Meal Planning Made Simple

     Admittedly, I'm not an organized person by nature. The concept seems to allude me most of the time. So being organized with my time is not something that happens... often. One way I have found to make a better use of my overall time is to plan ahead what meals my family will eat for the week. This not only save me time by not staring aimlessly in the refrigerator, but saves time at the grocery store. And meal prep saves even more time. 

Another benefit to meal planning is helping your to achieve goals. For example, if it is your goal to subscribe to a certain diet, you can plan accordingly. Some "diets" are very animate about what you eat and don't eat. This could mean a major change in your normal pantry supplies. You don't want to get caught on day 5 with out any "approved" snacks and become hangry. That's not a good look on anyone.

     On top of being a time saver, meal prep helps to save money. By looking at what's in season, the weekly mailers from the stores, and knowing what you have on hand, you can make a grocery list that is concise and to the point. No three bottles of mustard here.At times, I've made it my goal to stick to a certain budget. Again, planning ahead using the weekly flyers and seasonal shopping has made this super easy.

The time to do your meal planning can vary. If you go week by week, the day before you normal shopping day will do just fine. But I often find that if I'm going to plan a week, I might as well plan a whole month. Theme cooking (which I will explain below) makes this a breeze.

Now comes the how. Some factors I take into consideration when planning out what we are going to eat are if we plan on hosting any dinners, if there are major events such as weddings or gatherings that we've been invited to, and what food I have on hand. 

I also take prices into consideration. Turkey goes on sale in October/November. This past year, pork had some incredible prices back in the spring and early summer. Beef prices also go up and down. 

Because meat is the biggest expense, many of our meals only use it for flavor and are heavy on the vegetables. I use as many vegetables as I can from our own garden. And I use what's in season at the stores as well. 

Last, but not least, look at your "recipe inventory". What do you usually make? What meals do you know how to do or don't mind preparing? Are there certain go to meals that your family really likes? This will help make quick work of planning out your week and month.

Once you've got an idea of what to put together, you need to get it down on paper. I have found that having an area where you can write your grocery list out as you go helps. You can 

click here for free menu planning printable.

Theme Menu Planning: Something that helps take some of the thinking out of planning is having a theme. If you've ever watched The Lego Movie, then you are well aware of Taco Tuesday. Here at Farmer Awad Urban Farm, we've taken it a step further. We have Meatless Mondays: Adventures into vegetarian dishes, Taco Tuesdays: Anything Mexican related, Pasta Wednesdays: self explanatory, Slow Cooker Thursdays: again, self explanatory, Fun Fridays: fun foods like pizza, etc , and the obligatory Sunday meal. You may have noticed that I skipped Saturday. We are very busy on the weekends, so I have found that this is the best time to make good use of those leftovers that have been accumulating since Monday. If I limit myself with in these boundaries, I find that I'm not mulling over what to fix.

So now that you have gotten the low down on getting your meal planning act together... have at it! And have fun.