Meal planning 101

I really don't enjoy cooking dinner. Every night I would dread my children asking me what we would be eating. With Craig working shift work and the rhythm of our home constantly changing, things were just chaos some nights.

Something needed to change. Especially my attitude, but also practically.

I liked the notion of just getting to cook whatever I felt like. Problem being: I never felt like anything, because I am just about the fussiest eater in the entire world. I total understand difficult two year olds who don't like certain foods. My kids shake their heads at me refusing to eat peas, except Lucy. She is on team 'no peas' too.

So I eventually had to just put my big girl panties on and jump into doing something to solve our evening disasters. And I am pleased (no, ecstatic!!!!) to say I think we have, thanks to one small piece of paper a week.

Now I have tried meal planning before and had success when I had fewer children, a more convenient grocery store, and no after school activities (actually I think it was before the kids were at school). Moving house, the kids at school and all the activities, left me unable to concentrate and think about how to go about meal planning. It seemed just way too hard to sit down once a week, look over the week and try to think about what I could cook. I would sit down trying to remember what we had on, when we would be home, and then what I could make, and would come up blank: what do I cook???

Finally I came to the following method, which has been a life saver, and even a money saver (although that was not the plan at the beginning). My sanity has been restored and I never have to hear the words "what's for dinner?" again. YAY!!!!!!

The first time you do this it will take a good half hour or more. After that, perhaps 5 or 10 minutes at most, including your grocery list.

Meal planning 101:

1) Buy or make a simple meal plan sheet, with a space for each day.

I bought this one from Kikki K. It has a detachable shopping list which I LOVE, because as the week progresses I can add incidental items I will need to pick up when next grocery shopping. At the planning stage I add the meal related items we need. As the list is attached, I don't lose it. Next week's list is attached to this week's plan, if that makes sense.


2) Look at your weekly calendar and decide how much time you have to cook each evening.

Be realistic, not generous with allowing time. Note these times down quickly. Also add the words "very tired" to days you KNOW you will not be cooking anything too flash.




3) Decide on a theme that fits the time allowed for each night.

Based on the amount of time for prep during the day, and evening, choose something that can be cooked. For example, if there is time during the day to cup up salads, but only 15 minutes to cook in the evenings, this would be a great night to have wraps. Then on a weekly basis you only have to choose what type of wrap/meat/salads.

These are our current categories:

Monday: Wrap night.

Tuesday: Pasta ~ Favourites (that Craig can cook/start)

Wednesday: Eggs for the kids, take out (usually Thai) for us

Thursday: Rice & quinoa ~ Favourites or something new! New ideas can be tried, especially ones that can be prepared during the day.

Friday: Soup or salads, with home made sour dough bread.

Saturday: Bacon included meal.

Sunday: Something frozen, with vegetables.








4) Choose something quickly for each category.

Write this down on your plan.

5) Write down any items needed from the grocery store.

Shop for these items. OR note down to grab them from your garden. I'm loving having a vegetable garden again. But that is another story altogether. We have reduced our weekly purchases significantly through our term Costco shopping, where I buy many of the pantry staples, paper/plastic products and toiletries.

You will notice that in an ongoing way, each week you will only need to do steps 4 and 5, which is why it is so easy from then on. If I do decide to change my mind about what I am cooking, I at least know with a quick glance what ingredients I will have set aside for that day.

This has turned out to be a big money saver because we are wasting a great deal less food, and having less take away. The time I have gained by no longer having to think about dinner during the day has been the greatest benefit though. Meal planning has created much needed head space to focus on other important things.


How do you organise what you are having for dinner each week? What are some other options for nightly categories?

Jen.x

Inspiration for creating the perfect play spaces. Where I begin when taking on a toy overhaul.

Toys. I remember a time when this word did not immediately invoke feelings of fear and complete overwhelm. Or work. I remember being so excited to look at and decide what toys I would buy for my first baby, Jack and then later, Isabel. It probably wasn't until I had Lucy, when Jack was 4, that I began to think "ok, that's enough now." But they kept coming. Birthdays, Christmases, more children, toys, toys, toys. I've spent so much time cleaning up and organising toys, but over the past year I came to a point when enough was enough. It was starting to take up too much of my time.

I decided to do something about it. I used Pinterest to research different ideas. The following helped me to find a way to live happily with toys. Lately I haven't put much effort into maintaining the system I put in place. Our big holiday, birthdays and sickness have ruled, so I have just closed the playroom doors each night and ignored the problem growing. Time to get back to basics.

This post is written by Joshua Becker as part of the Becoming Minimalist Blog. In this post he outlines the 'why' concerning less toys.

If you would love to be inspired by a whole lot of pictures, this link will take you to my Pinterest board Just Gorgeous Kids Spaces. There are about 200 pins of beautiful play rooms, bedrooms and storage ideas. I will definitely be looking over this board right before I give the kids' rooms a once over. Note: I'm showing Jack the picture of the stick teepee in the morning, so I'm almost certain we will have one soon enough!

If you want to read something extreme, read this. This is written by Ruth from Living Well, Spending Less. She took ALL her daughters toys away. Not completely my desire, but an interesting read.

For something less extreme read this. By Rachel at Small Notebook, how to start simplifying the easy way. If you are really time poor, or just need to change things a little, this is a great read.

I liked this approach. This post is from S.A.H.M i AM. I did our upstairs this way originally, moving everything downstairs as it was discarded. It allowed me to get three rooms done fairly quickly, then I could take my time with downstairs because no one cared they couldn't use the room. The kids were soooo happy with upstairs they didn't ask to play downstairs. Isabel especially had the exact same reaction as this writer's little girl. I have started reading Simplicity Parenting (Kindle edition) but then came across Nurture Shock, so I'm reading that first.

This post is from Early Bird Mom. She gives a great outline of the 'how to' process for paring back a toy collection.

So after reading all this I will sit and have a cuppa and a chat with my children. I will ask them what they think about the whole toy situation and what needs to happen. I'm usually surprised by their responses, so I'm looking forward to this. We will probably look through the Pinterest board together while Miss D is asleep and discuss which toys are not being played with and which toys in the garage storage they miss and would like to have included upstairs. Then while I sit at the dining table and make a brief plan, they will probably draw and write their own. It won't matter if I use a single thing from their plans, all they will want is what they usually want, what we all want. To be included. And to be heard. I can't wait for the "I can't believe you made us this beautiful room!" moment. All worth the journey.