As promised, I am bringing you a series on meal planning. This is the first installment, which will cover my recommendations for how to prepare for meal planning and the steps I take to make the process flow smoothly with your life!
Meal planning is just like any other habit — it will take some time to figure out what works for you through trial and error and consistency to help it stick! Give yourself grace as you adjust to the process and please come back as many times as you need to with questions! I’d love to help with any of the challenges you are facing.
Inventory: The first thing I recommend doing in order to help with meal planning is take inventory of what you have in your kitchen. Some items to take a minute to check are:
- Cookware: the pots, pans, appliances, and tools that fill your kitchen. At this time I wouldn’t recommend getting anything new, but it’s helpful to know you do in fact have an electric pressure cooker (maybe still in the box collecting dust) when you are looking at recipes.
- Spices: I have a list of the spices I have on my phone (it’s just a pictures of a hand written list), but this is especially helpful when you are at the store and not sure if you do in fact have dried rosemary or you just ran out! This can also be a good time to clean out spices. A general rule of thumb is any ground spices are good for one year and whole spices are good for two years. After this time they will not be as potent, so you may need to use more (or replace). I write the month and year I purchase/open the spices on the jar with a sharpie! Don’t forget to include items like garlic and ginger which you may have fresh vs. jarred.
- Pantry staples: Do you have white rice, but not brown rice? What types of pasta do you have? How many cans of diced tomatoes do you have? (and are all of them with Italian seasoning?) I would also include here any non-refrigerated condiments or cooking ingredients you have (vinegars, oils, hot sauce, etc.) Being aware of what you already have can help prevent a huge over purchasing of items and it can also help guide what you may pick for you meal plan. This is a good practice if you find that during certain seasons you need to pay more attention to your budget – making “pantry meals” is a thrifty way to fill your belly without draining the bank!
- Freezer stock: This will happen on a semi-routine basis and will depend on size of your freezer and how you tend to shop. If you often buy in bulk, this may be more important so you don’t forget just how many packages of ground beef you have. If you have a smaller storage space, it’s nice to keep a mix of items on hand. As with above, being aware of what you have will save you from over purchasing and can prevent waste.
- Refrigerator: Knowing what is in your refrigerator is especially important on a weekly basis as you develop your meal plan. In an effort to use items that are closely approaching their “garbage” date, you can tailor the meals to use them. This is also helpful to know any refrigerated condiments you have (BBQ sauce, mayo, mustard, horseradish, etc). About every 3 months I also clean out my fridge to check if any of those condiments are growing funny colored mold or have half a teaspoon left that I should just use up!
Now that you have your inventory complete, it’s time to get to weekly meal planning. As I develop my meal plan, I simultaneously create a grocery list. It may be easier for you to create your grocery list after, but I find this saves me time since I am familiar with most of what the inventory in my kitchen is. I keep the grocery list in the “notes” app on my phone. I love the convenience of having it with me at all times AND it’s easy for my husband to access it if he wants to add something or is going to the grocery store. The first thing I do is check my refrigerator for what is nearing expiration — veggies are my first place to check, then fruit. I will also see if I have some of my staples on hand: eggs, sliced and shredded cheese, sliced meat, easy to eat fruits (apples, oranges), salad items (lettuce, a smattering of veggies)… Your staples may differ, so having a quick list (maybe a sticky note on the fridge) of items you want to check weekly would be helpful. I also check the calendar for the week — do we have a night when we will be out, when is date night, are we meeting friends for dinner, late night at work — all of these things can impact dinner and I have found that planning ahead allows me to avoid a last minute fast food run or a hangry episode, which isn’t fun for anyone!
Once you have this baseline information, you are ready to pick your dinners. I follow some food bloggers on social media, so when they post a recipe I want to try, I will screen shot it. This means when I am picking my next weeks meals, I can go back through my photos for ideas. I will also jot down things I am craving or inspired to make in my planner. Since I am a bit of a cookbook collector (they are truly my favorite books), I will also sometimes just pull out a cookbook that I want to cook from. If none of these methods seem fitting for you, it may be time to do one last inventory: a recipe inventory.
A recipe inventory will be a way of collecting what recipes you have made that you enjoy. Ask everyone in the family to tell you their favorite meals, write it down, and then keep this list for when you aren’t sure what to make. As you get more comfortable with creating a meal plan calendar, you can categorize items (Italian, Mexican, Sandwich, Leftover, etc) and continue to add to the list. I have a cookbook that is a 3 ring binder with “Gretchen’s Good Food” on the side. It is printed recipes in sleeves (because the kitchen is a messy place) from online sources. My mom made this for me, but it’s a great way to condense your cooking repertoire and have it easily accessible. I will write more on this later (it’s a project I need to tackle as it has become a bit disorganized!)
As I am picking out my meals for the week, I usually pick the easy days first – the day I know I will have time to prep items for the week or spend more time in the kitchen cooking a longer meal. I pick something for that day that I can somehow reuse on one of my harder days during the week (more on leftovers in the next posts!) This may be something like a roast chicken or beef that can turn into sandwiches or salad on another night. I will also make sure that any near expiration items I need to use are in a meal in the next day or two. I tend to do my meal planning on Friday, so that I have the weekend to shop and prepare items. If Friday doesn’t work well for you, I recommend picking a time that will allow for shopping and preparing before the week starts – if this ends up being a few days before the plan starts, the “refrigerator inventory” may need to be adjusted, but everything else should work okay.
Another trick that I loosely follow is themed nights. I generally have a Meatless Monday meal, Taco Tuesday (which is more like Mexican…), Italian Wednesday, Sandwich Thursday, Grill or Pizza Friday, Seafood Saturday, and Soup/Stew Sunday. This helps to guide my meal choices and if you have a list of recipes/meals your family likes, you can categorize it by these themes so it’s easier to pull them. Feel free to tailor this to what fits your eating habits best!
Okay — I know this may feel like both a lot of information or not enough, but I think establishing these basics are going to be HUGE for you. A few other things to keep in mind are any budget guidelines you choose to follow, any dietary restrictions you follow (especially if you are feeding guests or following a specific type of meal plan), and division of planning/shopping/cooking tasks. For example, if you have a tighter budget, it may be beneficial to plan out two weeks at a time to limit grocery store trips. If your kids often have a friend over who follows a gluten free diet, you may want to consider having a few gluten free meals in your wheelhouse. Or if the kids or husband help with cooking some nights, including them in planning may be more fun!
Have fun getting familiar with your kitchen and come back tomorrow! I’ll be sharing meal planning ideas by ‘protein source’, so tomorrow we’ll chat about chicken!
Let me know what questions or challenges you face with meal planning (especially preparation or any of the items discussed in this post) – I am happy to help figure out solutions!
xoxo, Gretchen
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