Meal Planning Routines That Are Easy To Keep

Meal planning doesn’t have to be stressful and time consuming. In fact, establishing a simple routine can really take a load off your stress and allow more time for things you love.

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I am of the opinion that any type of home or life change that feels TOO DRASTIC if often hard to keep.

Run 3 miles a day? YES, I’LL DO THAT.

Once.

Cook only paleo meals 5 nights a week? Easy peasy.

For a week or two.

Routines are my schtick so – believe me when I tell you – easy and simple is the way to go. Start by taking the things you already do, or tend to do naturally, and make them into more of a purposeful routine.

We’ve all been there

4:00 p.m. hits and it dawns on you. What’s for dinner? You think… I wish I would have planned something sooner.

Well, I want to give you some hope… meal planning doesn’t have to be complicated or overly time consuming.

In fact, it can simplify your life and help you have more time to spend doing the things that you love (like cleaning house and running after the kids…).

But seriously, let’s stop throwing our hands up and ordering take out. Start with a simple plan and then use the resources below to help.

You’ve got this!

I’ve talked at length about family routines, self-care routines, and evening routines. So now?

Meal Planning Routines For Moms

Whether you keep a master schedule of your week or just fly by it day-to-day, a simple meal planning routine is key to getting some food freedom and healthy meal options.

Establish a time (and maybe a place to write down your meal plan)

• Maybe you like to sit down on Sunday evening and plan for the week ahead?
• Or what about early Monday morning?
• Maybe choose what day is most convenient to shop/pick up groceries and plan the evening before or morning of that day of the week
• Maybe it’s as simple as keeping an ongoing memo on your phone
• A dry erase magnet board on the refrigerator or command center may also work
• A meal planning notepad or sheets near your cookbooks or common area where you can keep a running tally of things you need

Whatever routine works for you, having that same routine from week-to-week will keep you consistent. It will also get easier as time goes on if you keep your planning routine simple and regular.

Meal Planning Options

There is no right or wrong option here. The ticket is to find what works for your time and personality.

Fully scheduled

Assign a specific meal for each day of the week. (For example: Monday: breakfast- pancakes & fruit, Lunch- Cold cut sandwiches & chips, Dinner- Chicken fried rice). You will take a chart or a sheet of paper or digital planning tool and assign food for every meal.

And then put those ingredients onto your shopping list.

Loosely scheduled

Plan specific meals but don’t assign them to days. Have the ingredients ready to cook what your family feels like that day- or what your schedule allows.

For me, this looks like choosing 4 or 5 dinners I will cook. Another is pizza for movie night, leftovers one night, then a wild card where we can eat out.

Monthly Meal Plan

This plan cuts shopping time down and some people love that it’s all planned out in advance. Instead of planning for one week, you’ll plan out an entire month.

If you like shopping once a month for all the pantry and freezer items, this is a great plan.

Themed Day Food Plan

Assign a type of food to each day. (For example: Monday- beef, Tuesday- chicken, Wednesday- Vegetarian, etc.). This is a whole Taco Tuesday type of thing.

This will help you silo meals. Also, if you choose 3 or 4 meals for each category then essentially you’ll have the same 20 or so meals a month, but only repeated once a month.

Batch Cooking

Extra busy mom’s love this plan because there’s always meals prepared in the freezer and ready to go. With this plan, you can cook one night and put 5 or more meals away in the freezer for later.

Or you can double meals you cook. Cook a lot of meat at once, separate it out. etc. That type of thing.

Crockpot Rescue

It is entirely possible to make complete meals with simply a crockpot. If you are aiming to eliminate dishes and prep earlier in the day, this may be the way to go for you.

I like to have quite a few options available. If you choose a few crock pot meals always available in your pantry then you have some options if you don’t want to spend money on take out. Or if you live too far out to drive to town quickly.

Grocery Shopping Routine

A working grocery shopping routine is essential to any meal planning success. I mean… it’s hard to plan and cook without the food you need at home.

So let’s talk about how to get the food into the house.

Tips for a successful shopping trip:

• Choose one day of the week that you always go shopping or pick up groceries. This will feel like a personal deadline.
• Set a reminder on your phone so you remember to schedule your shopping if you do pickup or delivery.
• If you don’t love in person grocery shopping (some people do!) then using an app will save you tons of time. Both in meal planning and shopping.
• Keep a running list of things you don’t necessarily buy each trip but have run out of (Examples: spices, condiments, soups).
• Make sure your meal plan accounts for what you still have in stock at home.
• If you shop IN the store, create your grocery list that is separated by categories (produce, dairy, snacks/pantry, froze, meats, bread, household).

I have recently fallen in love with the curbside pickup at grocery stores.

Even though I still shop for produce at one store and pantry items at another, I save so much time by ordering online and picking up on my way home from some other commitment.

Meal Prep/Snack Prep To Freeze Or Store For Later

When it comes to meal prepping, I have found that the key is to “not bite off” too much at one time.

Let me explain, preparing four separate full meals (lasagna, spaghetti Bolognese, chicken tikka masala, and barbecue chicken) to store away will take hours… if not days.

Instead, I plan one fantastic meal (lasagna) and put away at least 5 full meals in the freezer for later.

If I do this once a week for a few weeks, I’ve got plenty put away for a few months.

Here are a few tips to consider:

• Make sure you are using the right freezer safe containers.
• Prepare your freezer for how much space you will need ahead of time.
• Get your labeling system down.
• Taste test a meal on your family before batch making 5 meals to eat later. Check out this website for a bunch of easy meal prep ideas: 40+ Best Meal Prep Recipes

Snack prepping

This is a different beast entirely. It really depends on your family size and age of kids.

I have found that for me, placing “anytime allowed” snacks in particular places help my kids understand their snack limits.

• I always include a “snack” section on my grocery list. I’m sure to check what I have before buying/ordering extra and running out of space in my pantry.
• Choose healthy snacks (nus, fruit, cheese, carrots, granola, pretzels, yogurt, etc.)
• Choose out of reach “treats” as well, and separate when organizing them in the pantry
• Organize snacks in baskets (and in the fridge)
• Make rules regarding snacks your kids can have if you find them constantly snacking

Resources to Help

If you’re like me, having everything down right in front of you is priceless. That’s why I’ve created this perfect resource to help- the Meal Planning & Pantry Staple Pack. It includes:

• Weekly grocery lists
• Weekly meal planners
• Monthly meal planners
• Pantry staple
• Top family meal lists

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