Meal Planning How To

A large percentage of people have blogs these days. Some are a family documentaries. There are fashion blogs, photography blogs, arts-and crafts blogs, and the list goes on. Mine started out as a family documentary type (and it continues to be) but the topic I get the most comments and interest around is food. And oh, how I love food. That being said, I'm going to try and do a better job of documenting and sharing the things we eat.

I have always planned our meals (something engrained in me since childhood) but it's become crucial as I've become a mother. It's sad that it is so inconvenient these days to eat nutrient-dense food. The bottom line is that if this is something that is important to you, you have to make it a priority and plan. Planning is really the key. I'm speaking in the perspective of a mom, here. No matter if you are a working mom or stay-at-home mom, you are B-U-S-Y. If you are working, you are flying through the door after a long day at work (hopefully at a decent hour) to hungry, whiny little ones. If you haven't planned, it will be a lot harder to whip up a healthy meal than it will be to pop something in the microwave or make a visit to the golden arches. If you are a stay-at-home mom, you have surely taught, disciplined, played with, and prehaps argued with your children all day. Not to mention errands, play-groups, school pick-ups and drop-offs. Taking care of kids all day is physically exhausting! The same trap comes into play with STAHMs too; if fail to plan, you plan to fail (hackeneyed phrase I know, but I couldn't help it!).

Not that I am perfect; I am a work in progress. But I have found that we ONLY eat healthfully when I plan our meals out a the beginning of the week and prep as much as possible. As an example, I'll share with you what I have found works for me. This is what I did for this upcoming week.

Step One: Plan your meals (Dinners). For some people, this is so hard! Luckily for me, I love food. I love to research recipes and watch cooking shoes for inspiration. Now, we are trying something new and getting all of our meat and produce from a local farm (to find out more, visit West Wind Farms). So I plan our meals based on what meats and veggies I get from the CSA. For anything we don't need, I make a grocery list using the app, Grocery Gadget. This way, my husband also has access to the list and can add things or go to the store for us without having to fool with getting a list from me. This is the app I use the most for sure. I write our dinner menu out on a dry erase board that I keep hanging in our kitchen (pictured below). This keeps me on track.

Step Two: Plan your Snacks, Lunches and Breakfasts: I used to make the mistake of forgetting about snacks, lunches and breakfasts. I would plan out a beautiful menu and then we would run out of things to snack on or be scrambling for lunch. While I'm still perfecting this aspect of meal planning, I find it's easiest to plan out dinners first. Then I can see what meal I will have leftovers from (for lunches) and then decide on snacks and additional lunches from there.

Step Three: Prep, Prep, Prep: Even if I've planned out everything to the T, if I don't prep as much ahead of time as possible, there is a huge chance one of the meals wont' happen. So for example this week this is what we are having:

Monday - Pot Roast with veggies (in the crock pot - score!)
Tuesday - Big Chicken Salad
Wednesday - Puerto-Rican Beef with Veggies and Sweet Potatoes
Thursday - Tomato and Beef Stew
Friday - Out to Eat

So sometimes in the afternoon, I'll carve out an hour or so to prep....an hour is not long at all! In fact, I've learned to make this time enjoyable "me" time. I'll wait until my kids are napping soundly and break out my music and prep away. Today I chopped up veggies for the pot roast and placed my chicken in a pan and tossed a marinade on top so I can just throw it in the oven when I get home. So that's two nights down. I also made our snacks for the weeks (ants on a log and kale chips). Luckily, I work from home on Wednesdays so I'll save my most complicated meal for then. I'll take the time I'd normally be commuting home to do that. Then that day I'll also prep veggies for Thursday's meal. Since I'm making a big effort to eat more fresh fruits and veggies, I've started prepping half on the weekend, and half mid-week. This way the produce stays fresher.

So there you have it. This is what I do. It it easy? Not exactly, but is it worth it? It is for us. Here is some of my "handiwork."