What Are We Going to Eat? {Meal Planning 101}

You roll in the door from work, baby in one arm, lunch boxes and work bags in the other. Somehow you free up one hand to muscle the door open and corral the kids inside. Coats and shoes off, diapers changed, and you sit down on the couch for a hot second. Then, it hits:

"I'm hungry. What are we going to eat?"

Crap. They need to eat... AGAIN?! 

Staring into the fridge and pantry, you try to scrape together a healthy meal with haphazard ingredients, and run to the store again for a couple more things to make a meal for the family. This was the story of our evenings for a long time, and it is so tiresome!

Meal Planning to the Rescue

The idea of meal planning was pretty intimidating but it couldn't be any worse than the nightly struggle to figure out what to make, right? Turns out, it was pretty easy! If you want to get your family off the "whats for dinner" merry-go-round, check out these simple steps to start your meal plan. 

1) Answer the Question...

What does your family like to eat? How much time do you want to spend making dinner each night? Do you want to have leftovers? These are all things to think about as you plan your menu. It may help to have a little "word bank" of meals that you can pull from when you are stuck in a rut. I keep a list of meals on my "notes" app in my iPhone that I scroll through for inspiration. Quickly jot down 7 dinners you'd like to eat this week, and include breakfasts and lunches too if you'd like to do that.

2) Keep It Interesting!

Unless you enjoy eating the same thing several days in a row, you're going to want some variety in your week. Here's how I break up our week:

Meal Variety:
1 - Mexican (Burritos, Quesadillas, Fajitas, Nachos, Beans and Rice, Mexican Salad, etc.)
1 or 2 - Italian Inspired (Pasta Skillet, Noodles and Sauce, Lasagna, etc.)
1 - Asian Inspired (Stir Fry, Egg Rolls, Fried Rice)
1 or 2 - Comfort Food (Grilled Cheese, Chili, Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Fingers & Salad, etc.)
1 Wild Card (Breakfast for Dinner, Leftovers, Order In, Try a New Recipe Night, "Whatever is in the Fridge" Night, etc.)

This is pretty fluid, of course, and some times we eat more or fewer in each category. I also do my best to keep a variety of protein sources and ingredients in the menu so that we get a good round diet. We aren't great at making sides with our main dishes most of the time, so I try to include a nice balance of main dishes throughout the week. Chicken is the most affordable meat source for us, so we eat that several times a week. Pork and especially beef are more expensive, so we eat those sparingly.

Ingredient Variety:
1 - Beef Meal
3 - Chicken Meals
1 - Pork Meal
2 - Vegan or Vegetarian Meals (Include eggs, cheese, legumes etc.)

We don't decide which meals we eat on which days, but if that works for your family, you can. I find it is easier to say "we have these meals on hand- what do we want for tomorrow?" and then toss that meat item in the fridge to thaw if necessary.

3) Make Your List

We do our meal planning on the way to church each Sunday, since we do our weekly shopping following church. We have a 30 minute commute to the worship service, so while my husband drives, I plan! I do keep a running list of things we need on my Notes app, and I usually have a pretty good idea of what is in our fridge and pantry. If you're trying new recipes, it is a good idea to print out or keep links to those recipes on your phone so you can refer to the ingredient lists while you plan your grocery trip.

I find it helps me to make my grocery list in the order that we pass through the store-
Veggies, Meats, Beverages, Dry Goods, Cleaning & Pet Supplies, Dairy, Frozen, and Personal Care. 
That's how our grocery store is organized, and since we shop there every week, I'm very familiar with the store layout. Listing this way keeps me from forgetting things, and makes our trips quick since we don't have to go back to other areas of the store or wind through every aisle looking for the items we need.

As you make your list, be realistic about what you can afford if you're trying to stick to a budget. We limit our grocery trips to $100 each week, and this is more than enough for our family of 3 most of the time. I do shop with coupons and try to take advantage of specials and store sales as well, and we never have issues affording all the items we need. Some of the food staples we try to keep in stock are:

Apples
Berries
Russet Potatoes
Salad Fixin's
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
80/20 Ground Chuck
Italian Sausage
Lunch Meat
Coffee & Tea
Old Fashioned Oats
Tortillas
Whole Wheat Pasta
Barilla Traditional Pasta Sauce (a good clean canned sauce option!)
Salsa
Black beans
White & Brown Rice
All Purpose Flour
Bread Flour (we make all our own bread)
White & Brown Sugar
Active Dry Yeast
Spices for Taco Seasoning
Milk
Eggs
Butter
Yogurt
Block or Pre-sliced Cheese for sandwiches

4) Stick to Your Budget

If you don't budget, keep scrolling, but the budget is one of the major reasons we meal plan! As I toss things in the cart, my husband keeps a mental tally of how much our groceries will cost. Granted, we have a pretty good idea of what we'll need to spend for the week, but with sales and coupons and "Oh crap I need coffee", things sometimes change once we're at the store. That way, if items we buy a lot of are on sale, we can stock up if our budget allows, or even pick up a few treats.
Once at the checkout, we scan things in order of priority- essential meal plan items first, stock up and "maybe this can wait until next week" items last.

5) Store Your Foods

This might seem silly, but we portion out all our meats into "one dinner" containers when we get home from doing groceries. Two chicken breasts or 1lb of beef go into a quart sized freezer bag and I press the items flat for easy freezing and thawing.
If you have a lot of chopping and dicing to do for meals through the week, this is a good time to do that as well.Onions, carrots, peppers, garlic, and other veggies and herbs can be portioned out into large Tupperware containers or Ziploc bags to be stored in the fridge or freezer for simple weeknight prep. I know I have a lot more time to plan and prepare on Sunday afternoon than I do on a weekday after work!

6) Let Them Eat Meals!

Here's the fun part! Stress free meal prep and eating. As I said, we don't schedule our meals for specific days of the week, so each evening while we make lunches, Scott and I decide what we'll have for dinner the next night. We try to pick our meal based on how much time we'll have to prepare it, what activities we have in the evening, and what our plans for the week are. If we're making a meal with lots of leftovers (Chicken noodle soup and chili are big ones!), we try to make that toward the beginning of the week so we'll have easy lunches to bring to work.

So that's it! Meal planning seems like a really big scary involved process but it can be an awesome tool to help simplify your family's life, and it is as easy as making a list of meals, shopping, cooking and eating! You can plan by the week, or even by the month ahead of time, saving you that angst every night as you stare into the fridge. I hope you enjoy this little tutorial, and please let me know if you try it out! Thanks for reading.

xo Allison