Part 4: Meal planning
Part four in my organization series: Organizing your meals.
I have covered why we should be organized, general organization principles, and financial organizing in my last 3 blogs. Please read those if you have not already. Now I will address meal planning. Many people end up eating frozen meals or take out because they fail to plan. That is expensive and not very nutritious. Meal planning is the key to sanity at dinner time, it makes the best use of your money, and it helps you use time around dinner more effectively. It really helps you to be less stressed out and focus on the important things. I encourage you to plan your meals for the week, and then shop for what you need from a list based on what you are going to make that week. You can plan ahead farther, if you like. I have a book called Once A Month Cooking that has recipes that you can make and freeze for the month in a day long cooking session. I have never done cooking ahead for an entire month, but that sounds like a great idea if you have a weird schedule. You have to decide what works best for you. But make sure you plan no matter what. Making enough food for leftovers, or enough to freeze for later is helpful. Although if you have teenagers, your best laid plans for leftovers often don't work out, since they eat so much, or have their friends over unexpectedly (which I encourage!)!
Here is how meal planning works:
1. Get a piece of paper or an electronic equivalent to write down what you are going to be cooking each day, and review your calendar for the week. I get out a piece of paper and write down each day of the week, with spaces between them to write what I’m going to cook. Then I look at the calendar for the week so I know which days I have more time, which days we will have guests over, and which days it would be best to plan for leftovers. Leftovers are wonderful. You just microwave the food and voila-dinner's ready! Add some carrots or bell peppers, and it's perfect. That is so great on nights when there are activities. On the days we're going to have leftovers, I write leftovers next to that day on my paper.
2. Decide what you are making each day on the days you will not be having leftovers. I encourage you to look at weekly store sales to narrow down what ingredients you might want to cook with. I always decide if I want to try a new recipe for the week (which I do often), and choose which day I'm going to make it on. Then I write the recipe name, and where to find the recipe next to the day I am going to make it (i.e cookbook name and page number). Next, I look at my Excel schedule I made which has a list of recipes I've tried and loved. I have them categorized by type of food. It tells me where I can find them in my kitchen. I have quite a few recipe books and recipe cards, so this is very helpful. I'd never remember where these recipes are otherwise. I got this idea from watching my grandmother. She would try recipes from her vast collection of cookbooks. Some of them were really great, but she would close the book, and no one would ever know where to locate it again. I didn't want that to happen to me. The list has made menu planning super easy. I don't have to spend time looking through cookbooks or websites. Not only that, but when I ask my kids to make meals, they find it easy to decide what they want to make based on the Excel list as well.
3. Make your grocery list while you are meal planning. Once I decide from my list what I am going to make the days I am not making a new recipe or having leftovers, I'm ready for the week. It doesn't take me very long at all, usually. Some weeks take longer than others, if I'm in the mood to search my files for a particular type of new recipe. As I write down what I am going to make, I write down on my grocery list what I need to buy at the store to make the recipes as I'm choosing them. On my menu for the week, I mostly plan dinners. However, I often will write down a dessert or a breakfast item I want to make at the top, along with adding any ingredients I need for it to my grocery list. I also add any lunch items I am low on for my family to my grocery list (i.e. bread, fruit or sandwich meat, etc.) I keep a regular stock of items I use most, and always write them on my list if I am getting low. Be sure you keep track of items you need to keep on hand that you are running low on during the week. I keep both my menu for the week and my grocery list in the kitchen. That makes it easy to add items to the grocery list when I realize I'm low on it. I also have my family members write down items on the grocery list if they want me to buy something, or if they use up the last of something. If it isn’t on the list, I probably won’t remember to buy it even if someone mentions it to me.
4. Have regular standby recipes for those days when things don’t go according to plan. What do you do for those nights when you plan to make something, and it just can't happen due to unforeseen circumstances? Move your leftover night, or take something out of the freezer that you have made. Also, if you have a small amount of time, you can make a quick standby recipe. I keep ingredients on hand for these recipes at all times. The first is baked potatoes. You pop them in the oven for an hour, and dinner is ready (just don't forget to poke holes in them before they go in the oven). If you have an oven that has a delay start feature, you can even set it to be cooked while you are gone. I have done this so many times when I knew I would be gone right up until dinner time. I serve them with carrots or other vegetables. Everyone has their toppings that they like. I happen to like butter, cheese and onions. The second standby quickie recipe I have is sausage hash. You cook and crumble some sausage and set aside. Then cut up some onions and other veggies you have on hand, and potatoes that are peeled and cubed (or not peeled, depending on your preference). Toss with olive oil and some salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about a half an hour, and then combine with the sausage. You can also cook the sausage in the oven with everything else. It takes 15 minutes to get in the oven, and everyone loves it.
5. Train your kids to let you cook. Another thing that you need to do to be successful in meal planning is to get your kids to either help you, or to be busy doing something else while you are cooking. They need to be trained to let you cook, and to amuse themselves for awhile without you playing with them or following them around. When my kids were little, I had them play in the family room while I was cooking. I could see them while I cooked, and talk to them, often having them stir what I was making or smell the spices. In a future blog, I will discuss children's chores, one of which should be helping in the kitchen when they are old enough.
6. It is imperative that you don’t cater to your kids’ picky eating tendencies. They should be eating whatever you serve, period, exclamation point! The only exception would be allergies. The more variety you give them to eat, the more they will enjoy everything. It is for their good. You should be in charge of their menu, as well as all other parts of their lives. We are given the role of authority in their lives by God. This includes eating. If you cater to their tastes, you will either create more work for yourself, or your diet will stoop to their level. Not good. In order to get your kids to eat anything, you will have to be prepared for quite a few completely miserable dinners where the kids are whining and may be spitting out food, and you have to discipline them more than once. But hang in there, because your labors will pay off. You have to be more stubborn than they are because you know it is for their good. When you are persistent with this, you will have kids that will eat anything. It's pure joy. But it takes effort and tears and prayers on our part in their younger years. I encourage you to do it. It makes meal planning, preparation and family dinners so much more enjoyable, and effective!!
7. Pray about your meals. Remember that God cares about all the details of our lives.
I hope that this has been helpful to you in organizing nutritious budget friendly meals. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback. You can email me at candice@anastasihome.com
In my next blog, I will discuss organizing chores.