Okay, it’s Monday. Monday is when a lot of bloggers share their meal plans – Meal Plan Monday. I don’t have a meal plan for you today because I’m only a Meal Plan Monday wannabe…for now. The title of this post might be misleading. I’m not writing this post as someone who is an expert and has this habit down pat. I’m writing meal planning for beginners for me – a beginner.
Meal Planning Series
This is the first of a series on meal planning, be sure to check out the other posts too!
Meal Planning for Beginners: Step One (you are here!)
Meal Planning for Beginners: Step Two, Simple Weekly Menu Plan
Meal Planning for Beginners: Step Three, Groceries and Shopping
Meal Planning for Beginners: Step Four, Essential Pantry Staples
Why is Meal Planning so Hard?
I’ve had children for 13 years now and you would think I would have developed this habit a long time ago. Similar to my sporadic decluttering habits, however, I would meal plan for a week or two, but then resort to making decisions that night or a couple of nights ahead of time. It’s never stuck.
My husband and I have also switched off being the main stay at home parent during our 13 years of child-rearing. Meal planning and cooking has often fallen on the stay at home parent at the time. Neither one of us has ever written down meals for the week consistently. Undoubtedly, we would fall in the NOT natural planners category.
I’m not entirely sure why I haven’t managed to write down a plan for our meals in the past. Is it my personality? Is it just because it’s not a habit I’ve focused on? Is it because it’s not important to me? This blog post cites perfectionism as a reason that some don’t start or sustain meal planning. Whatever the reason, in my efforts to be more intentional, my goal is to start meal planning for dinner one week at a time.
Our Meal Planning Now
This shouldn’t be too hard. My sons have very simple tastes and right now, we cater to what they like and what is simple. We have very simple meals on the days when I work outside the home, Tuesday – Thursday. This is out of necessity. When the school year is in full swing, it’s a good day if I can be home by 6pm. Dinner is usually at 7pm.
On Tuesday-Thursday, we usually have spaghetti and meatballs, tacos, or breakfast food for dinner. The sauce is from a jar and the meatballs are not homemade. We usually have the ingredients for those three meals at all times in our house. They are our go to meals for last-minute dinner plans.
The goal for this season has been simple and quick regarding meals. On my days off I try to plan meals that require a little more prep because I have the time and energy for it.
Meal Planning for Beginners: The First Step
In preparation for dinner meal planning, I’ve brainstormed on a piece of paper all the meals that we have on a regular basis. This list will be the starting point for our weekly meal plans. Maybe when I get the hang of this I’ll throw in a new recipe to try every week.
Step 1: List all of the regular meals that you make in your family.
As we continue our long-term project of decluttering the basement, I’m excited to be working on another habit that I think will simplify our life.
What about you? Do you meal plan? What is the first step you would recommend for us beginners? I’d love to know!
OMG i needed this. its as if you wrote this just for me haha! Love your blog, just found it!
XO Ellen from Ask Away
http://www.askawayblog.com
Thanks Ellen! I’m glad I’m not the only one!
I find it easier to meal plan for a week. Not for specific days. You might wake up and say that really doesn’t sound good today. But if you have x amount of meals to cook and all the ingredients for said meal you give yourself room for the unexpected. We also keep a few quick fix meals on hand for night time just got away.
I decide what meals then what ingredients I need or have on hand and make a list before shopping. Also I precooked my hamburger. I cook it all at once and divide in zip locks. 2 cups is right at 1lbs. Most recipe call for browned meat. Save time and extra groceries I don’t need that week
Good luck
Leisa – those are excellent tips and ideas. I really like the idea of Taco Tuesday, etc…but can’t always keep to that. The idea for keeping a list of meals, but not specific to days is one I might actually implement! I have browned meat in the past beforehand and you’re right – it is a time saver.
Angela, I had kids too, and never meal planned. What’s a meal plan? lol
But, if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely try to do it.
Since I’m alone now, it’s mostly salads. The only planning I do is make sure I go to the store before I run outta lettuce!
My husband and I would be satisfied with a salad every night. Unfortunately I think our sons would rebel…maybe that’s a good tactic to get them to cook!
I just can’t get into meal planning. It doesn’t work for us. I’d love to be that organised but whenever I try, we never follow it so I’ve given up!
I know Carla. I think this will be a “test” to see if it simplifies or complicates things!
My biggest hurdle is very little convergence between the meals we all like (oldest child is selective eater), the meals I have time to prepare (I work FT outside the house) and the meals I feel good about serving (I believe in real food). When I sit down to plan I feel overwhelmed by which factor(s) I will ignore and the accompanying guilt. I think the real answer is making peace with my expectations of myself, but that’s been a struggle. Thanks for your blog!
That is so true Kristin. Thank you for pointing that out. I believe in real food the majority of the time as well. I feel the dilemma of frugality and sustainable choices too.
