Meal Plan #13: a full month menu
A quick view of another method of meal planning I sometimes use.
Another full month meal plan, but this time I’m showing you how I do it by hand in a journal.
I’m all about full month meal planning, I think it helps save a lot of money and avoid getting in a rut. Sometimes my meal planning is fancy, and sometimes it’s quick and dirty, like this. In my bullet journal I have just pasted a blank month calendar template. I’ve written before about how I try to meal plan with a general “theme” for each day of the week. It helps me focus and figure out ideas. So as you can see in the picture, I write the theme above the day column for the month.
I typically only plan out the main dish for the meal. The sides tend to sort themselves out. I always try to make sure we have a vegetable, so if there isn’t a vegetable component of the main dish then I will usually either just add a salad or some roasted veggies.
Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
Run out of dishwasher detergent - here is my two ingredient dishwasher detergent hack that will get your dishes clean until you can restock.
Read on to find out how I use this DIY dishwasher detergent when I run out of the real stuff. This is a simple dishwasher hack for a baking soda dishwasher detergent.
I don't know about you, but running out of dishwasher detergent and not being able to do the dishes is just not an option around here. Getting behind on the dishes might be worse than getting behind on the laundry (which happens too often).
But what to do when it's late at night and you go to the cabinet and realize you're out of dishwasher detergent? A late night grocery store run sounds like about the last thing I want to do, and waking up to a mountain of dirty dishes sounds even worse.
There has to be a solution.
Have you seen any of these recipes online for making your own dishwasher detergent? They sound interesting, but a lot of them call for stuff that I just don't normally keep around my house, or stuff that I'm not sure I'm comfortable putting on my dishes (Borax, Oxy-Clean, etc.), or they require you mixing up some big recipe of stuff, which I'm not doing late at night.
But I saw one recently that called for just dish soap and baking soda. Things I always have.
So of course I had to try it.
We run our dishwasher at least twice a day here, and often three times on weekends. With 6-8 people at every meal, everything homemade, we go through a lot of dishes!
And so we also go through a LOT of dishwasher detergent. I try to buy a more natural brand, because when I open the dishwasher and I am hit in the face with a strong chemical smell, I just don't think that sounds like a good idea. If there's that much strong chemical odor left in the steam that comes out of the dishwasher, then I'm pretty sure that it's on my dishes too, and I just don't like the idea of that. So I try to go for a dishwasher detergent that is a little lighter on the chemicals. But those kinds are expensive, and for some reason they come in very small packages. I buy like 4 or 5 packages at a time, just to make sure we don't run out.
But what if we do run out? That would be an emergency! So when I came across this idea for running the dishwasher with just regular other household stuff, I had to know if it worked!
I had to.
And you know what? IT WORKS!!
I've been doing this every day this week. I run the dishwasher twice a day usually during the week, so I've been doing one load with our regular detergent and one load with this homemade combo. I've stuck with the regular detergent for the load that we run after dinner, since it's running at night and I'm not keeping an eye on it, and I've tried this new method for the load I run while I am home during the day - just in case I had any kind of over-sudsing incident.
And I can honestly tell you the results are identical. I haven't noticed any difference in the dishes between the two methods.
The loads with the homemade detergent are just as clean as the loads with the packaged detergent. I haven't added up the costs yet, but I can pretty much assure you that a bottle of dish soap and a big package of baking soda are going to be a heck of a lot cheaper than the expensive detergent tablets that I've been buying.
The recipe:
A couple tablespoons of baking soda
A few drops, or a small squirt, of Dawn dish soap.
Directions:
Fill your detergent cup with baking soda, you don't have to be precise, but with mine this ends up being a couple of heaping tablespoons. Then add a few drops of dish soap. I have a pump dispenser for my dish soap, so I just put about half a squirt in there. Close the cover, and run dishwasher as usual. That's all.
I experimented with quantity of dish soap. The first few recipes I read said just 2 drops, but that just didn't feel like enough to me, to really get a very full load clean. So I gradually added a little more until I felt comfortable. I haven't yet found an upper limit, but I haven't pushed it too far.
The baking soda is VERY important here. Don't try this without it! It keeps the soap from forming suds. The reason they tell you never to use liquid dish soap in your dishwasher is because of the suds - you'll have bubbles all over your floor. But the baking soda apparently prevents that, so it allows the soap to do the grease cutting and cleaning, without making all those bubbles. I've opened my dishwasher at various points in the cycles to see what's going on in there, and there are no bubbles. I'm not scientist, so I'm not going to try to figure out why any of this happens. All I know is, my dishes are getting clean and I don't have soap all over my floor and I didn't have to buy dishwasher detergent.
