest in menu plans already made for you, you don’t have to slave in the kitchen to freeze meals enough for thirty days in order to be a Mom on top of her meal game.
Don’t sell yourself short.
You’ve got this!
Cooking for your family will be an enjoyable experience with these tips:
Embrace cooking for your family
With these tips, embracing meal planning will be a breeze. You will love cooking for your family and you’ll see menu planning in a whole new light.
Script your meals for the week
Every Sunday evening, I grab a cup of coffee, my Planner Perfect Planner, my favorite pen and a stack of my favorite foodie magazines and cookbooks and I plan my menu for the week. Get yourself in the mood for your menu planning. By brewing your favorite coffee, thumbing through your favorite food mags and taking the time, you are taking care of yourself and setting yourself up for a good experience.
Do this with every aspect of your life.
It sets apart the woman who lives on purpose and the woman who just does things in life to get them over with.
Don’t be the latter woman.
Pick a grocery day in your week that works best for you
No more grocery shopping on the fly.
On a Tuesday night. In your jammies.
Don’t be that woman.
Please.
My grocery day I love most is on Mondays. So I spend time in my planner on Sunday evening planning out my week of meals. I include ingredients I’ll need for my baking day, too. **see below**
Script out your grocery day list by the layout of your store, or in sections. I have mine broke into sections: Produce, Meat, Dairy, Ethnic, Other and Non-grocery. You can break yours up anyway you like. This works very well for me.
Creating a menu plan and using a list in the store, keeps my budget in check, I am planned with my menus for the week, and if you follow these tips…you’ll be one organized Mama!
In my Planner, I also write down what the menu plan is for each day of the week in my Daily Pages. I also script in my Planner, on my baking day, what my plan is for that day’s baking. My grocery list can be thrown away after I shop. I’ve got it covered in my Planner.
Create a Baking Day once a week
This saves you money. I bake my breads, any muffins, cakes for parties get baked on this day, cookies or treats made and frozen if needed in the week…all this not only saves me money because I’m not buying it, we’re eating healthier because I’m controlling the ingredients, and I’m virtually looking and feeling like a super star with being so dang organized!
With these meal planning tips you will rock your dinners and everything in-between!
Check out my Baking Day recipes and have fun looking for fun menu ideas on PPM.
For more information on menu planning and the Planner Perfect Method to become Masters at Managing Your Home…check out Planner Perfect’s eBook, A Fresh Idea On Organizing Your Life.
It will change your life!
This is a timely post. I keep trying to meal plan but am failing miserably at it (I am an intelligent woman – what is wrong with me???). Either someone won't like what I plan on cooking or I forget and plan to cook something on a day when we are super busy and I just can't get to it and so on. Do you also plan out different lunches? We are in such a rut and if I eat/cook the same things for another week I may go mad!! I do have a baking day but I was intrigued by you saying you freeze things. I have never frozen any of my baking. Are there any specific guidelines for what can be frozen? Also, if you freeze things like cookies do they defrost quickly by themselves or do you have to zap them in the microwave? I quite like the idea of a freezer with some baked goods tucked away.
Hi Catherine!
You're cute…meal time can get us feeling crazy, can't it? But you can do this, you just need to put some systems in place and it will be a night and day experience. 🙂
I think part of the problem is that you are not thinking through your whole week. You should be scripting what each day of your week looks like in complete detail. Then, when you are writing your grocery menu/list…you know what your week looks like, you plan accordingly, and you should be good. You'll know what days should be crock pot meals or grill nights, because you are organized in your week. You know what I mean? Stay in your planner each day and stick to your plan you've made each day.
To get out of your meal rut…that's where my favorite foodie magazines come to play, my favorite cookbooks and even Food Network shows. I just get all cozy on my menu planning day, get some suggestions from the kids on what they'd like to see and get to writing an awesome weekly menu, and yes, I include some different lunch ideas. I do have a ton of kid friendly, fun lunch ideas on planner perfect meals and links from this site. The tab for it is just up above. I have great dinner ideas too on my site for inspiration. So make sure you check that out…
Sometimes I freeze. Sometimes I don't. I love to make a double or triple batch of cookies and freeze half of them. That way I can take out in the morning and when I need it and they are thawed my lunch. I'll freeze muffins so I can pull them out if I have kid sleepovers at our house. Easy to pull out and serve. It's just handy to have and do thaw out pretty quick. I love freezing cakes if I know I have a party coming up; it makes it that much easier for myself on party day.
I hope this helps, Catherine! Just some tweaks and you've got this spiral of meal time blues turned happy.
Hugs!