I love meal planning and I love this post! It’s really intimidating at first, and I think it can seem like more work than it’s worth, but it’s made my life soo much easier.
Thanks Abby! I’m definitely going to consult your blog for new recipes – I think you have simple but yummy looking recipes!
My problem with meal planning is that it is hard to gauge how much we will eat, what will be left over, etc. I tried meal planning very specifically for a couple of months, and we kept ending up with way too many leftovers. Then I felt confused since I had purchased items for dinners which we didn’t need because of the leftovers. I now don’t really plan well at all — a day to a week in advance, but more just picking out items for dinners instead of specifically thinking “Ok, this day we will do this, that day we will do that.” One thing we NEED to do is have our 2 teens make dinners more often, as it always takes a big load off my plate when they make a meal, plus it is good practice for them.
Hi! Yes I totally agree with you that about having my kids cook more. My 13 year old is old enough to make simple meals – and is really into cooking shows! He states that simple meals are beneath him though! ?
I use leftovers from dinner in my lunch the next day—-baked chicken becomes chicken salad,grilled fish equals fish tacos etc…………………..I even use leftover salad for taco salad of on sandwiches
Hi Phyllis. I love using leftovers for lunch too. Although, I usually don’t get creative like you do – I just eat it the same way as dinner the previous day! Your lunches sound very tasty though!
I loved reading this, Angela! To be honest, my husband and I are a bit disorganized about our meals. We grab our weekly box of organic produce (through community-supported ag) after running to the farmer’s market, where I pick out whatever suits my fancy. I have an awful buy-now-plan-later mentality. That said, we do plan out our meat consumption because we eat so little of it. We use the crockpot to make dishes that heat up well, and then pair with whatever produce we ended up getting. It works, but could be stressful if there were more than 2 of us! Great post, friend!
Thanks Daisy! I love CSAs! We didn’t participate this year though. Regular trips to our local farmers market is something I want to start doing. It’s close and I feel good shopping there!
Ha! I used to be amazing at planning my family’s meals, but I totally fell off the bandwagon. I even created my own planner and included a box for meal planning and I still haven’t done it! That’s a great idea to list your usual meals. Maybe list them in an order that makes sense (so you’re not eating chicken 5 days in a row just because you had chicken on your mind when you made the list), and then laminate that list so you could check off the meals as you went through them? In the past, I would go through a couple cookbooks and write the name of the recipe and the page number on my meal plan, but that can take a lot of time (probably why I stopped doing it).
Alison that’s impressive about the planner! It should be very easy for you to get back on the wagon! Thanks for reading and commenting!
What a great idea!! Thank you for sharing on What’s for Dinner Sunday!
Thanks Helen!
I have been meal planning for years. I plot out our meals on a google calendar and set them to repeat every 14 weeks. Every Monday is Salad for Dinner (this makes me feel better about all the crap I ate over the weekend), Tuesday is beef, Wednesday is Chicken, Thursday is Pork or Sausage, Friday and Saturday can be anything, and Sunday is Quiche. Also with the google calendar if I need to move a meal I just point and drag to another day. This has worked very well for me.
That sounds great Lori! I love the salad idea on Mondays to balance out the unhealthy eating over the weekend! I’m a paper planner girl for now.
Thanks so much for this. I hope to follow along! I want to start meal planning but I just suck at sticking to it or I plan something and my husband wants something else so it just seems like we can never keep to it! I did the same thing where I would plan for a few weeks in advance but then we end up with a bunch of leftovers we don’t eat so I need to plan it a little better. I like all the other ideas listed in comments. Good to know I’m not the only one struggling! Thanks again.
You are definitely not the only one struggling Jessica. I’m lucky (?) because my husband will pretty much eat whatever is cooked – and prepare whatever is on the weekly meal plan! Have you tried freezing leftovers in individual sizes? I try to do that if there is more than we can eat in the next day or so.
Nice blog to read..thank you
nice
very useful blog thanks for sharing
The extent of my meal planning is figuring out what to eat with what my husband thawed out for the day. After two years of trying to get me to thaw things out for the next day, he finally learned that as long as he thaws out the meat, I’ll make something from it the next day without complaint. That is the extent of our meal planning here. However, I do believe my husband has a mental idea of the things he wants and when he wants them because he goes grocery shopping with me and makes sure I always have the sides/ingredients I need to make whatever he has in mind on any given day.
I have always considered doing freezer meal prepping, but the idea of spending an entire day in a kitchen doesn’t appeal to me one little bit. However, if I could get a group of ladies together and we were in a big kitchen it would be fun and certainly worth doing.
You guys sound like a good team when it comes to meal planning Crystal! I’ve never done freezer cooking beyond making a huge batch of something and freezing half!