The 4 Secrets of Monthly Meal Planning
I’m excited to announce that today we have a guest post from Bridget Shoquist of just b, a meal planning expert! I talk a lot about how to make life more simple, and meal planning definitely does just that. I am, however, not an expert in this area, and I do meal planning sporadically with limited success. So I recruited Bridget to help us all! Read on to hear Bridget’s story and her 4 secrets for monthly meal planning.
Spoiler alert - this will be continued tomorrow and will include actual menus, recipes and plans!
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Hi I’m Bridget of just.b! Nice to meet you. Picture this scenario if you will. It’s Monday at 5PM, the kids are having a level 5 meltdown. You’re HANGRY to the “nth” degree and can’t make complete sentences let alone think of what to make for dinner.
You’re feeling like every whiny question is one more level closer to a volcano eruption until finally you lose your cool and start yelling…VERY LOUD WORDS. Perhaps every swear word you know or made up words because you can’t think of real swear words like my personal fav, Shitake mushrooms.
After the eruption, you have the immediate feeling of guilt and anger for allowing yourself to get to that point and taking it out on everyone around you.
Guess what? You’re not alone and do NOT feel guilty.
This scenario happened to me Every. Single. Night.
Now, picture yourself in this other scenario; It’s Monday at 5PM, the kids are having a level 5 meltdown. But this time, you have a smile on your face because now you are in control. You have a plan not only for that DAY, not only for that WEEK, but for a whole MONTH. You are beaming with confidence because you know exactly what you’re all eating, and even better, you can put it in their angelic little mouths in less than 20 minutes.
Uh, yes please!
A little over a year ago, we were the Sh*t-show Family at 6pm every night. Not having plans in place, I was lost and felt like I was failing as a mother. I didn’t know where to start. After many conversations with my husband, we realized that we were the most stressed out right before dinner because we had no plan, therefore no control. We decided we should focus on meal planning. I know, I know! This is no ground-breaking new thing, it’s been done over and over. Meal planning was so hard to stick to consistently and I would get so mad because I knew how important it was for my family and me. I tried so many things but quickly became overwhelmed with the planning, had too many leftover ingredients that ended up thrown away (MY PET PEEVE), or spent way too much money on all the ingredients. However, after using the 4 secrets I have developed, I have now found that having a meal plan puts me in control of our daily life. After using this meal plan for the last 6 months, we have seen a ripple effect on the rest of our lives in such an amazing way.
I’ll fully admit, there are nights where the volcano scenario STILL happens but happy to say not nearly as often. I will not pretend I know what I’m doing 100% of the time, but I put in the effort and I can live with that. At the end of the day, the kids are usually healthy, mostly happy, and I’m still able to make full sentences.
THIS IS A WIN!
Anything above that are what I call my “3 air punch” days. What are “3 air punch” days you ask? It’s me doing 3 alternating air punches in a very excited manner – don’t knock it till you try it.
With all the unknown variables of life, there is no one way to manage every detail. Because of this, my goal is to find different ways to be the most efficient and effective in daily activities. There have been MANY trials with MANY errors. I make note of things that didn’t work, things that did and try again until I make it as efficient and effective as I can for living my life of balance (which BTW is my 2019 word – BALANCE). My research includes asking anyone who will talk to me, looking online, reading books, reading blogs, and listening to podcasts. I then physically try things out until they work for my family and me. Skip from a little over a year ago to now. I have been elbow-deep in the testing stage and have come up with some things to help make the “3 air punch” days happen!
HERE WE GO!
My 4 Meal Planning Secrets Unveiled…
ONE: (My favorite) Use the same meal plan for week 1 and 3 and the same meal plan for week 2 and 4 of the month.
This way, you only need to plan out 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks each month.
“What the shitake mushroom did she just say???”
LESS WORK IS WHAT SHE SAID!
As my husband says, “Work smart, not hard.”
I’m not going to lie, I did a dance around my house which included way more than 3 air punches for about 10 minutes straight when this notion came to my head. It has saved SO much extra work in planning.
TWO: Have a variety of dinner meal themes.
I use veggie, poultry, pork, beef, and fish as my themes for each night.
Some examples are,
Week 1 and 3: 2 veggie recipes, 2 beef recipes, and 1 fish recipe.
Week 2 and 4: 2 poultry recipes, 1 pork recipe, 1 beef recipe, and 1 veggie recipe
Do the same for lunch themes.
The lunch themes I use are; salad, sandwich, soup.
THREE: Use similar ingredients for your meals
This minimizes the work and saves money to buy in bulk.
For instance; I tend to do at least one veggie meal a week, so I incorporate another meal that has meat with similar veggies on the side. When doing dinner prep, you can chop all veggies you have and split them between the meals for the week. Spend one chunk of time prepping to save time later in the week.
You can also do this with meat/fish by having 2 or more recipes with the same theme in the week. And even better, by knowing your entire month of meals you can buy the meat in bulk and freeze the meat you don’t use for the next week. *angels singing*
FOUR: Do at least one “easy” meal each week.
Not every meal needs to take a bunch of time!
Use a slow cooker, Instant Pot, or a meal that involves little to no prep.
My favorite “simple” meal is boiling cheese tortellini, steaming asparagus, throwing it all in a bowl and dump pesto on top. DONE.
Confession hour; I was a slow cooker kind of gal in the past, but I got an Instant Pot about 6 weeks ago. I can’t help but feel like I’m cheating somehow. I’m doing something else (like playing with my kids BEFORE the witching hour hits) while my Instant Pot does the work! BRILLIANT!!
IN SUMMARY:
(1) Use the same meal plan for 2 weeks out of the month
(2) Have dinner themes
(3) Use similar ingredients
(4) Have an easy meal each week
Pretty easy, right? Except, how does one use these secrets…come back tomorrow for the next unveiling of the HOW!
Until then, think of some recipes you want to incorporate, or check out my boards on Pinterest for ideas - I’ve got something for everyone including Meatless Monday, One Pan, Instant Pot, Slow Cooker, Whole 30, Paleo - and more! Or make it nostalgic and use this as a good excuse to use your family cookbooks or recipe cards to find some healthy comfort food recipes.
See you soon!
b.