I have not tried this with other brands of dish soap. I've tried lots of other brands of liquid dish soap for hand washing, and I keep coming back to Dawn, so that is what I used for this. The more natural and/or less expensive brands just don't work as well. I found that I was having to use so much more soap to just wash a sink full of dishes, that it just wasn't worth it.
I pour my dish soap into a pump dispenser that I keep next to my sink. I like this one because the spout extends out far enough that you can just pump it right into the sink.
So that's it. Dish soap & baking soda! Let me know if you try it!
A peek into my small kitchen - and how I make it all work
From the archives - in our old house we had a very tiny kitchen. But I still managed to cook lots of amazing meals for our family of six.
I try really hard to keep my small kitchen clean and organized. It's the space in the house where I spend the most of my time. I put a ton of thought into the design and layout when we created it, and I am constantly re-arranging as our habits and needs change. For a small space, it works very well for me and for the needs of our big family. I get comments and questions about the space every time I share a picture that shows some of the kitchen, so I thought you all might enjoy a bit of an overview of my space and a tour of how I use it.
It is a small galley style kitchen. Even though it's tight on space, I still am very happy with what we came up with when we remodeled it on a very tight budget over 10 years ago. If you have an opportunity to do some updating to a small kitchen, there a couple of key factors I recommend keeping in mind:
- White. White feels open and bright. And having everything the same color gives you a sense of continuity and makes the space feel much bigger than it actually is.
- Lots of light. One of the most important things to me in the remodel was to put in as much light as we possibly could. I have 8 recessed can lights in the kitchen (including 1 over the sink on its own switch), and 6 in the dining room. We how have most of these switched to LED bulbs, so I feel ok with having all these lights on much of the time. I need bright light for cooking, and I think it also really helps brighten and open up a space. It's one of the biggest comments I get about my kitchen, how wonderfully bright it is. (and also on the electrical topic - if you're re-wiring, take the opportunity to put in LOTS of power outlets).
- Get rid of the clutter. I know it seems hard in a smaller space, but covering your counter tops with stuff is just going to make your kitchen seem even smaller. We put a lot of thought into the space we had and got really creative with adding space wherever we possibly could. The kitchen looks and feels so much better when everything is in its place - which is off the counter.
- Look for things that do double-duty, or give the illusion of more space. Our stove is a standard width, but I chose one that had grates that went all the way across the whole top, because I thought it gave the feel of a bigger space. And our microwave also doubles as a convection oven, so I have the use of two ovens when I need them.
- Get creative about creating space - look up, look down, where can you add storage? More on how we did that later.
- Really think about how you are going to use your space. Prioritize your storage needs. Things you use the most often should be kept closest to where you will use them, and then move outward from there, with the items you use the least often being the furthest away from the main work space. Don't take up valuable space right next to your stove with serving dishes that you use once a year.
Nothing you see here is expensive. This is all stock stuff from Home Depot. The cabinets were stock, the counters are just solid white laminate, the floor is vinyl. It was what we could afford, and I think it still totally works. I especially think that if you are going with less expensive materials, then you should not try to fake a fancy look. Solid laminate looks much better than something that's trying to look like fake marble, and I think that embracing the vinyl floor and going with a simple patter looks so much better than faux wood.
On the counter in the kitchen the only things that live permanently are the coffee pot, the SodaStream, and the paper towel holder. We could find a place to hang the paper towels, but we use them so much and this is a place where the kids can reach them, and the roll often gets moved around for meals, art projects, mess clean ups, etc. It drives me nuts to have the compost bucket out here, and I do have room for it under the sink, but I've found that it only reliably gets used if it's sitting right next to where I'm working. Our city has recently started threatening to fine you if you put compostables in the trash, so I'm really trying to be better about using it, so I've started leaving it out most of the time.
We don't have room under our sink for a trash can (we have recycling there, trash bags, dish soap, and space for the compost - so I found the narrowest trash can I could possibly find.
The barstools are from Ikea.
We made some decisions in our planning that left our dining room a little smaller, but made the overall space so much more functional. There used to be a slightly higher half wall behind the sink. We took that down to extend an eating bar out and have the whole thing all one height, it makes the counter space feel so much bigger, and I have space for my kids to sit and have a snack or help with cooking (we have a fourth stool that I keep in the garage and bring out if I've got all four kids at the counter). And we added the cabinets and counter in the dining room. That was just the back of a brick fireplace. It technically made the room smaller by about a foot, but it gave us so much more storage. And because we went from dark brown brick to bright white, I don't think it actually looks smaller at all.
I love that it's so open from the dining room to the kitchen.
The bookshelves just overhead are one of my favorite features.
