Meal Planning as a Mom
Meal planning is such a great strength to have truly for anyone but especially moms. It can save your budget, sanity, and is just nice to know what will be for dinner without any stress. Being in charge of what other people in your home is full time job all by itself I swear.
But having a meal plan will save you from so much stress and anxiety. It has SO many benefits and can be adapted to you and your families needs! How bomb is that? Meal planning sounds a bit overwhelming and hard to start but really it is easiest and super helpful!
Let’s break down the benefits of it and why it will make your life simpler, and as a momma making life easier is amazing and gives you more time to be the mom you want to be.
Saves you time:
As a mom or really as a person, time is not something we can get back and is often having a lot of time is few and far between. But when you meal plan it can free up time. You do not have to spend a whole bunch of time thinking of what to do for dinner, you all ready have it planned.
You also just spend an hour a week to plan out what you’re going to eat that week instead of spending an hour plus everyday thinking of what is for dinner, and what you are going to feed your family.
Once you get in a good groove of meal planning it will be easier and take less time. Which means now you have freed up more time to do other things! You can do something else on your to do list or an activity for your kids!
Reduces stress:
It truly can be so darn stressful having to worry about thinking of every meal you’re going to feed your family. When you plan out your meals you do not have to stress all day about what to pull out of the freezer for dinner or how to combine the random ingredients in your pantry to make something your toddler will actually eat.
This makes life easier to just know oh you know what tonight is chicken enchiladas let me pull out the chicken. You can cross that off your to do list, and then continue on your day. Not having to sit here and worry about dinner, will relief stress.
Anything that makes my life easier and reduces stress from my day is a win win. I love having less on my plate so I can spend more times with my sweet girls.
Helps save money:
Grocery budget is truly my week spot when it comes to groceries. When I go into a store with no plan and just buy what sounds good or what I think I can do with a certain ingredient I will over spend every. Single. Time. I can not help myself. Will I eat all these snack? Yes. Do I need them? No..
So when I have a set list, and a solid plan I can keep inside my budget. AND if I do grocery pick up I also come in under budget. What a freaking win am I right? Any extra I save in the grocery budget goes to my Starbucks fund, so I am always happy.
Meal planning can also reduce how much you eat out. I get how coinvent it is to just get take out if you can not think of anything to make, or if you took too long to decide and now the meat doesn’t have any time to thaw, or any number of reasons that dinner did not happen so just ordering or going out sounds soooo nice.
But it is not as nice for your wallet or budget, but having a plan will help you have less reason to go out to eat and spend more money then you need to. It is amazing! And now you can put that money towards something else.
Track your favorite meals:
When you write down and meal plan what you have to eat that week it is super easy to look back. Right? And when you look back you can remember or make note of what meals were a major hit!
I keep track in my recipe book of what my families favorites are. I try to make one of the favorites every week as well as try a new recipe once a week too. This way if we find a new favorite I can also add it into the rotation of favorite meals.
Also, I have at least one crock pot meal a week, and I double it so that I can freeze it. Then I have one freezer meal per week. It is just nice to have a rotation and a meal already prepped and just needing to be thawed.
This makes my life genuinely easier. Which I adore.
Just start:
Meal planning may seem super stressful, where do you start? How do you start something that might change how you do your daily life? Well as unhelpful as it sounds, you just need to start.
That may look different for everyone. Maybe you meal plan for just 3 days to start, or maybe you just jump right in for all 7 days. I like to write in pencil in my planner what I plan to make for that day of the week. BUT I write it down in pencil because I most likely will move around what we have that night.
When you decide to meal plan, it can be so overwhelming. Just takes it in bite size bits.
Think about time:
I don’t know about you but before I meal planned I would just cook what I thought sounded/easy or good that night. I for sure did not think about how much time it would take to make or bake it. So dinner time was sporadic. I would start at 4 but some recipes take a lot longer so I wasn’t done until 6 or later.
Yikes right? My poor kids and husband would be either starving or we would eat at about 4:15. It was a mess. I knew I wanted a set dinner time, so when I switched to meal planning, I would note how long the recipe said it would take.
This helped me keep a schedule for me and meal times. I found when I did this I noticed I had more time, because I knew how long and what I needed to do for dinner. So I could plan the day accordingly. Or if I knew I was going to have a super busy day one night this week, I could easily just swap a longer more complicated recipe for an easy or short one.
How I meal plan:
When you get into your own groove then your process may look much different than mine and that is important. You do not need to use my strategy to a t, because maybe it does not work well for you. But I know that looking at others methods can be helpful and give you inspiration. SO here is how I plan our meals.
I pick a day each week, I do my grocery pick up on Thursdays, but I plan the meals out on Wednesday. So I need about 7 meals planned.
Pantry cook, before sitting down I will look in the freezer, pantry, and fridge about what I already have and needs to be used up.
Once I take note on what I have, I go to my hard back cook books. My favorites are Brenda Gantt which I will link here and my Gooseberry Patch book which I will link here. And my own recipe book for one of our favorites.
I like to look through my hard copy books and plan out what I think sounds good. I do one of our favorite meals once a week, so I look through what I have starred and made note as a favorite.
Now once I have picked from my cook books and my recipes. I turn to some of my favorite blogs or pinterest.
I recently found a blog called Sally’s Baking Addiction and I am obsessed with her recipes. I will link her here. Another one of my favorites is Spaceships and Laserbeams, linked here. Baking with Josh and Ange, linked here. And Honeysuckle linked here.
These are my favorite places online to look for dinners. If I still have slots that I need to fill for dinner I turn to the always wonderful Pinterest.
Once I have all of my recipes planned out, I go to the Wal-mart app and I order on a grocery pick up and order what ingredients I may be missing and then I grab some staples I may need. Like milk, eggs, flour. We bake alot so we grow through these ingredients often. I also get snacks for my husbands job, and the kids about every other week and portion them out so that they last longer.
When I do an online pick up I know that I save money. I have a hard time going into the store and not wanting everything in there. I love to eat guys!
That is how I meal plan! I sometimes will ask my husband if he wants something specific. I also will look at the schedule next week to make sure that I will have time to make the meals that I have picked out.
Conclusion:
Meal planning may seem super daunting and stressful, but truly it will simplify your life. You will have more time, more money, and less stress. Planning your dinners is such a blessing and will become such a great part of your week.
These tips are simple yet effective. Freeing up your life as a mom is so amazing! You got this momma.
What is your go to dinner?