Meal planning is kind of like laundry. It never goes away. It's ALWAYS something that will need to be done.
Here is my process.
I plan meals 2 weeks at a time (I'm talking dinner here). I plan 4-5 meals each week (we eat leftovers and usually go out once a week). I first look at my 'Freezer Inventory' book to see what we have in our freezers.
I try to buy meat on sale and stock up. And occasionally we will get large bags of meatballs or other things at Costco that take us a while to use up.
So first I see if there's anything in our freezer that I can use (and there always is).
Then I build the rest of the meal around it. Tonight, for example, we are having spaghetti and meatballs, because we have a partial bag of frozen meatballs leftover from our Superbowl gathering.
If I can't think of anything off the top of my head to make with what we have, then I use my cookbooks and the Internet. This takes maybe 30 minutes IF you don't get distracted.
Once I have my two weeks planned, I write it all down on my monthly calendar (just a cheap one I found at Target):
On the far right hand side of the calendar, I write what I need to get at the store to complete the meals.
I shop on Friday for the week. I meal plan for TWO weeks, but I shop just one week at a time. And Sunday is my meal prep/batch cooking day.
For breakfast, I make either overnight oats or make sure to stick an oatmeal packet in my lunch box. My husband usually eats instant grits (he eats breakfast at home). Breakfast is easy.
For lunches, I try to do EVERYTHING I possibly can to make it as easy as possible to pack lunches in the morning.
This week, I made salads. I chopped romaine hearts (the 3-pack from Trader Joe's), then added a veggie mix of kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage (also from Trader Joe's). I cooked up a pound of ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning. Then chopped some green peppers. I then added dressing and shredded cheese. And that was our 'main course' for lunches for the week.
Sometimes I'll do sandwiches. Other times it's leftovers. I try to do it all the night before though so that I'm not scrambling around in the morning.
I also de-package all yogurts, cheese, etc. so they are easy to grab and add to our lunch boxes.
But that's just for lunch.
For dinners, it's a bit different. I try to prep everything I can for each meal on Sunday, including chopping veggies, defrosting the appropriate meat, etc. And anything that I can prep ahead of time (like a casserole or something), I will do that also. I also will make some shredded chicken if we're out and usually some hard boiled eggs. I make a huge mess and it takes anywhere from 1-3 hours, but I'm usually done by noon and have the rest of the day to relax and not have to worry about what we're going to eat for the week.
I write down what we're having for the week on our menu board:
Here's a few other tips:
*get some food prep containers. I got the ones in the picture above from Wal-Mart. They are decent in size, and are microwave and dishwasher safe. They are lightweight. And it's not a tragedy if they get lost or accidentally thrown out. We use glass containers too, but I like to use those for leftovers that we are eating at home.
*After you make your grocery list, number it. So anything that's refrigerated I put a '1' by. All produce is '2'. All frozen '3'. Canned goods '4'. Snacks '5'. Etc. It sounds crazy, but this saves SO MUCH TIME at the grocery store. There's no more wondering way back to the frozen section because you've forgotten something. I suppose you could write your list in order by category, but I never do that. I scribble it all down as I'm deciding on recipes, then number it.
*If you use coupons, pull out the appropriate ones and put them in your wallet before you go to the store. I also look at my Target Cartwheel and see if there's anything on my list that I can save on. This also saves me time in the store.
*Go to the store as early as possible. Sunday mornings at Target are wonderful. :) Sometimes I will also have to go to Smith's (which is only 5 blocks from us) to pick up something that Target doesn't have, and it is also super quiet in the mornings. The aisles are clear and there's no lines. It just makes it a more pleasant experience.
So that's how I do it. It might sound complicated, but I prefer to do as much batch cooking/meal prepping as I can. We eat out WAY less when I plan and prepare. It saves money and time!