Another thing we did which I absolutely love, is added the bookshelves up at the ceiling. They fit perfectly in the space above our stock cabinets in the dining room.
Over the counter there was a structural beam that was coming down that far anyway, so all we did was have the contractor build the shelves down either side of the beam. This is where I store all my cookbooks, vases, some big bowls and baskets, and a few small appliances. It's amazing how something so simple can add so much storage space!
You can also see from these pics that we went with all white appliances and white sink. I know stainless appliances are all the rage now, but I didn't like how it would chop up the kitchen. Sticking with my all white theme I think helps my space feel open and bright.
So that gives you some idea of the thinking that went into the design of our kitchen. You don't have to spend a fortune to get a nice looking space and make it functional. My kitchen works really well for me. Everything I need for daily cooking is well within reach, and we were able to set up the classic work triangle between the fridge, stove and sink. It's mostly a one person kitchen, it gets pretty cozy if more than one person is working in it. But the counter space in the dining room allows me to have helpers but keep them out of my work space.
Now for a little tour of how I use some of the space.
All of our dishes for eating and serving are store in the dining room. This makes it easy to set the table. And the dishwasher is just over the counter to the left, so it's pretty easy to put them away too. I would love to have more serving pieces, but this is all the space I have. In the drawers I have paper napkins, trivets and coasters, wine openers and accessories, chopsticks, and some extra silver pieces.
I decided to sacrifice some space recently and convert the lower cabinets to kids space. This houses all our homework and craft supplies. It was tricky to relocate some of the kitchen items I had here, but I'm glad I did because it gives my kids so much more opportunity to be creative when they have easy access to their supplies. It also makes it easy for them to clean up when they are done. My kids are old enough now that I feel comfortable with them having access to their art supplies for independent projects. The only thing I don't keep down here is paint.
On the wall in the dining room is our family info center - calendars, school notices, chore charts, behavior charts, schedules, special artwork - it all goes here. I could have cleaned this up for a picture, but this is reality of what it looks like on an average day.
In the kitchen I keep all the kids cups and water bottles in a bottom drawer that they can reach. Up until very recently I also had plastic plates and bowls here, but we don't use them any more so they were cleaned out. In the drawers above this I have dish towels, washcloths, and plastic bags & wraps.
We have one tall pantry cabinet in the kitchen. I used to use this for food but I don't any more. I actually store very little food in my kitchen. The top section has some small appliances, cereal, vitamins, kids medications. The bottom section has pull out shelves which I have turned into drawers by just adding a plastic bin. The top one has all my plastic storage containers. The second one has lunch boxes and some of my other lunch packing supplies. The bottom two have snack foods that the kids can help themselves to - dried fruit, nuts, granola bars, applesauce, etc. Allowing them to have healthy snacks within reach helps create independence and healthy eating habits.
I have two big drawers to the right of the stove. The bottom one has a variety of things - lunch supplies, measuring cups, a few bowls, and the container of cat food (so the kids can easily feed the cats themselves).
The middle drawer has some of my most used and prized possessions - my Vitamix and my Cuisinart - I use these almost every day, so I keep them very handy (but not on the counter!!). I also have some glass bowls here that we use basically every day.
I have one upper cabinet to the left of the stove that has some cooking supplies - seasonings, oils, vinegars. The containers at the top have baking supplies, rice, hot cereals. And this is where we keep the coffee and tea.
As you can see, there really is no food stored in the kitchen other than the kids snack stuff. This works for us because right around the corner is the door to the garage, and the stairs leading to the basement, and those two places are where most of our storage happens. In this picture, the door straight ahead is the garage. Down to the right are the stairs. And to the left goes outside, to the side yard where we keep our trash, recycling, and compost bins.
Also here I will point out one of my other most favorite kitchen items: my sweeper vac. This thing is the bomb! For a house full of kids and cats, we absolutely could not live without this. It is mounted right there on the wall and constantly charging. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I use this thing several times every day. It's the best vacuum I've ever owne.
Sorry, back to the to tour...
This closet is just at the bottom of the stairs that go down from the kitchen, very convenient even though it's downstairs. We created this space when we remodeled the basement. We actually took the closet out of the bedroom that is right behind this, and instead have a wall of Ikea closets for storage in that. That gave us space for wine and pantry storage. This is where I store the stuff that I use the least often - a variety of baking pans, some serving things, linens, and extras of Costco sized paper and plastic products. We even have a bunch of bottle water and a box of MREs.
This is just inside the garage - which is just off the kitchen. With just an inexpensive Ikea cabinet, and some very industrial Home Depot shelving, we created most of our frequently used storage space. This is all my pantry food storage. It might not look like much, but it's more than enough. I don't buy all that much packaged and processed food (for a family of 7), so this doesn't fill up too fast.
