Meal Planning Hack
Feeding my family is probably one of the things I stress about most. I like to cook to some extent, but don’t always feel very confident in it and certainly don’t love to do it all the time. Maybe if I had more time and didn’t feel like I was always rushing to get it on the table I’d enjoy it more. But I’m in that stage of motherhood where I’m always a bit tired, a bit overstimulated and always running behind. I don’t have time for all the things I love to do and so even if cooking is something I like to do, I wouldn’t choose to put it over something else. All that said, we all have to eat, so it has to be done. (Maybe one day we’ll have a personal chef. A girl can dream!) A friend recently asked me how she can find the motivation to plan for and make dinner every night and so I shared this with her and figured I’d make a blog post about it too.
I recently decided I needed to shake things up. Make a change to try to make it less stressful. So I’m probably not the best person to ask and I’m only on month two of doing this, but I do two things to try make meal planning easier. First I use HelloFresh as a meal service a few times a week. We’ve actually been using them for a long time, but this adding into the second thing is what really makes it a game changer. The second thing is that I meal plan for the full month all at one time. It’s more work up front, but I think that’s been working better for me. I sit down with a month view of my calendar on my computer and my paper planner on the month view page, look at the month ahead and I choose what we’re having for dinner Monday through Friday. I do it at the same time as preselecting my Hello Fresh meals, so that tab is also open on my computer. I take the time to factor in any events or outings I know we have in that month. I only do Monday through Friday because realistically we’ll order takeout at least one night. I also feel like it leaves room for me to move things around a little. Like if I planned for a spaghetti night on Tuesday, but we ended up eating out, then I can move that plan to Saturday (or shift the other days down etc). I start with selecting the Hello Fresh meals and assigning them to specific days on the paper calendar. I also write down if it’s a leftover night so that I know the night before should be a larger batch of food to last the second night. I have a list of meals I like to make or that I know are hits so that I’m not reinventing the wheel. And I’ll also go through my list of saved recipes on Instagram if I want to try new things. Looking at them in the month view also allows me to repeat meals while spreading them out over the month so we don’t get tired of the same things, but also so I don’t have to come up with 30 different ideas. It also helps me to spread out the kinds of meals we make (pasta, protein heavy, rice bowls etc). I can do my favorite salmon bowls 2-3 times a month and we won’t get sick of them. Once I have the month set, on Sundays I look at the list for the week and I put that on a mini weekly menu white board I have on my fridge and order groceries according to what I’m making for that week. It’s not a perfect system, but it turns something that I dreaded weekly, into a once a month project.
I love the NYTimes Cooking app. The user interface is super easy to use and the recipes are great. It’s easy to find ones that are highly reviewed and tested. I have categories for types of recipes saved and I use it all the time. You do need a subscription, but I think it’s worth it. If you follow them on Instagram, they always suggest great recipes too. I also save recipes on Instagram all the time and have those in their own folder. I go through both these apps and sometimes Pinterest often for inspiration when I’m looking for something new. I used to use Half Baked Harvest cook books a lot and still like the recipes, but sometimes they are more labor intensive (although not always!) and I love Brunch with Babs on Instagram and use her Everyday with Babs cookbook all the time. It’s meant to be easy meals for families.
Some things we make again and again.
Some variation of pasta — spaghetti and meatballs, pasta with a cream sauce and a veggie, lately it’s been asparagus, but we also love peas or broccoli, crockpot chicken alfredo.
Meatball subs — we keep frozen meatballs stocked at all times, so just add bread rolls, sauce and mozzarella!
Rice bowls — I love the firecracker meatball recipe from Hello Fresh. Taco bowls are always easy and my favorite is a salmon rice bowl with avocado and cucumber.
Turkey tacos or Babs’ recipe for simple bean and cheese tacos.
Pot roast or beef stroganoff.
Breaded chicken with mashed potatoes and a veggie. We add a little Frank’s Red Hot seasoning to the breading for a little kick.
Burgers or sliders.