Meal Planning

What seems like a lifetime ago, I was  a mom in seminary, serving 2 churches and raising 3 young children. I was getting to the stage of life where it became necessary to calendar who had to be where at what time. Life seemed so crazy, so out of control. One thing that I had always loved to do was cook. I get excited about finding new recipes that my family will enjoy (yes there is always a kid or two that likes to find something to gripe about but I try not to let that deter me). We even had a rate a meal system we would do where we would give it a rating of 1-5 (1 is not our favorite and 5 was our favorite). If there was a meal that everyone really didn’t like, we would eat it that night with the promise I would never make it again J.   I knew I needed to have as much planned as I could for all of the “unplanned” life I had as a mom with young kids, student and pastor. So one day I sat down with my recipe magazine I got every month in the mail (Quick Cooking and then it changed its’ name to Simple& Delicious). I went to write down on my calendar 7 different meals and quickly found that I had too many Pasta meals in a row (now I can eat pasta every single day of my life and it could never be too much but that isn’t the case with all of my family members) so I decided I would spread them out and we would eat those over the course of two weeks and I found a few different recipes to eat in the in between days. Having 2 weeks of meals all planned felt GREAT!

 

As I found more meals we liked and as life got to busier seasons like finals and holiday times where I not only had all of our family events but extra church events and services and kids school programs, etc. I decided to let myself plan a whole month. I sat down with my same favorite magazines and picked out meals for several weeks. I actually found it to be really easy. I printed out a plain calendar with every day of the month having its only little box and put the name of the recipe, what magazine it was in and what page. I then added it to a 3 ring binder and was able to pull it out each week as I made my list for grocery shopping. My system has been enhanced a bit through the years and I’ve added in some freezer cooking to the mix.

Fast forward about a decade later and our family has grown to 7 children and while I am on a break from ministry right now, life has its own type of crazy. Last year, I found myself planning 4-6 months at a time.  Now a few notes about this. I usually plan 5 days of meals each week. I figure one night we may have leftovers of that week’s meal and there is a possibility we will eat out for lunch or dinner once on the weekend and if we eat out to eat for lunch we have a light dinner. Plus planning out so far doesn’t allow me to know those days when people will come out to our Lake House to visit or that we will go to extended family for birthday celebrations and even if we might take a vacation or long weekend somewhere. It tends to balance out. Plus, I am a person that let’s say used only half of a small carton of half and half for a new recipe may decide to make Alfredo pasta (or pizza!) to use up the rest instead of letting it go to waste (which wasn’t on the meal plan). Additionally, like most families we have our favorite quick dinners that we almost always have the ingredients on hand such as ranch macaroni and cheese or buttered noodles with lawry, garlic and parmesan cheese (can you tell pasta is my jam ;-)  ) I have also found that sometimes I have extra meals that I didn’t intend: if I had enough leftover that it really could make another meal (either making the same recipe or using for something else. For example, taking leftover barbeque beef that we had as sliders and taking the rest of the meat and adding it to rice to make a stir fry or casserole). When I don't get to a meal or when I have enough for a second meal, I simply highlight those meals in my planner and roll those over to whatever month I am planning next or pluck them out of my freezer and use on a day I don’t have anything else planned.

So for January 2018, I had pretty much filled up the calendar with the unused recipes from last year. I wanted to challenge myself to go beyond the 4-6 month planning and with a few days of picking up my old recipe magazines and perusing my Pinterest boards, I have meal planned for all of 2018!! It feels very freeing to know that this is one thing that is accomplished. I can keep meals ready for our family dinners every night and  as a bonus, in the end saves a lot of money because I’m not constantly running to the grocery store to grab ingredients and all the extras you grab when you go the store or ending up getting so frustrated that I order takeout (which is totally fine to do from time to time and I do even with the meal plan). 

A couple of additional small notes that work for me:

-I write these meals down on my personal planner now (yes I still use a pencil and paper because that is just what works best for me) so that I can see every day what the meal is  that I planned for the day/week and it is forefront in my mind as I plan my day.

-I write the 5 meals on a small dry erase board on my fridge.  I don’t specify which meal is for which day, that way there is freedom to decide I’m going to throw in some frozen pizzas on a crazy day instead of making the crockpot meal I thought I would since it’s 2 p.m. and I.didn’t.even.start.it.yet.

 

-I try and find a day once a month to do some freezer cooking. There was a few times that I've done 20 meals at one time. However, what I find works best for me, more often than not, is to have meat that ready to reheat or cook for a meal starter (such as sloppy joe meat, taco meat, plain ground beef or turkey to add to a casserole or sauce and then a few meats that have a marinade or sauce all combined but is still raw so that I just have to thaw it out and put it in the crockpot or grill/bake it). I will try and have a few casseroles where I just need to thaw and bake and dinner is done. I try and have those for days when things are extra busy or Thursday which I've learned is the Barkley crash day :-) Even if you don't have time to do a freezer day, next time you are preparing a pound of ground beef or turkey, buy and prepare 5. It only takes a little bit more time and you've got a head start on upcoming meals!

 

-I try not to waste anything. Even if we only have a spoonful or two of meat left over, I keep it. Maybe it’s for a quick lunch for me or the kids for the following day or maybe I put it in a small freezer bag or container to use in another meal (that is a whole other post about how to use up food instead of wasting it).

-I LOVE to try new recipes but sometimes my family just would like to eat the tried and true favorites. So I make sure I put those in throughout the month. If the thought of finding a bunch of new recipes for the week (or month or year) feels WAY too hard, just start by filling 75% or so with your family favorites. You haven’t cooked a lot?  Ask a family member or friend what their top 3 favorite recipes are and try those.

-I give you permission to leave off an ingredient (or 3!) or swap out turkey for beef or fat free cheese for the regular stuff. I’m not a natural “rule follower” ;-)  but I know some who feel like they have to follow a recipe to the T but you don’t. You can change it up and all will be well (unless you are baking).  Even if you all end up hating it, you tried!

SO give meal planning a try. Try out a week. Add an additional week if you can. Then just go crazy with it. I can say in a chaotic life like mine that this is one area that feels in control and it brings me a sense of peace and joy. Happy cooking…and planning!!