And just to the right of the pantry are some open shelves where I store my bigger appliances that I use regularly. This is where my slow cooker, rice cooker and meat slicer live - items I use weekly. And, as you can see, the ice cream maker, pressure cooker, stand mixer. I have boxes of jam here, and the plastic bin is where all my empty jam jars go as we use them up.
All this storage is just steps from my kitchen, so it's really convenient and works well. Also just to the left here in the garage are my second fridge and freezer. Because most of what I cook is from scratch, we always have a fridge and freezer full of fresh ingredients.
So there you have it. I hope I've given you a few ideas. I know it's not as perfect and orderly as some of these magazine grade kitchens - but this is a real, working, family kitchen. I prepare 3 meals a day, every day, in this kitchen and it functions very well for me. I sometimes wish I had more storage, but I rarely wish for a bigger kitchen. That would just be more to clean!
12 Months of Home Organization
I needed a little motivation to get my house organized without feeling overwhelmed, so I made an organization calendar.
Do you make New Year's resolutions? I generally don't. Or at least I don't think of them that way. It seems a little too much like following the herd and setting myself up for failure to specifically label something as a New Year's Resolution. But I do sometimes have little goals or plans in the back of my head, bad habits I want to correct, or good habits I want to start doing more of. You know, the usual stuff - drink more water, exercise more, get back to healthier eating after the holiday binges, etc.
So today I thought I'd tell you about one of my little plans for 2015. I have this bad habit of going on crazy organizing sprees around the house. I'll let it go and let it go until the entire house is driving me insane and I can no longer put anything away, and then I'll exhaust myself trying to organize and clean it up all at once. Well this coming year I'm going to try not to do that! My goal is to have one or two major organizing jobs each month, to spread it out and keep our home organized throughout the year.
Click the image to open a word doc version that you can save and customize for yourself.
I've come up with a plan for organizing throughout the year, assigning myself jobs for each month. This is somewhat customized for our climate and family schedule, so if you click on the image you can get a word doc version that you can go ahead and edit for your needs. (or click here if you want to just print a pdf of my exact version.)
I grew up in southern California, where the idea of putting summer clothes away for the winter months never even occurred to us, but here in the Pacific Northwest that is something we need to do. At least in our small house with limited closet and dresser space, we don't have room to keep our summer clothes in the closet all winter, or our winter clothes handy all summer. But you may not need to do this sort of thing, so you can update some of those steps to suit your needs. We also do things here like put our patio toys and umbrellas away, empty our fountains, put away bikes. So it makes sense for us to have certain points of the year where the major organizing task is switching over seasonal items - sports & play gear, clothing, coats & hats, etc. I've tried to think through other times of the year and what needs to be done - organizing the office and tax papers in February, school supplies in August, kids clothes in September, toys in December - and then the other random things have just been spread out throughout the year during the months that don't have a specific seasonal task.
So join in with me if you like, let me know how your doing, check up and keep me honest to see if I'm holding up my end of the bargain!
Meal Planning: How to create a plan that you will actually follow.
My tips for how to create a meal plan that actually fits YOUR lifestyle.
You keep thinking that you really need to get better about weekly meal planning for your family, because you know it would save you so much time. Right? Menu planning is one of those things that we all seem to like to talk about, but don't often actually get done. You look around on blogs and Pinterest and you can be left feeling a little intimidated. The meals on those plans are either way more involved than you have time for, or they are foods that your family isn't actually going to eat.
Some of the menus that people are posting are so involved - with new recipes every night and lots of complicated ingredients. Those menus look nice, but not the reality of what most of us with busy lives are actually going to stick to. I don't know about you, but I don't have time to do that much experimenting, and the idea of trying a new recipe every night of the week is just too much. Don't get me wrong - I love reading food blogs and cookbooks, I love experimenting and trying new recipes - but I am also super busy. I need an efficient system for planning a week’s worth of meals for 7 people. I need a set of tried and true basics that I can just pull out of my mental file and slot into my plan. I need some sense of structure and consistency. I need a plan that is going to guide me in the right direction when I've been up all night with sick kids, or I'm totally brain dead from a very full day. I need to not have to think about it too much. But if I don't put some thought into our meals ahead of time then we end up just having the same stuff over and over again, or I end up staring into the fridge at 5:30 wondering what the heck I'm going to feed everyone in a half an hour.
You don't need somebody else's meal plan. You need a meal plan that is customized for your family. A plan that is too complicated or doesn't include your family's tastes will never get used, or will get thrown out the window. But no plan means last minute stress, or unhealthy and unbalanced meals, or spending too much money eating out.
