How Do You Plan Meals?

So I've seen TONS of information about planning meals online. I've signed up for several subscriptions to meal menus and planning systems. Some for free, some paid.

BUT

none of these ever helped me change.

I've had to take responsibility for my own learning. This is a learning process of "self-education". One cannot master the Meal Planning Monster until one stops relying on everyone else to solve this very personal problem. I stopped searching OUT THERE. I sat down and FOCUSed on something...I started SOMEWHERE. Each person/family has their own set of variables which make meal planning and preparation a particular or individual challenge. For me, as I look back on this blog, there really has been process...and it all started with planning two meals per week for a few weeks and then I branched out.

Now we are pretty steadily flowing each week in our plan...and our lives have changed in the past few months where my husband is now home every night for dinner (and ironically he is on a meal replacement plan!)

So how do YOU start? Maybe you've found my teeny tiny blog and it has given you a glimmer of hope for yourself...oh the PEACE I now have every single day...just from the simple task of planning!

We are staying home more (part of my homeschool plan) and I start dinner each afternoon at 4pm. Life goes so well when I do this. When I find that we are too busy, the routine of my life crumbles...the routine is so precious...more precious to me than life draining "activities" that keep me out and about.

I had a couple tools that inspired me to start:
1-I was enrolled in what is now called the "Seven Seasons to LYFE (Liberate Your Family's Education) Program", this is what helped me identify that I actually didn't have any systems in place to feed my family
2-I found a cookbook that gave me ideas
3-I have a one page "grid" that helps me put meals into the day slots
4-I made this a priority in my life by making TIME to look at recipes and figure out a way to plan and shop and cook that worked for my life

More on each of these areas in later posts! Make sure to sign up for email/feed updates!

How Often Do You Grocery Shop?

Do you have any difficulty shopping for an entire week's groceries in one trip? Our goal has always been "once a week to the grocery store". Ironically, we end up going 4 times per week BECAUSE I DON'T PLAN AHEAD. But we still have had this belief that "a good shopper only goes to the store once a week".

When I checked out the cookbook from the library, I took out my blank weekly plan sheet and started plugging in a few meals I wanted to try...then a HUGE AH-HA!

We now (miraculously) quite recently started eating dinner together on Tuesday and Wednesday night before family activities. So I realized that if I could focus on just creating dinners on those nights, well, that would be a start.

Then it occurred to me that John (who selflessly has done ALL the grocery shopping for the past 3 1/2 years) likes to go to the store on Sunday nights after the kids go to bed. He is UBER efficient and can estimate the total cost of grocs down to about 10 cents. Seriously. He's THAT good!

So here is what came out of this...if I plan two dinners on Tuesday and Wednesday, John could shop for those meals on Sunday night. I also want to be sure and have something planned for Saturday and Sunday night (so we don't have to get pizza!)...and by golly, since he doesn't mind stopping at the store on the way home from work on Thursday nights, he could easily shop for Sat/Sun meals then!

What this means for me is this:
Tuesday Chicken
Wednesday Beef
These meals get shopped for on Sunday.

Saturday Chicken
Sunday Beef
These meals get shopped for on Thursday.

I think I can do this!

This is a revolutionary way of looking at grocery shopping for us!

photo credit:
Image: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot / FreeDigitalPhotos.net