Meal Planning Made Easy: My Simple Routine for a Healthier, Stress-Free Week
Meal planning is a really important component of a healthy lifestyle. We plan so many things that are important to us because we know that if we don’t make plans, life happens! I took a class with a local healthy lifestyle coach, Jill Tanis, years ago and she enforced that meal planning is done best when you get into a routine with it. I would love to share my routine and hope that some of the tips/tricks will help you too! Like so many of you, we are a house with parents working two full-time jobs and three kids in different extra-curricular activities at two schools. Having a meal plan really eases my mind and helps me feel the joy of providing nourishing foods to my family (and saving money because we aren’t running out to restaurants at the last minute!).
Be consistent with your planning time. Every Friday afternoon I sit down with our family calendar, my favorite cookbooks and meal planning apps and my grocery list. This is the perfect time for me to plan because I can place my grocery order for a Saturday morning pick-up time and have the weekend left for small food prep before the next work week.
Curbside pick for the win! I love to set my pickup time for Saturday mornings to stop in after a fun morning workout. Pick-up orders help me save money, make healthier choices (no impulse buys!), and, most importantly, save valuable time!
Be realistic. Align your family calendar with the meal plan. Mondays are my longest workday so I know I will be tired by the time I get home, and my family will be hungry. I plan a crockpot meal or a pre-made casserole for these longer workdays. These can easily be made the evening ahead. For other quick meal prep, I love the air fryer. With no pre-heat time, I can quickly roast veggies, potatoes, chicken breast, pork chops, or fish.
Use technology to your advantage. I have used the eMeals app for years and still love it! I can quickly pull recipes into a menu, drop ingredients into a grocery list, and share recipes from the app with my husband if he plans to make the meal. These recipes are consistently delicious and simple and give me new inspiration every week, so I don’t feel like we are stuck in a boring routine.
Work smarter, not harder. I love to make meals where I can make one and freeze one, which saves me so much time. The Make Ahead Cook by American’s Test Kitchen and Fix, Freeze, Feast by Kati Neville are two of my favorite cookbooks for this.
Have a tried-and-true recipe. For my home, it’s the homemade pizza. I can set the bread maker on a timer to have the dough ready when I walk in the door from work. The kids have all seen me make it so many times that they can assist in rolling out the dough and getting it in the oven. We swap out the toppings or the side dishes (or the shape!) to keep it interesting. All my kids know the secret ingredient that makes it taste so good… LOVE.
It takes a village. (One last share because this was an absolute BLESSING to me when my kids were little.) For years I took part in a meal swap group, first with friends and later with co-workers. We met once a month to let our kids play while we swapped pre-made meals. Each person went home with 8 different freezer-friendly meals but only had to invest a couple of hours to prepare their meals to share.
Meal planning doesn’t have to be complicated—find a routine that works for your family, and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with it!