So there needs to be some balance - a plan that has a predictable structure, is realistic to actually deliver, allows room for family favorites and simple classics, room for trying new things on the days when I know I’ll have time, and flexible enough that I can make last minute changes if circumstances demand it.
What works for me is a reusable framework, with themes or general categories already determined for each day, so I don’t have to completely start from scratch every week. It is a basic template for my week.
So what does my meal plan look like?
Click for a full size pdf.
This is my standard template that I use a basis for creating my meal plan each week. For illustration purposes, this version has notes in it, so you can get a better idea of how I think about it.
I designed it to fit on one page with room for a grocery list. I can make notes on what I've got and what I need, and I can also use the back of the sheet to jot stuff down - inventory of what I've got, ideas of something to put in a future week, etc. I've included a column for things I want to get done during the day, to either prep for that night's dinner, or breakfast the next day. I like to fold it in half, so it fits in a purse or calendar book a little better, so I made it so that the meal plan part fits on half the sheet and the shopping list is on the other half.
I keep a print out of this taped to the inside of a kitchen cupboard, so when I get up foggy-eyed in the morning, I just open the cupboard and the plan tells me what to feed my kids for breakfast. I like not having to think before I've had several cups of coffee.
I’ll pause here and note that while I’m mostly talking about dinner plans in the rest of this post, I do also include breakfast and lunch in my weekly meal plan. It helps me a lot to already have an idea of what to do. Otherwise I end up giving the kids the same thing too often and they get tired of it, and then start refusing to eat it. But, while I do customize and add more detail to the dinner part of the plan for each week, I often just leave the breakfast and lunch as-is. If I have an idea of something a little different I want to try, then I'll pencil it in, but usually just having the main idea of what category to start with is enough for me for those meals (Monday sandwich, Tuesday something with a tortilla, etc.). And as far as lunches go, my plan just includes school lunches. On the weekends we usually either warm up leftovers, or have a sandwich, or we'll be out running around.
So that's my meal plan. And it works for us. But your family isn't the same as mine, they don't like the same things, they don't have the same schedule. I'm going to share my meal plans with you every week, to help you with ideas, but I don't actually expect you to use it exactly. I want you to make your own - make one that you know is going to work for you.
Now that you've seen my plan, do you want to know how to create your own?
Now that you have seen my meal plan, read on if you want to hear about the method to my madness, and get started on your process for creating a meal plan template that you can use for your family each week.
I've broken my meal plan development process into a few steps, so you can really get the idea. The type of meal I have listed for each night of the week is very intentional and I put a lot of thought into setting up this initial format. So the up front part takes a bit of time. But once you have figured out that structure, it’s very easy to fill in the details each week.
Meal Planning Step #1: Get your calendar together
A very important first step in meal planning actually comes well before you even think about the food. The first step needs to be having a family calendar that is up to date and gives you a good view of what your family's days and evenings look like. You need to know this before you can think about how and what you're going to cook each night. Look at your calendar and get a feel for what each evening of your week contains, who is home, what time they get home, what everyone needs to be doing, and how much time you will have for cooking during the day and/or before dinner. Does somebody work late one night? Or have a late class or soccer practice? Do you have certain days when you are running around and have no time to cook? What does a ‘typical’ week in your house look like? The key to building a framework that you can use over and over again is having a good handle on what each day of your week typically holds.
Also think about what day your 'week' should start on, for the purpose of meal planning. I was originally using a standard Sunday - Saturday week, but I realized that it works best for me to do the meal planning on Saturday or Sunday, so I updated my meal plan template to have the week start on Monday.
Meal Planning Step #2: Create your structure and themes.
Once you have your calendar and have a sense of what your typical week looks like, then you can map out your basic dinner structure according to how you know each evening is going to be, and how much time you'll have each day to prep and cook. Look at each day and think about what kind of meal you can or want to be cooking in that schedule. What days do you need to have something made ahead? What days do you have time to cook a more involved recipe? Give yourself a general category or type of meal for each night of the week that will be doable within your schedule. This is the step that should take you the most time, you should really put a lot of thought into it. A meal plan is going to be a failure right away if set yourself up with ideas that you don't have time to follow through on. If in doubt, I say keep it simple.
To give you an idea of what I mean, here is the thinking behind each of my daily choices:
Monday is my busiest day of the week - I spend my morning at therapy with one child, and the afternoon is taken up by school pickups and ballet lessons. We get home at dinner time, so I need a meal for Monday that I can put together in my spare hour in the middle of the day and have totally ready to serve when we get home. This usually means some kind of soup or stew that just needs to be dished into bowls, or some kind of whole meal in the crock pot.
