Meal Planning for Busy Mamas

Ever experienced that moment when you’ve been super busy all day, perhaps you’ve unintentionally lost track of time - easily done with kids activities or work - and you look at the clock and it’s THE.TIME you usually have dinner on the table and you haven’t even started cooking?!!!

Your kids are starting to appear HANGRY, you open the fridge and stare blankly at the empty shelves.  You start to feel a mama-failure moment coming over you - what are you going to cook for dinner tonight?

Before I had children, I never really thought about what I was going to cook for dinner.  I’m not a natural cook and eating was generally something that just happened as an afterthought in my busy life. 

I always wished that I was one of those people who can just open the fridge, grab some ingredients and whip up an amazing, balanced meal.  Sadly, I’m not one of those talented folks and I have come to accept it’s just not one of my natural strengths.  

So, if you’re like me - NOT a natural cook and with little mouths to feed EVERY.SINGLE.DAY - how can you make life easier for yourself so that you don’t get caught out at the last minute with no food in the fridge or no idea of what to cook?  And even if you do have amazing culinary talents, with all the meals a family consumes in a week, wouldn’t you like to make life easier for yourself?

Start Meal Planning!

Now, even though I’m not one of them, I totally understand that some people have an aversion to any sort of advance planning and are more “of the moment” folks.  If you self-identify with having planning aversion, then please stick with me on this one as I’d argue that you will find meal planning especially useful and productive!

Why Meal Plan?

There are some great benefits to meal planning on a weekly basis.  These include:

• Feeling organised and “on top of it” - save time and never get caught out at mealtimes.
• Plan once a week (or even once a month!) and then forget about it.
• Save money (and reduce food waste) by only buying the food you will use. 
• Eat fresh foods that are seasonal and appetising for that time of year.
• If you know you’ll have a busy week, you can plan to batch cook or bulk meal prep in advance to reduce the actual cooking time
• Pre-empt any misbehaviour from your children that is due to hunger
• Ensure your family is eating a balanced, varied diet throughout the week.

What’s involved in meal planning?

Meal planning is an organisation discipline.  If you’re new to it, think of it as a habit that you can practice, refine and improve.

Essentially, you sit down on a regular basis, say, once a week, and plan out all the meals for the family for the week. 

The key is to do it consistently and generally only once in whatever period you decide so that it really does save you time and for the rest of that time you don’t have to think twice about what everyone will be eating.

The most common approach to meal planning involves planning on a weekly basis. 

Once you are established with meal planning and feel it’s going well, you can always set “weekly meal plans” or even bi-weekly or monthly ones and rotate these so that you’re not having to come up with a new meal plan every week. 

I would recommend that to begin with, you keep all your meal plans (any any related recipes) in a folder so that you can easily reference them later on when you’re ready to be super efficient and start combining and rotating your plans!

Which Meals do I include?

Well, this depends. 

If your family varies breakfast each day and you prep lunch for your kids (whether they eat it at home or at school), and assuming you have a family evening meal - this could be 3 meals a day x 7 days a week (= 21 meals - EEK!!!). 

If you have younger kids who get snacks during the day and you like to vary these too, you might plan for these as well!

When you are starting out and considering one week at a time, it helps to look at your family calendar (or just know your family schedule) for the week.  Which nights will you be back late and need a quick meal or a pre-cooked meal?  Which nights will you have a bit more time to make something more involved? Which nights will one or more people be absent? 

What about leftovers?

Some families always have leftovers from meals and these can often cover 1 or 2 more meals in that same week.  If this sounds like your family, then be sure to include a “leftovers” meal or two in your weekly plan.

Batch Cooking

The same goes for batch cooking -  if your family doesn’t mind eating the same meal twice in a week or if there is a family favorite that keeps easily, you could batch cook to save on ingredients and time. 

This is particularly good for freezable meals as you could batch cook and freeze extra portions for future weeks - just be sure you label them clearly and don’t forget they are there!

On a budget?

Regular meal planning can be very helpful if your family is consciously managing your weekly or monthly food spend.  When planning your meals - take into account all the food that you already have in your home (whether in your pantry, fridge or freezer) and think of how you can use this food first in your upcoming meals before purchasing any new food or think about only supplementing what you already have with your weekly shop.

Supermarkets often advertise the items on special in the week ahead so consult these promotions when you are meal planning so that you can economise on your shopping by using discounted items for your meals.

And if you have little kids or picky eaters, then whilst you still want to present and rotate a variety of foods to give them exposure, you’ll want to be mindful of the amount you use for this exposure and limit these whilst on a budget.

Who is the chef?

If you share the cooking with your partner, a nanny or an older child, then you’ll want to consult that person when you are setting your meal plan to find out what they will want to cook for the meals they are in charge of preparing. 

If you already know their repertoire or capabilities, you can probably set out the meal plan without a weekly conversation or with just an initial conversation.

Themes & Favourites

Some families enjoy “theme” nights - think Mexican, