8 Tips for Meal Planning

The question heard daily that makes the head chef in the household cringe: “what’s for dinner?” Sometimes that’s even followed by grunts, groans, rebuttals, and perhaps other dinner suggestions than what you may have had planned. If you don’t have a meal planned for dinner, it’s about time to get meal planning.

Mapping out your meals for the week saves time, money, and stress. If you’re children are old enough to offer some input – or better yet help in the kitchen- then they too will know what’s for dinner as you can even post your weekly menu on the fridge. Set a day of the week for mapping out meals, perhaps Saturday or Sunday when you can review what’s on sale in your local paper to help you with a starting point. Here are 8 tips to you start meal planning:

1. Get kids involved: If everyone gets a turn to pick out a meal for the week, they’ll be much less likely to grumble on those other nights.
2. Plan theme nights:  Theme nights can narrow down your choices of what to make for dinner on a certain night, you can even do this for the whole week if it’s easier.  Try “Taco Tuesdays”, “Breakfast for Dinner Monday’s”, or “Thursdays in Italy.”
3.  Check the web to find quick and easy meals, such as Allrecipes,  Real Food, Allergy Free, or Eating Well – most have  gluten free and allergen free recipe options.   Keep them bookmarked on your computer for quick reference, and many will allow you to keep an online recipe box of your favorites.
4. Review your schedule to make sure you plan easy meals on busy nights such as sandwiches, or something in the crock pot so you can have a quick easy dinner. Make bigger meals on the weekends or nights when you’ll be home then use leftovers for lunches during the week, or for another quick and easy meal a busy night.
5. Re-use meal plans: Get a rotation of recipes you use every month to help take the guess work out of meal planning and re-use what works every 2 weeks or every month.
6. Have a leftover night: This gives you a night off from cooking and uses up the leftovers in the fridge. Keep some pantry staples handy like beans, dips, rice, or tortillas to help utilize those leftovers or other random unused recipe ingredients.
7. Keep a folder or file of favorite recipes: If you make something the family loves, save the recipe somewhere for easy reference. Print the recipe from online to save, or tear the page from the magazine. When you sit down to plan your meals, pull this out for recipes you know your family already loves.
8. Recipe swap: Know other families who are trying to plan meals? Share with each other your favorite new recipes- you’ll have a full recipe file before you know it!
9. Know the seasons: The seasons, and the foods abundant during that season, can provide a great source of inspiration for meals and recipes. Fresh sweet corn can inspire a great BBQ meal just like winter’s root veggies make for a great baked or roasted meal. Check out Field to Plate to find out what is in season in your area.