Tuesday is my one weekday with no appointments or lessons, and drop off and pick up at only 1 school, so I have time to get a little more creative if I want. Sometimes I opt for an easy meal anyway and we do Taco Tuesday, or a simple Asian stir fry with rice or noodles, often trying to plan for a meal that uses a protein that was precooked from our Saturday or Sunday dinner (leftover over pot roast or roast chicken, or diced grilled chicken). But if I’m all caught up on housework and have no extra appointments, then this is the day that I have time to experiment and try something new. If I come across a new recipe that I want to try, Tuesday is one of my days where I stick it.
Wednesday we have soccer practice for one child that doesn't end until 6:15, and by that day we've usually got three nights of dinner leftovers in the fridge (I always cook extra!), so that's my day to clean out the fridge and just let everyone choose from what's already cooked. I've cooked for 3-4 nights in a row and I'm ready for a night off. If we don't have enough leftovers, then I will make a big chopped salad, or we'll have breakfast for dinner.
Thursday and I'm tired of fighting the food battles with the kids, and my husband often has band practice right after the kids bed time. We want a dinner that we know they are going to eat so we can get them all to bed on time. So it's kid food night. And hey, the kids deserve to pick the dinner once a week anyway. This might be fish sticks (Costco has really good ones), or homemade chicken nuggets (always make extra for the freezer), or some simple pasta, mac & cheese, or hot dogs, usually with some frozen peas on the side. I try to keep it to minimally processed and good quality brands (I buy Applegate hot dogs, Annie's mac & cheese), but this is the one night of the week that we often have a dinner that at least part of came out of a package. Everything in moderation.
Friday is pizza night at our house. Sometimes I go all out and make the dough from scratch and get really creative with the toppings. Sometimes I buy organic frozen pizza. Sometimes I pull some premade crusts or flatbreads out of the freezer and just mine the fridge to see what I can come up with. Sometimes we get takeout. However we do it, it's casual, the kids love it, the grownups have some good wine or a cocktail, and we have a lot of fun.
Saturday is a free night – I have no commitments and it’s up to me whether I want to do much. Often I try to keep it simple, because on Saturday I just don't want to work very hard. I usually chose grilling or broiling for this night because it's easy for me but always results in a really delicious meal that everyone is going to like. In the summer we grilled outside, in the winter months it will be more broiling, or a grill pan on the stove. We have burgers a lot (turkey, salmon, or grass fed beef), fish, sausages, chicken pieces, or sometimes a steak to slice up. I always try to cook extra so I can use it in a meal later in the week, or have for lunches. Occasionally if I have come across a more involved new recipe that I want to try I'll do it on Saturday, since I have time and I have my husband home to help out.
Sunday I usually have time and I like the idea of a big Sunday dinner, so a roast of some sort, or a big Italian pasta dish. I also like to try to cook something on Sunday that I can use in at least one other meal in the coming week. I cook a couple of whole chickens at least every other week, so I have the bones to make broth, and cooked chicken to use in soup or tacos or a casserole. Or a roast with lots of veggies and potatoes, that can all go into a stew for Monday. If we have pasta or rice I'll cook extra to have as a side later in the week.
So that's what our typical week looks like based on our current schedule. Get the idea?
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the calendar and really thinking about what kind of meal I need to plan for each night of the week. Based on all that logic, I've given myself one night of pizza, one night of kid food, one night of leftovers, and one night of simple grilling if I want it. I just need to narrow down the exact flavor of the meals that I’m cooking, and make sure I have the ingredients either already in the house or on my grocery list. And now I'm down to needing to come up with ideas and recipes for only 3 or 4 dinners. And that seems a lot more manageable, doesn't it?
Create your basic weekly meal plan template once, and re-use it every week, just updating the details for the 3 or 4 nights that you're really cooking something different.
I will also note here that most of the time in my dinner plan I am only planning ahead for the main dish or protein. We always have a vegetable on the side, but I generally prefer veggies to be cooked very simply to bring out their flavor, so I'll usually just pick from what we've got and cook up something to serve with dinner each night. We get a weekly delivery of organic produce, so I don't have to think about having veggies on hand. If you have access to something like that or a CSA I highly recommend it. Anything you can do to take one step of work out of the equation is going to make your job easier. Otherwise I would suggest you make yourself a standard list of veggies to buy each week, so that you know you have a supply on hand.
For the breakfast and lunch portions - there isn't as much thought put into which meals are on which days. I basically just tried to have 5 different basic ideas, so that I'm not getting too repetitive. Monday's lunch is leftover pizza from the weekend if I have it, but the other days are just somewhat randomly assigned.
