Meal Planning Tips

Meal Planning Tips

Would you like some meal planning tips?

Set aside one day a week where you can focus on the week ahead.  I generally do my meal planning on a Sunday evening and it goes a little like this:

• Pour yourself a large glass of wine.  This helps you relax and think more clearly…true!
• Check the fridge for leftovers and other groceries that will need using up during the course of the week.
• Check your diary.  How does your family’s weekly look?  Hectic or calm?
• Plan your meals.  Once you know how busy you are going to be, what food you have in the fridge, and what you fancy eating, jot down your inspirations.  
• Needing inspiration?  Think about what meals have you not had in awhile?  What do all the kids like to eat without causing mealtime battles?  Don’t get into a rut and make sure you let them try something new at least once a week. Don’t worry if they don’t like it, they won’t starve to death, just make sure the following evening it’s something they love.  Think about what you have in the fridge to use up.  Check out your online resources and look for quick easy meals that will use up all your leftovers effectively.
• Keep a weekly meal planner chart. Mine has days of the week vertically down the left hand side, along the top row are the different headings, such as,  Schedule, Meals, Jobs to do, Shopping list & Notes.  If you would like to use my Meal Planner Template just click the link below to download a copy.  It’s nothing fancy but it works just fine for me. You also can sign up to,  Meal Planner Pro, a handy app that all my recipes are now linked to. When you save one of my recipes, you can then choose to add recipe ingredients directly into an electronic shopping list and/or add the recipe to a meal planning calendar.
• Make a shopping list (paper or electronic) of all the ingredients that you will need to buy and when in order to fulfil those meal requirements.
• Print it off  and go put it somewhere visible for all to read in the kitchen or share in as a google document with all the necessary household members.
• Well done !  You’ve completed your weekly meal and activity planner,  go ahead and pour yourself another well deserved glass of wine, sit back and relax, your week ahead just got a whole lot easier!

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