Meal Planning is Simple
What’s your preference? Monthly or Weekly meal planning?
Many years of planning our daily meals have taught me that planning for a whole month is easier than planning for a week. The first month is the most time-consuming, but after that, meal planning is simple.
Some weeks are just too busy to find time for meal planning, but we can all find less than an hour, one day a month, to follow these easy steps.
Take these easy steps to see how simple meal planning is.
Decide how you will display your monthly meal planning calendar. Mine is on a Skylight Calendar.
Mark off nights you know you will not eat at home, such as planning a date night at your favorite restaurant, going out with friends, or bringing dinner in with your grandchild (see the cutest photo of my grandson enjoying a Five Guys’ burger and fries.
Start writing down your meals for each night’s dinner. We have homemade pizza most Friday nights, so that goes on each Friday. We have breakfast one night a week. We have a few meals every other week.
Once all the Meal Planning is done, clip the recipes together, starting with day one and ending at the end of the month. If you have a Skylight, you can save all your recipes. It makes it so much easier.
Pick one day a month and buy the bulk of your groceries that will not spoil before you need them (canned goods, pasta sauce, uncooked pasta noodles, etc.). Then you will just need a few minutes each week for fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and other items.
Enjoy your meals around the table with your family and friends.
I enjoy leftovers, so some of my days say leftovers.
Pick a weeknight or Saturday and give yourself a couple of hours to start this. Then you will plan for an hour or less and quickly see that meal planning is simple.