Ok - so stop here. This step takes time. When you're finished here you should have your basic template that you will be using every week. So really make sure it feels right before you move on.
The rest of the steps are about how you customize your meal plan for use each week.
Meal Planning Step #3: Update the calendar and make changes to the template.
So here you are, Saturday or Sunday, ready to do your meal plan for the next week. The first think you need to do is figure out where there are any changes to your usual schedule for the coming week. Plans for a night out? Any special occasions or parties? Any late meetings? Make changes to your template as needed, to reflect the changes in your calendar.
Meal Planning Step #4: Inventory what you've got (and what you know is coming).
Every story or blog post I read about feeding a family on a budget always includes the advice to work from what you have first. This definitely holds true for us. I do a much better job at keeping the grocery spending down if I first take the time to see what I've already got and think about what meals I could make with it. So look around the fridge, freezer and pantry and make a few notes of things you have that you could include in a meal. I usually start with the proteins first - what meats do I have in my freezer?
Also in this area for us I look at what we're going to have in the coming week. We get a weekly organic produce delivery and a weekly dairy delivery. Knowing that a large portion of our essential items are just going to show up on my doorstep without me having to think about it, makes my life a LOT easier. So based on what you’ve got already (and what you might have coming), what do you have that you could base a meal around? Pencil those in someplace.
Meal Planning Step #5: Fill out your plan
Now that you have an idea of what your week looks like, and what you've already got, you can pencil in a few ideas for the nights that you're really cooking. Look at a few new recipes, but don't set yourself up for too much work. I say start with some tried and true favorites that you know you can pull off, and maybe stick in one really new thing each week. As you’re getting the hang of this planned cooking thing, start out going easy on yourself. If you’re trying new recipes, or a new twist on something you already know how to do, print out your recipes and keep them with your meal plan. I also recommend that you keep a paper calendar somewhere – as you come across a recipe that sounds good, or you remember a favorite that you haven’t made in a while, pencil it into your calendar in a future week. If you get into the habit of doing this, you’ll quickly find yourself with weeks already mostly filled out ahead of time.
Meal Planning Step #6: make your grocery list
Based on the dinners that you've filled in for the whole week, now go through each meal (including breakfast and lunch) and think through everything you’ll need for a full week of meals. Refer to your recipes if you need to. Fill in the shopping list section. And go shopping!
Meal Planning Step #7: use it and enjoy!
Now sit back and admire your work! No seriously, you've done yourself a big favor here. I feel so satisfied when I've got it all figured out and I've got the shopping done, and I know I don't have to worry about it again for a whole week. I find that it takes a lot of stress out of my day, not having to figure out what we're having for dinner that night, or what I'm packing for the kids lunches for tomorrow. It really takes a weight off my shoulders.
Ready to give it a try?
The first image above links to a pdf of my plan with all the notes, so go back up and print out that one to use as a reference.
Click for an editable word doc
I also made a version that has just the main idea for each meal without the extra notes, so there's room to actually write in it. That's the version that I use the most often - I'll print out one with just the headings, and write my ideas in with a pencil.
And there's a version that is completely blank, if you'd like to use my template to map out your own week from scratch - click on that image and it will link you to the word doc that you can save and edit.
A few extra time saving tips:
click for full size pdf.
Make only 1 dinner. Do not get yourself in the habit of making one meal for the adults and a different meal for the kids. You are setting yourself up for way too much work, and you are not teaching your kids good eating habits. I won't got on and on about it here, there are plenty of articles to be found about the benefits of the family dinner. If you have super picky kids that just aren't going to eat what you want to eat, then it may take some time to get them used to the change, but you will be so happy you did. Go lightly at first, try to make healthier versions of meals they like and serve that to the whole family. Gradually evolve the family meals away from the kid food. Seriously, get yourself out of that habit of cooking two dinners every night.
If you have access to any delivery services, use them. If you can take a step out of your workload and have things delivered directly to you, it makes a huge difference. We get a weekly dairy delivery and a weekly produce delivery. I can't tell you how much I LOVE these. We are also very fortunate to live in an area served by Amazon Fresh (Amazon.com's grocery delivery service) - so if I really don't feel like going to the grocery store, I can order the rest of my groceries and have them delivered. You might think that you'll be paying a huge premium for the convenience, but you might be wrong. A few years ago I did a comparison of prices between my favorite local grocery store chain (QFC), Trader Joe's, and Amazon Fresh. Of the three, Trader Joe's was the least expensive (although comparable on dairy products). But to my surprise, Amazon Fresh was the same if not cheaper than the grocery store. So look around at what your options are, you might be surprised. And if the price difference is only a little bit more, you might find that the convenience is worth it. You also might find, like I do, that you end up spending less overall, because you are not subject to the impulse buying that inevitably happens as you are wandering down the grocery store aisles.
