How to Become a Family Meal Planning Pro

Benefits of Meal Planning

Before I had kids, I never used to meal plan. But now that they’re getting older and our schedules are filling up, I notice a vast difference between the nights we have no plan and those we do. Aside from its time-saving aspect, family meal planning has several benefits.

1. Meal planning relieves decision fatigue. By the end of the day, you have made hundreds of decisions, which makes figuring out dinner feel like a monumental task. You can beat that by scheduling a specific time to meal plan when your brain is fresh (preferably early in your day; maybe even a weekend). If you have a partner to share the burden, find a time to meal plan together.
2. Meal planning creates predictable meal routines for children. Children thrive in routines. A study from the University of Albany linked consistent family routines and psychological benefits for children. When children know what’s coming, they feel safe. Meal planning is an extension of that. Not to mention you can point to the menu when they ask “What’s for dinner?”
3. Meal planning provides opportunities for a variety of balanced meals. By writing down your menu, you’re being mindful of your food choices, which leads to more well-balanced meals. You can incorporate various foods so your meals don’t get boring (and maybe your picky eaters will try something new!).

Start Small and Simple

I will be the first to tell you I’m a “go big or go home” kinda gal. But with family meal planning, that mentality can stop you before you even get your feet wet. Meal planning is daunting. It’s a big undertaking. But if you start small and simplify the process for yourself, you’re likely to add on as you get more confident.

Here are some ways to ease yourself into meal planning:

• Pick your busiest or most stressful day of the week and plan only those meals ahead of time. You can plan all three meals (and snacks) or just dinner — whatever works for you!
• Make a list of theme nights. Whether it’s Pasta Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, or Breakfast for Dinner, come up with a list of themed dinners you can plug into your schedule. This takes some pressure off you, and you can even involve your kids in the brainstorming! Just make sure you have enough themes to rotate so the meals don’t get boring.
• Split the work. If you have a parenting partner, work together to share the load. Maybe one of you takes M/W and the other takes T/Th and Fridays are takeout nights. You focus on planning and prepping your two days, and your partner does the same for their two days.

Carve Out Specific Meal Planning Time

When my husband and I were much more on top of our meal planning, we found a time every two weeks to sit down together and plan. It takes time. And it’s easy to underestimate how much time. Expect it to take longer than you think.

I’ve gotten varying answers from blogs in my research. Some writers say meal planning takes 20-30 minutes. Some say it takes upwards of an hour. Honestly, it depends on so many factors, like how many meals you’re planning and whether or not you’re making a grocery list at the same time.

For my family, planning two weeks at a time worked best. It allowed us to estimate our budget each pay period. One of us would look for recipes, and the other would fill in a menu calendar and make a grocery list. That was just our routine; there are so many other ways to make meal planning work for your family.

Note: When you meal plan, have your family calendar beside you. Planning meals around your schedule will set you up for success.

Document Everything!

Regardless of your planning method, it’s important to document everything so you can easily find things later. This includes well-loved recipes, weekly menus, and grocery lists. There are many ways to keep track of that information depending on your personal preference.

Meal-Planning Apps

If you’re not so much a pen-and-paper kind of person, there are SO many meal-planning apps to keep your life organized from your phone.

My personal favorite is StashCook. Here, you can store recipes and organize them into categories the same way you would in a recipe book. You can even import online recipes into StashCook. The app pulls ingredients and instructions from any blog post and organizes it so it’s easy to read.

Photo cred: www.stashcook.com

Other popular apps include Eat This Much Premium and BigOven Recipes and Meal Planner.

Pen and Paper Tools

Some people stay more organized outside of their phones. Planners, binders, and menus are all valid options in the meal-planning process. These tools allow the entire household to see what’s on the menu because you can place them in a central location. Below are some great options for keeping weekly menus.

Store Up Trusted Recipes

Part of documenting everything includes creating a store of trusted recipes to pull from. The longer you plan, the larger this reserve will be. Eventually, meal planning will take significantly less time because you’ll already have so many successful recipes on hand.

Family-Oriented Cookbooks

When you’re starting out, though, it can feel daunting to scour the ends of the internet for meal ideas. A few good cookbooks can go a long way.

More Family Meal Planning Tips

In addition to the things mentioned above, here are a few more things to try while planning meals for your family.

Take Shortcuts

Not every meal needs to be a four-course made-from-scratch extravaganza. Takeout counts! And so do leftovers. Accounting for leftovers in your menu is a great way to avoid excess food waste.

Using kitchen tools like air fryers and Crock Pots are also huge time savers. Crock Pots especially allow for big-batch cooking, which is great for creating ready-made freezer meals. (You’ll also have plenty of leftovers with a Crock Pot meal!)

It’s also totally okay to reuse entire weekly menus! Remember “document everything”? This is why. Once you’ve been meal planning for a while, you’ll have a great store of menus to reuse when you just don’t have it in you to start from scratch. Some food bloggers also have pre-made weekly menus you can try.

Involve Your Kids in Meal Planning

If your children are old enough to have opinions on food, then they can get involved in meal plans. Ask them what they’d like to eat this week. What food would they like to try? If you can, bring them grocery shopping with you.

Giving kids ownership and choices in their meals helps combat picky eating, and it sets them up for a positive relationship with food. With parental guidance, they’ll also learn about how to plan balanced meals.

Keep It Flexible

When you allow stress to creep in, meal planning becomes another Mom Mountain to climb. (This is true for everything, really.) So, keep it flexible. Move Wednesday’s meal to Friday if you just can’t deal. I did that all the time, and it really does help.

If you need to press pause on meal planning like I’ve done, that’s okay, too! Sometimes, life requires us to use the drive-thru multiple times a week. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed at meal planning. It means you’re in a chaotic season of life. Eat the French fries and try again next week.