Meal planning.
Saves time.
Saves money.
Saves Stress.
But really does it…? In the past, I have had a huge anxiety of what we will eat and when we will eat it. How long will it take… Will it turn out..? Will my kids eat it?? Will it turn out?
Do you share the same problem?
Then I tried something new. I wish I would have thought of it along time ago because it
What I have been doing the last few weeks has allowed me to lose the stress, get planning done in record time, and create a stress free experience… well for the most part.. and we are eating supper at a decent time most nights.
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How I meal plan.
I currently meal plan for suppers Monday- Friday, and plan for both lunch and supper on Saturday and Sunday. I LOVE my paper planner and I struggled with meal planning before I had one. It is truly a pillar in the foundation that helps me successfully survive in life, especially with meal planning.
What do we do for lunch Monday -Friday ?
At this point in time the kids and I will typically eat leftovers, picnic food or similar style, or all around kid friendly meals that my husband isn’t a big fan of.
In theory you would think that planning 9 meals a week shouldn’t be hard… right?? Wrong. When you have budgets, time limitations, seasonal availability, picky eaters, and the evening witching hour to contend with coming up with 9 meals on the fly is anything but easy.
What I started doing.
I’ve talked about how I make meal planning easy before on my blog. But my newest idea has done even more.
My hack
I’ve mentioned it on several occasions, I am a firm believer in work smarter not harder.
Our family is a creature of habit, my husband grew up having homemade pizza every Friday night for supper, and guess what we have now… yes… homemade pizza.
Monday’s always seemed to be extra stressful on us so I try to have a quick meal hence the casserole night came.
Saturday nights I like to have a good hearty meal that doesn’t take alot of time.. hence Instant Pot night came.
We are blessed enough to have a freezer full of home raised chicken, beef, and pork, in order to make a conscious effort to use them, they each have a special night on our menu. One night is chicken, one beef, and one pork .
One day I was browsing through my pinterest account for some inspiration for what we would eat for that month… (yes I try to plan out the entire month at a time with meals. ) it doesn’t always work but I typically try to plan out a month. As I’ve mentioned for several years I am an avid meal planner, and we have been having pizza on Friday nights for supper for the last 8 years.
Every day of the week has a special theme attributed to it. My theme won’t work for everyone, but it works great for us…
It is as follows:
Monday- Casserole/ Hotdish
Tuesday- Beef
Wednesday- Pork
Thursday- Chicken
Friday- Pizza
Saturday- Lunch – Leftovers
Supper- Instant Pot
Sunday- Lunch – Brunch
Supper -Grill
Disclaimer: Life on a farm & with young children often means that our menu is subject to change. We often will use the Instant Pot for more than just Instant Pot, Saturday or have beef in our meals on additional days than Tuesday.
How do you keep meal planning stress free??
Rebekah at The Tex-Mex Mom says
atI like the idea of having themed nights! I’ve been thinking about doing this but hadn’t really implemented it yet. Definitely need to as I think it will really help me stick to a plan better. 🙂
Collette says
atI’m the same where I really focus on just planning dinners. I usually have my lunches just be transformed leftovers of the night before, and I try to cook with similar ingredients throughout the week to save on money!