Meal Planning Monday – The Basics

For some reason that I don’t completely understand, I’ve been asked a lot recently about meal planning, especially on twitter.

Ok. It turns out I do understand it. I am an enthusiastic and effective meal planner and pretty much anytime anyone vents about their meal planning frustration in my general vicinity, I have a tendency to pounce. I LOVE meal planning y’all. Without it, I am a lost ship at sea. With it, I am a happy and confident wife and mother. For me meal planning is the easiest, cheapest and ONE OF the most consistent ways I feel that I serve my family and earn my Good Wife And Mother badge on a weekly basis.

Are there others who do it better than me? Cheaper? More efficiently? More creatively?

You bet.

But the folks I’ve been talking too lately are worlds away from determining whether it’s cheaper or healthier to make all of their own bread from scratch and just want to know how to feed their families sometime before 10pm without dirtying every dish in the house and/or running to the grocery store twice a day.

And I’m telling you, it really can be done. Swearsies.

To prove it I’m going to host a series for the next 8 weeks. I know I know, we’re going into the holidays and frequently we’re all focused on other things. However I find meal planning to be a source of comfort and predictability at this, the busiest time of the year. If your family is anything like mine they require feedings between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the leftover stuffing only lasts for so long.  I’ll be sharing with you some of my favorite meal planning tips, shopping and budgeting strategies and even some of my most requested recipes.

(Dude. Did it sound like I totally know what I’m talking about up there OR WHAT?!!? Ha!)

The first week of the new year I’ll post a big recap. comlete ith reader suggestions, success stories and hopefully other feedback!

I’m keeping it light for this first session and sharing my 3 basic rules:

1. Know your motivation

You can’t effectively meal plan unless the reason you want to do so is kept front and center in your mind throughout the processes of planning, shopping and cooking. Is it financial? Convenience? Health? Figure that out, then make sure that as you’re planning your meals you’ve stayed focused on what you’re in this thing for.

My primary motivations are financial and health related. I don’t like to spend a ton of money on things I can’t wear on my feet and meat shoes get smelly really fast. Also ever since I got pregnant and started learning more about my food sources I’ve been a lot more conscious about what I put in our bodies, especially my daughter’s body. In addition, my husband has a definite love language and y’all, it is FOOD. Do you know what kind of mileage I can get out of cooking a ham? We’re talking Lousiana Purchase kind of territory. I don’t even like ham that much but I make one at least twice a year because it makes my man do the Snoopy dance.

2. It needs to be fair.

For whatever your situation is, make sure there’s a balance. For example, in our house both parents work outside the home 40 or more hours a week, however anywhere from one to four days a week, I work FROM home while Piper is in daycare. I do the grocery shopping and the meal planning partly because the luxury of using my lunch hour to go to the grocery store in the middle of a weekday without a toddler is not something to be passed up lightly, and meal planning plays to my inherent organizational skills. However we alternate dinner prep. If I make dinner Monday night that means Topher is on baby duty while I cook, then I put Piper to bed that night. The opposite of this scenario occurs the following night and we trade back and forth throughout the week. This way dinner is not just one parents’ problem and both parents also get daily one on one time with the kid(s).

If you’re a stay at home parent maybe you feel like part of your job is cooking dinner every night for your family. I totally get that. But if you’re struggling to get dinner on the table every night perhaps your partner can take over some child care duties occassionaly? Even giving you one evening a week or a couple of hours on weekends can let you get some major prep work done or even stock up some casseroles or freezer meals. Marriage is a partnership and feeding the family isn’t an afterthought. It is of paramount importance to keeping the entire family going, and all family members benefit from being nourished in all sorts of ways.

3. Always play to your strengths

I love casseroles. I love crock pot recipes. I love baked pasta dishes. I love really chunky salads filled with meat and cheese and drenched in creamy dressings. As I mentioned I do the meal planning and the shopping. Therefore, at least one of the above features in out family’s menu once a week or more. If I like to eat it, I’m going to be more happy to cook it. If I cook it successfully I’m more likely to cook it again.

