In the 70s, Americans used to spend about 26 percent of their food budget on eating out, in 2010 that amount rose to 41%, but in recent years it was at 50.3%! No wonder so many people are stressed out with the 2020 quarantine measures. Meal planning for moms should not be a new thing but it is. Going to the grocery store is even a new thing for many. If you are a part of that many, welcome to How to Meal Plan for Moms.
How Meal Planning Makes Things Better
When a mom knows how to meal plan, life gets a bit better. Meal planning is not only a sanity saver when it comes to dinner plans. Meal planning not only saves you money. It not only allows you an easier time during grocery shopping.
Benefits of meal planning for moms and families:
- Kids are less likely to be overweight because they are eating healthier
- Kids perform academically better
- Families have better relations with each other
- Less stress concerning food preparation and decision-making
- Saves time
- Less food waste
- More variety and increases creativity around food prep
How do I make a family meal plan?
Creating a kid-friendly weekly meal plan is not as hard as you think. For me, I only had to ask my tweens what they wanted. I always try to add in a vegetable as a side and have them eat at least a little bit. If I want to plan something more adult-friendly (because kid-friendly meals don’t always hit the spot), I will do it on a night when the kids can have something easy to make for themselves. These things will be unique when creating your own family meal plan.
Beyond this there are other definite steps in meal planning for moms to consider:
- Take stock of what you have on hand. Look at your pantry inventory.
- Are there any meals your husband desires to have?
- Are there any days you may need to have some simple or quick?
- Having theme nights for variety
Once these have been considered, all you need for family meal planning are meal ideas and a place to put them. That’s really all a meal plan is. So there are a few ways to go about this. As I did this month, while my family puttered around the kitchen, I asked them what they wanted to see on the menu. I jotted down their answers quickly on our calendar.
Now I wasn’t thinking to keep it there, of course. But this got the ball rolling for me. Another idea is to create your own Recipe Binder. That’s a fun way of keeping track of all the meals your family enjoys, but also ones that you’d like to try out.
You could also scout around Pinterest. Seems like that’s the hip thing to do these days. You can find all kinds of recipes on there for anything from vegan meals to Fit Mama meals to kid-friendly weekly meal plans! I’ll be honest, when I’m looking for holiday meal ideas I always go on there. You can create Pinterest boards by type of meal or have one board for all recipes.
Speaking of Allrecipes, that’s another place where I love to get ideas.
It’s a community recipe site where people upload their recipes and photos of their results. When you try a recipe you can rate and review it and even upload your own photo of the outcome. It’s the place where I started learning about how to create family meals, at least 10 years ago. With all the reviews from people who care a lot about food, you will not only get winner recipes but also great ideas on variations.
Where to Keep Your Meal Plan
It’s easy to locate your meal plan if it’s in the kitchen. I have kept mine on my meal planning printables on the fridge or on a corkboard in my command center area of the kitchen.
You can get a copy of this meal planning printable for free, in my Roadmap for Moms course. It is a 100% free e-course that guides you through the basic duties of a mom, so you can be prepared with a general strategy of how to do this thing we call Motherhood.
Recently I started bullet journaling and decided to have a spread for my meal plan.
But, of course, you can also just buy a simple to use notepad with tear-off meal planning pages, some, of which, include a grocery list.
Frequently Asked Questions About Meal Planning for Moms
How do I keep things from being repetitive?
As I said earlier, you can switch things up weekly. Pinterest really is a great resource for adding spice into your plan. You can also use a variety of side dishes to make the main meal feel different. Try something new each week.
What if I hate meal planning?
Well, if you know me you know my answer will be to toughen up. I’m not going to say that you can’t thrive without a plan but you can most definitely fall off easily. If you want to save your family money, you are on a strict budget, you are trying to eat healthily, you are just gonna have to suck it up. Like I tell my 5-year-old, you aren’t going to like everything you need to do.
What if my kids don’t eat what I cook?
This depends on your parenting style, however, I would highly recommend you don’t become a short-order cook. If you cook something that you’ve put thought and plan to, and your kids don’t like it, do not get up and cook something else. Have them taste each thing.
There, unfortunately, is going to be food waste with kids, but don’t encourage it. Let them know that what you cook is all there is for that meal and they can wait until the next. I would also recommend including something with each meal that you are pretty certain your kids will want to eat, so there’s balance.
To get the most out of your meal plan, you need to know how to write a great weekly grocery list. Since the purpose of meal planning would be defeated if you don’t get the right foods from the store. You can go on to read
How Do I Make a Weekly Grocery List?
