Simple Basic Meal Planning

One thing I started years ago to keep things simple at home is meal planning. I usually sit down on a Monday once everyone's gone to school/ work and plan out what I'm going to make that week. I do some inventory of what we have left after the weekend and pick meals to use up what needs using up. I find it useful to do this after the weekend because we have so many people and after weekend snacking and random meals being made I have a better idea of what I actually have. I then add what I need to my grocery list and hang up my chalkboard on the wall. I used to plan monthly with a meal planner , but as our kids have grown, I've just found this doesn't really work for us anymore. Now that some of them cook things on their own I just can't keep track of ingredients long term the way I used to be able to. If you can do it, it will save you massive amounts of time, money and energy for sure though.

Here you can get a chalkboard like this to hang on your wall if you find visual cues helpful.

I'm pretty consistent around here. Generally we have some type Of sit down meal or soup on Sunday, tacos or burritos on Tuesday, at least one meatless meal and I almost always schedule a leftovers day. If we don't have leftovers I just make something wuick that night. I absolutely hate wasting food so I try really hard to make sure we use stuff up.

This is our menu for this week to give you an idea.

Even if I don't stick to what I plan, and I switch some meals around I find it helps keep us on track. Saving us money, making sure we don't waste our resources, and keeping our meals fairly balanced.

 I know this is a super basic concept for some, but also I know it's something I used to struggle with. I was constantly exhausted, grabbing takeout and tossing produce into my compost because I was overwhelmed.

Meal planning can be as simple as keeping a note with meal ideas on your phone that you can make quickly with what you have on hand, or printing out a menu planner on a piece of paper. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated.

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