I also hate the mad rush from 5:00 to 7:3o every night so whatever I can prep ahead of time, I do. This means chopping veggies during the day if I have time working from home or the night before if I have to be out all day. I’ve been known to chop/prep ingredients for 5 nights worth of dinners on a Sunday (while making dinner for that night) and separating them all into separate tupperware/gladware/ziploc containers with post it notes on them denoting the days of the week they’re called for before shoving them back in the fridge.

Again for stay at home parents: ask yourself what part of the day you feel most creative, energetic, or otherwise motivated to deal with the food prep and or meal planning. If you’re more “on” in the mornings, by all means do your prep stuff THEN instead of waiting until 5:00 when you’re up to your eyeballs in screaming toddler antics and you’re huddled in a corner praying for your partner to get home so you can finally go pee by yourself. If on the other hand your partner comes home with plenty of time before the dinner hour and you want to use meal prep as a time to decompress and be on your own, then save it until later. The key is to be congnizant of your natural rythms and then make them work for you.

So internet, what do you think? I really want to hear from you guys. I’ve got a list of topics I plan on covering but you tell me what you want to know! I’m going to be here ever Monday through the end of the year talking about this stuff so tell me how this series can best help you, I’m begging. Here’s are a few of the things I’ve got in mind:

• Healthful Meal Planning – Incorporating more veggies and whole foods; It’s not as scary as it sounds
• Where to shop – Whole Paycheck Foods or Save A Lot? Does it have to be one or the other?
• Coupons – Worth Clipping or Waste of Time?
• What about Organic?
• Finding Recipes AKA “Please don’t make me eat baked chicken again!”
• Staying Motivated and Keeping Out Of the Rut – “I’m bored and I can’t think of anything to cook”
• “It’s not on the plan but it’s such a good deal!” – How to shop sales without breaking the bank
• “There’s no way he’ll eat that” – How to please the picky eaters and introduce new foods
• Well. Crap. – A real meal planner knows that some nights the plan just falls the hell apart. What to do when it happens to you.
• Warehouse clubs – Sams or Costco doesn’t matter, no one NEEDS that much olive oil. How to tell the difference between a good deal and a flimsy excuse to buy a second freezer.
• Special Needs – Planning around dietary restrictions without living on the same 3 meals over and over and over and over and over

Next week we’ll be talking about your grocery store’s floor plan and how to make it work for you. We’ll also discuss recipe selection, and yes please, the all important budget. Also? I’ll be sharing one of my family’s favorite casserole recipes: Cheeseburger Lasagna. It is seriously of the awesome.

Are you down for some meal planning fun with me? yes, I am a dork and think this stuff is fun. IT’S REALLY OK IF YOU DON’T. I totally understand that not everyone does the cabbage patch in the grocery store check out line when their total bill comes up $0.17 under their grocery budget for the week.  But if like a lot of people, meal planning is something you’ve wanted to do but feel overwhelmed or defeated by, I’m hoping this series will help you out.

Let me hear from you, please. If the above basic tips helped you at all, tell me how. If you’re intrigued but skeptical, tell me what your deal breaker is.  If you already meal plan regularly, share your insights!

If you’re just here for the occasional pictures of my kid, let me know that too and I’ll see what I can do.

Here’s our meal plan for this week:

Sunday – Roast chicken with Red Potatoes and Green Beans

Monday – Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Avocado, Cucumber and Lettuce; Caprese Salad. (Did I spell that right? I doubt I spelled that right…)

Tuesday – Egg Roll or Crabcake Salad (I haven’t technically decided yet but the work/time is in the salad, not the eggroll vs crabcake decision)

Wednesday – Chicken Casserole and Salad

Thursday – Pasta with fresh grated parmesan and roasted pine nuts, probably also some peas.

Friday – Pizza and French Fries

Saturday – Out with friends

Come on internet, talk to me. My grocery store circulars doesn’t come out until Wednesday. Until then you have my complete attention.