Super Simple Meal Planning Tutorial (Plus a FREEBIE)
It is March and, if you are like me, you are settling back into old routines and focused less on the things we set out to do for the year. We are no longer using words like “resolutions”, “goals”, “slaying the debt dragon”, “eating healthy”, “losing the holiday weight”, and “working out”….. I will be honest, I struggle with eating clean or healthy every year around this time. But! I have learned how to get myself back into the routine quickly and I want to share that quick win with you. So let’s cut to the chase, zero hype. OK?
I want to share with you the most simple dinner planning process – ever! And give you a freebie!
Do you feel like the kitchen is the bane of your existence? If you aren’t cooking in it then you are cleaning it! And the grocery store! Not my favorite place to go – the people are rude and being in that very place means I am voluntarily making work for myself?? I actually love being a most-of-the-time housewife and creating healthy meals for my husband. It keeps us both healthy now and into the future. And eating healthier is on my ‘lifestyle changes to hone’ list. We already eat mostly healthy but we could still do better.
It is SO expensive to eat whole food?
Whole foods are expensive and highly seasonal but I prefer to spend a little money now rather than a lot of money on prescription medications later. I have found that meal planning helps to keep the cost of eating whole food down a little (a lot with some planning). We are simple folks in our house so I have about 10-15 recipes that I will rotate very frequently. Some meals we eat every week – like taco salad and fish (I love muscle memory and habits!). An example of a dinner plan for a week might look like this:
Monday: Fish, greens, and wheatberries, green salad
Tuesday: Steak, baked potato, green beans, green salad
Wednesday: Soup and sandwich on sprouted bread, green salad
Thursday: !! DATE NIGHT !! No kitchen for me
Friday: Pizza and green salad or cereal
Saturday: Taco salad
Sunday: It is my day off! Everyone is on their own!
I understand your plight. Eating healthy takes planning and effort and discipline. The food tastes different and you cannot seem to get enough to keep your stomach from growling. You don’t know how to cook it and you certainly cannot make eating healthy and spending less work together in the same sentence! These are all temporary responses to positive life changes. You have to stick with only healthy food long enough for the positive benefits to blossom fully. By that time, you will feel like a whole new person and hopefully you won’t want to go back to sick and tired and tired and sick.
Filling out the free meal planner
I only plan our evening meal so meal planning is not complicated for us. Our schedules are mostly the same from week to week and we have our list of favorite meals that we stick to closely. I do not venture out into new territory often. Still, I start in my daily planner and make sure that we do not have commitments outside of the home during the week that would impact our ability to enjoy our meal together or cause us to have to eat out.
Starting on the left side of your printable (get that here):
From your family calendar or planner, make note of evenings that you have commitments outside of the home and what they are - ie: we have worship practice on Thursday nights so we eat out. If you have kids in sports or dance, you may want to have a crockpot meal on the nights they have late practices.
Fill in dinner plans for each of the days in the coming week. If you go back to my list above, you will see that I am planning on making dinner every night except for Thursday and Sunday.
Gather your recipes for each of the meals you will be making, if you need them. Put them in a central place like a binder or in Evernote.
Make your shopping list by comparing the ingredients you have on hand to your recipes and to the items listed in the sale ad for the week. Add any ingredients you will need to purchase on the right side of your planner. There are columns on the right side of the planner. These help me remember if an item is on sale, if I have a coupon, or if I have an Ibotta or Fetch offer.
(Fetch is a rebate program that pays in all types of gift cards. Purchases in store and online qualify towards rebates. And they have discover offers for high points on all types of products from food to personal hygiene products to alcoholic beverages. Click here to get my referral code and we will both get 2,000 points when you complete your first receipt scan!)
The last thing I fill out on here is my budget amount for this week. If I am running out of grocery money for the month then I reverse number 3 and 4 and create my meal plan from what I have in my pantry and freezer.
Add any items that you are out of and need to purchase so that you only have one list to shop from. Too many lists will lead to confusion and overspending.
After you have completed your shopping, you can fill in the 'Actual' amount to compare to your budget amount, if you like.
As promised, the most simple meal planning EVER!
See how easy it is to create a meal plan. Having a plan in place will help to save you money at the grocery store if you stick to your shopping list and avoid impulse purchases. The real savings come into play when you follow the plan and also supplement it with coupons, rebates, and freezer meals! I will expand on this more in another post, perhaps to include some couponing on the outskirts of the store.
Let’s start a conversation either here or on Facebook. Feel free to email me if you have questions!
In the meantime, be blessed. Remember to whom you belong.
Much love,
Pam