That is the question. Just kidding! You should ALWAYS meal plan if you can or figure out a way to do it. Why? Three simple reasons:
- Save money
- Eat healthy
- Save your sanity
Let’s start with saving money. If you have ever gone to the store without a list, you probably have noticed that you end up buying a lot more things than you need to and perhaps forgetting a few that you actually needed. The best part of meal planning is that once you have a list made, it usually stays the same, so it doesn’t take too long to make one every time you go to the store. If you have Alexa, I recommend making a list on the app. You can talk to Alexa while you look around your fridge/kitchen and tell her what to add. It saves the list and you can type stuff into it as well. I also use an app called AnyList that I had for a long time before we got an Alexa. It has nice features like being able to text or email the list to another person if you need to and it’s free. Finally, if you meal plan, you end up doing less take out, which in turn saves you lots of money. The same goes for bringing breakfast and lunch to work.
Eating healthy is part of the reason I started meal planning. When I got pregnant with my first child, I was very nervous about juggling long work days, a baby, making meals, and all of the other stuff that comes along with maintaining a household while also staying healthy. I know if I come home without having an idea of what we are going to eat, I will for sure end up picking whatever is easiest and fastest, which often can involve fast food or high calorie, high sodium meals. We are very lucky because our nanny cooks some of our meals but I still have a calendar I write every week with each meal for the day. I meal plan every Sunday and write up one week at a time for Monday-Thursday dinners as most Fridays and Saturdays we have activities planned and we eat left overs on Sunday. A lot of our meals are frozen crockpot meals I pre-made and stored in our deep freezer and often those can be eaten twice in one week.
Perhaps the most important reason of all to meal plan is to save your sanity. If you are like me, by the time you get home, your brain is fried. This also applies if you work from home or are a stay at home parent, since by the time your children and/or spouse return from school/daycare or work, you are probably feeling the same way. Meal planning and food shopping on the weekend without rushing gives me the peace of mind to start my week on auto-pilot. It is two less things to worry about, which may not seem like a lot, but stuff can certainly add up. While trying to juggle remembering doctor’s appointments, what needs to be donated at my daughter’s pre-school, birthday parties to go to, and a thousand other things without even counting work-related stuff, coming home to a stocked fridge and food that is ready to go was a game changer for me. My husband and I come home around 6 pm, which is not a lot of time to spend with our kids. It is very nice to be able to use that time to sit down for a meal together and then play and do our night time routine before putting the kids down.
How do you get started meal planning? It can definitely feel overwhelming at first. I started simple, before I had kids, by prepping my breakfast and lunch on Sundays for the full week. It helps if you don’t mind eating the same thing every day. I change it up every one or two years. I do all my food prep on Sundays.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I started stocking up on frozen meals. I didn’t know at that time I would be lucky to find a nanny that would cook for us and was very nervous about not being able to eat healthy while on maternity leave and when I went back to work. Pinterest was very helpful to compile recipes for crockpot meals, make ahead breakfasts, and all sorts of other meals that I could freeze. I still use Pinterest as my main source of inspiration and then make the recipes my own.
For the last 4 years, I’ve been following the same pattern for food shopping and meal prepping. Coming up with this plan is probably the hardest part but once you figure this out, meal planning is super easy! It is well-worth the effort to come up with something that makes sense for your family. Currently, I food shop at Giant (or any equivalent regular supermarket) once a week, mostly for perishable food items but also to re-stock anything we are out of or to get any random ingredients I need if I making something new. I go to Target once a month for most of our frozen and non-perishable items as well as kid items, like diapers, wipes, etc. I really like their frozen fish and the brand Earth’s Best for my kids’ food. When I go to Target, I skip the visit to the supermarket that week. Finally, I go to Costco every 3-4 months to get all the ingredients for my frozen meals as well as most of the other meat we eat at home. I also get cleaning supplies, paper goods, coffee, yogurt, cheese, butter, bread, eggs, milk, and some bathroom supplies as well. I make about 10 frozen meals, which give us about 20-30 meals and also have chicken and beef in different cuts, ready to go for the other meals that are prepared for the week. I freeze the shredded cheese in small bag and also keep all bread products in the freezer.
Coming soon: I will add a link on my page with my favorite tried and true healthy crockpot meals. They don’t have to be frozen but I like to make them all ahead of time. It takes about 3 hours and you need freezer gallon bags and a Sharpie marker (see affiliate link below for a good deal on Sharpies!) to write instructions on the bag. For storage, make sure to get all the air out of the bag and place them flat on their side in your freezer.