Grocery shop once a week at the most. Get your lists together for everything you need for a full week, and get it all at once. Or consider trying to do this same planning exercise for two weeks at a time, and go to Costco for a couple weeks worth of main ingredients and staples, put your second week of meats in your freezer, then all you’ll need to get is fresh produce and dairy.
Cook once and use twice (or more). Double a recipe so you'll have enough for a leftover night. If you are cooking pasta or rice cook double what you’ll need and use it as a side or ingredient for a second meal later in the week. Or freeze it - cooked pasta and rice both freeze great. Cook extra meat on Sunday and plan your meals for later in the week using the same meat. Make stock from your bones.
Put away leftovers in serving sizes. If you are going to use your leftovers for your lunch, or to pack up for you or your spouse to take to work, invest in a supply of single serving sized containers. As you are cleaning up from dinner, put away your leftovers in individual serving containers. Then in the morning you can just grab and go to work. Put a little post-it on each one describing what's in it.
Pack lunches ahead of time. I can't tell you enough how much smoother my morning goes if I've made the kids lunches ahead. I'm happier, because I don't have to get up and do it. And they are happier, because I can give them more attention in the morning.
Prep ahead of time. If you can get in the habit (I am not! do as I say, not as I do!) of doing some of your prep work ahead of time, it can save you a lot of time in getting dinner ready on a busy week night. Wash and chop veggies when you get them
Questions:
I threw out a request for questions on my Facebook page a few weeks ago, and here are answers to the questions I got. If you have other questions please let me know, and I'll keep updating this post as I get the questions.
Q: How do you handle different dietary needs? I’m low carb (or gluten free, grain free), but the rest of my family is not.
A: I try to keep my carbs low most of the time as well. Most of the time what I do is just cook the carb separately as a side dish, and then I just choose to not have any of it. I will often make myself a bowl of zucchini noodles or cauli rice to go with mine instead - so the rest of the family has pasta with sauce, and I have veggies with sauce. If we have a curry, I'll have a bowl of the curry with a spoon and eat it like a soup, instead of over rice. If we have a noodle soup sometimes I'll add the noodles at the end into each bowl, and then I can control how much noodles each bowl gets.
Q: How do you plan for days where the plan gets necessarily thrown out the window for one reason or another? I try to balance between having flexibility about which night things are cooked, but sometimes there's sickness or unforeseen schedule complications. Do you have back up meals you plan?
A: Except for the meals that necessarily need to be started well ahead of time, most of the meals are pretty flexible and can be swapped around to different days if necessary. That’s one of the benefits of doing the shopping for the whole week at once – you've got the ingredients you need for any of the meals on the plan. If things go really downhill then usually my backup is either the Kid Food dinner, because it's usually something that's pretty fast and easy to make, or getting into the leftovers if we have them, or making breakfast for dinner. We basically always have eggs and bread, so if all else fails I can make some scrambled eggs and toast.
Q: How do you plan meals when you have a picky child?
A: I usually try to have at least one component of the meal that my pickiest child will eat. To my great dismay, that usually is just the rice or the pasta or the bread. If that's really all she's willing to eat, then I will often give her a piece of cheese to have with it. I have lots of little tricks for getting kids to eat veggies (I’m working on a post about that), but the honest truth is that with all the strategies I can come up with, I still have one child who eats very little at dinner. Honestly I don’t worry about it too much at dinner, I work to get her nutrition at other times of the day, and right now I’m ok with that. We do have a rule now that she is 4 she has to at least taste the dinner, and most of the time she will. But the bottom line is, don't let that picky child determine what the rest of the family will eat. Cook healthy and well balanced meals for your family, the children will eventually come around.
Q: Doesn't it get boring, having the same thing over and over again?
A: Even though the meal plan may look like it at first, we definitely don't have the same meals over and over again. Quite the opposite actually, we rarely have the same thing twice. I would easily fall back to about 10 standard dinners if I wasn't figuring out a different plan ahead of time, so the meal plan keeps me from doing that. For example: just go search on roast chicken and you’ll find so many different ways to season it that you could do it every week and it would never be the same. So while my plan may call for doing a ‘roast dinner’ once a week, I hardly ever do it the same way twice. I do better when I have some kind of boundary or box to work in, but the box is flexible enough that it never gets boring.
Goodness. That went on and on, didn't it? Sorry. I tried to include everything I could think of to help you do this on your own. Please ask any questions you might think of, or let me know if there are things missing here that you'd like to see me explain. Let's do this together!
Enjoy!
~ Lisa