There are a ton of reasons why meal planning is essential. First, it helps you map out your daily or weekly meal schedules, and secondly, it relieves you off from the stress of worrying about what your family will be having for dinner.
In this quick guide, I’m going to provide you with five meal planning tips that will help you have a better meal plan for your family.
Meal Planning Tips to Save You Time and Money
1. Start small
You don’t want to overwhelm yourself if you have not been planning meals. Start small by planning daily, then gradually increase to two or three days before you can begin having weekly meal plans.
You may not have the perfect plans when starting, but things will improve as you plan more meals, and as time goes by. The key is to be consistent with your meal plans and make sure you are following your meal plans to a tee.
2. Schedule at least one night off
Monday and Fridays will be the most demanding days. During weekends, there are chances that your family will rely on the leftovers.
So the idea is to schedule one night off so that you don’t get exhausted, and that means that there are chances that you could scrap your menu, even if you didn’t intend to.
You can leverage the leftovers or order dinner for your family to give you some time to refresh and plan for the next day’s meal.
3. Keep stock of food you have on hand
Structuring a menu schedule can be downright frustrating. However, it would be best to pin down all your family’s favorite meals, including recipes. So how do you get to do this?
You probably know the likes and the dislikes of your family members, which means your refrigerator will include your favorite food stocks.
This will save on time and prevent food wastage because you’ll only opt for new additives once you’ve completed the previous stock.
4. Cook in bulk
Preparing food in significant amounts will save you the hassle of cooking daily, especially when you’re operating on a busy schedule. You can prolong the shelf life of your leftover foods by freezing them or adding chilli. You can do this by doubling your recipes and preparing them in bits.
People who have done this before can attest you spend less time in the kitchen than you should have spent cooking from scratch.
5. Plan one meal per night
One of the meal planning tips most moms with day jobs leverage is planning one meal every night. The chances are that you spend most of your time at the office, so you will get home damn tired. Plan one meal every night before you go to bed to save you from thinking about what you’ll prepare for your family the next day.
