Meal Planning Tips and Tricks

Meal Planning Tips and Tricks:

Here are some meal planning tips and tricks that I believe will help you on your way to saving money and time, alleviating stress, and most importantly eating in a healthier way.

1. Keep it simple. This is my life motto, but truly, do not overthink this, do not buy too much crap (a case of equipmentitis is not saving you money), do not beat yourself up if you have some setbacks, and don’t reward yourself if you do great. (The benefits are their own reward). Loading any type of health, wellness or nutritional habit with emotion and drama is never good if you want to get into a habit. This will become a normal part of your functioning life.

2. Build in planning and shopping into your schedule. Taking inventory of your kitchen, going on a shopping trip, preparing food and storing it will probably take four hours. Building in other time to research recipes and food choice might be necessary for you too. The best way for me to do it is all at once, as in I get up on Saturday morning and go to the store and start cooking when I get home. When I do meal planning, shopping and cooking with people I am helping, it usually takes about six hours the first time, and then 3-4 hours each time after that, because I have already made the menus and shopping lists. (Full disclosure, my nickname is the Lauranado and no one moves faster through a grocery store or it’s parking lot, so maybe allow five hours the first few weeks.) You can make several things at once. The first time you put a tuna noodle casserole in with the roast, you may think you won’t survive it. But you will!

3. Be realistic about what you eat and what your family eats and will eat too. Don’t forget that you probably eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and some snacks. Having breakfast “stuff” on hand is every bit as important as dinner prep.

4. Division of Labor Issues: As my 26-year-old son says, “no one tryna to help Mama in the kitchen”, but if you do have a helper at home, you may have to re-assess how you do business in regards to shopping, budgeting and preparing. Also, if you live with other people and are all participating, find out what they want to eat that week or things they wish you would make. You can make much more of the food they love to eat when you plan. You also can have Taco Tuesday, Pizza Night, and get the chopsticks and soy sauce bowls located for sushi night. Speaking of that, meal planning can include a night of what we call “Fend fo yosef” (as if that is not always an option) or an order in pizza night, whatever works for your life. (One tip about division of labor is always let the kids and the males do whatever they volunteer to do. Wink.)

5. Plan for a main dish and side dishes for most meals.

6. Prepare for leftovers. Because meal planning means you will eat leftovers sometimes even if it is just the food you pack to take to work. This means that you may need to invest in good quality storage containers, or learn to double recipes, and clean out your frig and freezer now. You will find with meal planning, you won’t have as much food go to waste.

7. Be flexible! If the pork loins are on sale, go ahead and buy them and Google a new recipe when you get home or make an old favorite. If your new boss buys you lunch, partake, your food will keep.

8. Read recipes. Read every item on a menu for meal and food ideas. Talk to friends and family about favorite recipes that they enjoy. Use Pinterest, All Recipes, Paleo Nom Nom, magazines, and other idea sources to keep your meal planning fresh.

9. A routine will give you the structure to keep going. Next time I will give you the exact details of my routine. A routine answers a lot of the questions, and keeps you on track.

10. Have some stuff always ready to go. If there are ingredients you use often, buy them in bulk or when they are on sale—we go through the canned organic tomatoes for several recipes, as well as chicken thighs, ground beef, coconut milk, mushrooms and peppers at our house, and we always buy more when it’s on sale because we will eat them. Have your spices organized—and have all the basic ones plus some specialty ones for ethnic dishes you like, such as Mexican spices, Italian food spices, curry spices, etc.

Next time, exact meals and routine explained.