Close your eyes and picture your dream meal preparation circumstances. Really see the details. Where are you? What do you see? Are there distinct smells? What are you touching? Do you hear sounds? How do you feel? Take your time. I’ll wait.
Fantasy
Some of you likely pictured sitting down at a restaurant, waiting for your food to arrive. Some of you likely pictured watching your mom or grandma preparing your favorite meal. I conjured up a movie-perfect scenario of strolling through a market, picking out the freshest, most glorious ingredients, and planning a beautiful dinner that incorporates only what is at the peak of deliciousness. I would be a happy lady if I could make dinner like this on a regular basis.
Reality
Now consider what your nightly meal preparation actually looks like. It likely involves a panic at about 3:00 pm, a mad dash through your pantry, and asking yourself every night of your life, “What can we have for dinner?” This is a much trickier question for many of us than it used to be. You’re likely not just feeding yourself, so you have to take the tastes and preferences of others into account. This can be extremely difficult if you have a toddler who is only eating perfectly ripe bananas and Stegosaurus-shaped nuggets.
So, how to make reality look as close as possible to your fantasy?
MEAL PLAN!
After many years of struggling with the what’s for dinner question, I have figured out how to make meal planning as painless as possible for me. Fair warning: your mileage may vary. What works for me and my family may not work for you. But I want to share what does work for me on the off chance that it can at least make your dinnertime less stressful.
Here are 6 steps to streamline your meal planning and enjoy dinnertime again!
Steps to Streamline Your Meal Plan
Step 1: Start Early
Don’t plan your meals at the grocery store. Give yourself plenty of time to think about what you need and why.
My Tip:
I start the meal planning process on Tuesday or Wednesday of the week before. This gives me plenty of time to execute the next two steps (consult my schedule and shop my stash) before I go to the grocery store on Friday evening or Saturday morning. This early start also gives me room to pivot if my partner’s schedule changes or if my kids come down with the plague, are unable to attend daycare, and wreak havoc on my week.
Step 2: Consult Your Calendar
It is absolutely imperative that you match up your dinner plan with your life. Get yourself a family calendar (I use a Happy Planner Dashboard layout, but anything will do) and a meal planning pad. This is not an optional step!
My Tip:
I work a full-time job and my partner works a full-time plus job that does not follow a traditional schedule. My ability to devote time to making dinner changes drastically night-to-night based on our work schedules. Even if you have a bit more predictability in your schedule, I’d bet that your nights aren’t all created equal too. Don’t plan to make lasagna on a Tuesday night when you work all day Tuesday and your kids have soccer practice on Tuesday evenings. This is the perfect night for a slow cooker meal or a charcuterie dinner. Save the lasagna for a Sunday.
Step 3: Shop Your Stash
This is a step that can either make or break my meal plan. You will regret it if you skip this step, unless you like to throw out moldy sour cream and liquefied lettuce.
My Tip:
I am a Sam’s Club lady. I really enjoy going to Sam’s Club and filling my obnoxiously large cart with way more food than is practical for my family of 4. This generally means I have a pretty healthy stash from which to shop. Have 16 pounds of ground turkey in the basement freezer? Looks like a meatloaf is in your future! Bought the 50-count package of tortillas? Enchilada night!
Step 4: Define Your Universe
Borrowing a concept from the lazy genius, you need to decide once here to prevent decision fatigue. This doesn’t have to mean that you make spaghetti every Monday and tacos every Tuesday, but you should have some sort of system to reduce the whole huge universe of recipes or else you will scroll endlessly and be back to constantly asking what’s for dinner.
My Tip:
I like to plan to cook 4 dinners a week. The other 3 nights are either leftovers, takeout, or something easy like frozen pizza. To decide on these 4 dinners I usually pick 3 sources and then do 1 brainless crowd pleaser meal that doesn’t need a recipe. My sources can vary slightly, but lately they’ve been 3 food blogs: How Sweet Eats, Skinnytaste, and Half Baked Harvest. All of these ladies publish weekly meal plans with recipes from their blogs. I limit myself to each week’s meal plan on each of these 3 blogs – I pick one from each. I am forever indebted to Jessica, Gina, and Tieghan for doing most of my meal planning work for me. Thanks, ladies!
Step 5: Limit the New
I’m always looking to avoid getting into a dinner rut, so it’s fun to try new things, but too much new can be too much for you and your family. My kids can tolerate one new food or flavor a week, but any more than that leads to thrown plates and a happy dog. Set a limit on what new things you will try each week.
My Tip:
The great thing about using the meal plans to define my universe is that they already include a mix of old standbys and new things to try. I typically do a quick once-through of the meal plans and pick the new thing I’m most excited to try. Then I go back to the other 2 meal plans and pick something we have had (and liked) before. This usually limits the number of nights my kids will refuse to eat dinner, which is an added bonus. Be prepared for old favorites to suddenly get the hand from your kids, though. They are fickle creatures.
Step 6: Ask the Magic Question Daily
We’re going back to the lazy genius for more wisdom in the meal planning realm (I told you I was obsessed).
My Tip:
Each morning, ask yourself what you can do at any point before dinnertime to help your dinner-making self. Some days that can just be to get the gosh darn meat out of the freezer (I can’t be the only one who constantly forgets this crucial step). Or fill a pot with water so you can get it boiling as soon as you get home from work. Other days, it could be to make the entire casserole during your lunch break and stick it in the fridge so you can just pop the pan in the oven for a mostly hands-off dinnertime. My message here is that no prep task is too small to thank yourself for. Every little bit counts when you have a toddler who is refusing to be put down, a preschooler who is trying to crab-walk up the stairs backwards, and a dog who has decided to demonstrate the circle of life with a bunny in the backyard.
Other Posts
Looking for other practical ways to make life easier? Check out these helpful posts:
How to Manage School Valentines
Low-Effort Ways for Moms to Move More
Happy meal planning, friends!