Mighty Meal Planning

Let me tell you a little story, folks.

Remember when  I said I was a neat freak in my last post HERE? Well, it just so turns out that a gangly appendage of that truth is that I like to plan and organize. I suppose that's part of where my basket addiction came into play, too. Toys underfoot and guests are walking up your sidewalk? Find the nearest basket and toss em in. BAM. Your house looks neat. But I digress.

I'm not one of those souls that can throw a delicious dinner together at 4:38 pm every night using nothing but a wooden spoon and a brown gravy envelope. I need a plan in order to get stuff done with any sort of consistency. . . I can't just walk into my pantry and make something up.

That's where meal planning has always saved my bacon.

Literally and figuratively.

Let's change gears momentarily, shall we? If you're not terribly familiar with my husband, you might not know that he's blessed with an incredibly active brain that enjoys figuring things out. Hard things. Things I would much rather just wonder about idly while eating my way through a bag of Mini Cadburry Eggs. He, on the other hand, will not rest until he has figured it out to his complete satisfaction. I have yet to see him express an interest in a subject that has stumped him.

The man taught himself to write in hexadecimal code one day, for Pete's sake. Just because.

He's also extremely skilled mechanically and can fix anything he cares to. When I was attempting to clean my crock pot a while back, I foolishly left the thing plugged in. Long story short, I fried the poor thing's brain in a small explosion of sparks and wifely squeals. Instead of getting frustrated and feeding me to the on-call hyenas, he quietly took apart the crock pot and lovingly put it back to rights in a matter of minutes.  

I could go on, of course, but the ability of Chuck's brain to bench press a 400 lb textbook and build a functioning vehicle out of a rubber band and 4 doughnuts was only meant to segue into meal planning; not derail it.

So, moving on.

Chuck recently got hired for a job in a new department (of the same company) and it will be a huge blessing for a brain like his. I'm so very proud of him! As a result of this change, however, our budget belt will need to be temporarily cinched up and he will need daily lunches from home. All that basically equates to:

I totally get it, you know. Meal plans can be really hard. They're hard to plan and hard to stick to. They're hard to keep rolling after the first, like, week. But you can do hard things {just like Chuck's noggin}.

Here's what I do to help me keep at it even when I feel like throwing in the towel:

          I know that seems overwhelming. If you have young kids like me, sitting down and planning even one week of meals can feel about as possible as underwater basket weaving. But I've come to realize that if I allow myself 2 days to get it done, it doesn't feel anywhere near intimidating. Sit down with one piece of paper for each week (so, 4 total). I like using different colors because I'm funny like that. You'll also need one shopping list for each week, plus a "master list" (so, 5 total). Paperclip each week's shopping list with its corresponding meal plan.

               I have most of my "tried and true" recipes in a binder for quick access, but I love trying out Pinterest for new recipes. If the family really likes a new recipe, however, I add it to my binder so that I can just whip it out for future meal plans. Clutter makes me easily distracted, so I prefer to only have my meal plan papers and my binder on the table. I think a common mistake with meal planning is that people try to search out 498 meals that they've never tried. Instead, compile a list of meals and keep them in one location (binder, folder on computer, Pinterest, etc) and use those for your meal planning. Then it's just a matter of writing down the name and ingredients you need instead of searching the internet for hours on end.

               Our family would gleefully eat sweet and sour chicken with fried rice 3 times a week if we could. So whenever I'm at the store, I grab a couple extra of the non-perishables in order to build up my pantry for that meal (along with any others that we love to eat). It makes it so nice! Grocery shopping in my own pantry instead of having to load up the kids and trudge through the snow? Yes, please.

               Simple is the way to go, guys. Don't think you have to be Martha Stewart every single day unless you really, really want to. For the majority of the time, I like to stick with simple, quick meals for the nights where I know I'll be a busy bee in the evening. Know your schedule and plan accordingly.

               Not literally waves, I hope. Let's keep the flooding to a minimum if we can. . . but take your 4 weekly shopping lists and transfer everything non-perishable over to your master shopping list. Now go shopping with your week #1 list as well as your non-perishable master list and revel in your success. When it's time for week #2 (etc), all you'll have to do is shop for your perishables for that week and you're done! Wa-hoo-ee!

               Extra points if it's cute and functional. I've noticed that if I make it cute, I have better success sticking to it.  I have a dry-erase-magnet-board-thing that I write each week's plan on and it hangs in the "command center" in my kitchen. The important thing is that you're not digging through stacks of papers and miscellaneous hair barrettes every night, frustrated because you can't remember what's supposed to be on your meal plan.  

All in all, start somewhere and make any necessary changes that suit your family's needs as you go along. If you've a bad week  month  year of planning, that's okay! We've all  been there. Just keep at it! I feel that meal planning weeds out at least a little bit of stress from our hectic days. . .but you're on your own with the laundry. Haven't even come close to conquering that yet! :)

Next time, I'll post some of our favorite go-to recipes so you can get crackin' on compiling your very own stash of "mighty meal plan" goodness.

UPDATE: click HERE for part 1 of some awesome recipes, and click HERE for part 2!