Meal Planning For Success

Success is the residue of planning - Benjamin Franklin

Meal planning is asking "Whats for dinner" only once for the week (or fortnight) instead of every single day! It is simply planning what meals your family will be having for the week or two ahead. It is taking steps to be organised, prepared and time efficient in the kitchen. It is also having a ready answer for the imminent 5pm question from the kids of "What's for dinner?". But most importantly, meal planning takes away the mental load of deciding what to make for dinner every evening.

How many times have you opened the fridge door and felt frustrated when considering what’s for dinner? Who gets tired of running out of ideas to cook every, single, night? How often have you gone to cook something only to realise you are missing one ingredient? Oh, and how often have you had to resort to a less nutritious quick option for dinner because you've ran out of time to cook and haven't prepared anything, cant be bothered thinking of something or you simply don't have anything in the fridge to cook? Do you ever wonder if you could take away some of the frustration and burden of preparing meals for your family? Well, by having it planned and all ingredients already purchased in a meal-planning-organised-shopping kind of way, your evenings will run much smoother and with much less stress!

Having a plan for nutritious meals increases the likelihood of you including a wide variety of nutritious foods in your family's diet and reduces the reliance on convenience and take-away meals. If you have had a long and tiring day or have got home late from work and don't feel much like cooking, you are more likely to have the planned home cooked nutritious meal if you have planned for it and shopped for the ingredients and especially if you have already done some preparation for it. Do you ever wonder if you would eat more balanced meals over the week if you were a little more organised with meal planning? Chances are you would because research has shown that people who plan their meals are more likely to have a better dietary quality, higher adherence with nutritional guidelines and better food variety. Amidst our usual hectic schedules,  meal planning is a great tool to help keep us on a healthy eating track, and what better time to start than while in Covid-19 lock-down!?

One of the biggest advantages to meal planning is the time it saves busy families. With planned meals and organised shopping lists, there is no need for mid-week quick trips to the supermarket, or spending hours trying to decide what to cook for dinner each night! And hey, you can save even more time by cooking in batches, pre-preparing elements of the upcoming meals or re-using your meal plans! To do this, you need a plan!

Here are my top 4 tips for being successful with meal planning.

Plan the meals you will be cooking 1-2 weeks ahead

• Look at your calendar for the coming week or two and decide which nights you will be making dinner at home
• Look to see which nights you will be more busy or strapped for time and:
  • Plan to have leftovers (plan a meal for the night before where you can cook extra for leftovers)
  • Or plan a super quick and easy meal option or a slow-cooked meal you put on earlier on the day for these nights.
• You can print and use my 2 X Weekly dinner planner template!

Be a smart shopper

• Definitely use a shopping list to be sure to buy everything you need! Use your completed meal plan and recipes to make a list for all of the foods to make the planned meals for the coming 2 weeks, and be thorough.
• Group your list into sections of the supermarket such as fresh produce, meat, pantry, fridge, freezer.
• I recommend planning meals for two weeks and shopping for these only once at the beginning of the two weeks, then doing one 'top-up' shop in between if needed.
• Have your shopping list somewhere handy in the kitchen so you can add to it as you run out of kitchen essentials.
• You can print and use my Organised Shopping List template!

Try themed nights

• Having themed nights can make meal planning interesting and easier for you and can create some fun and tradition for your family.
• Themes such as Mexican Mondays, Meatless Mondays, Fish Fridays or stir-fry Fridays etc are some common ideas. You can have the same theme but change the meal you have each week, For example, grilled salmon, tuna patties or spaghetti marinara could be for Fish Fridays.

Have a Master Meals List

• Making a list of meal/snack ideas and compiling a collection of your family's favourite go-to meals and recipes is a helpful reference for planning which meals to include in your weekly/fortnightly meal plan. This takes the headache out of thinking of meal options and so no favourites slip your mind when meal planning!
• Be sure to include family favourites along with new nutritious recipes to provide a healthy variety of foods for your child/ren and family.
• You can print and use my Master Meals List template!

So with the benefits of meal planning for busy families...or anyone...it is very worthwhile giving it a go!

If you would like some more individualised guidance with meal planning for your family, I would love to help, get in touch.

Alysha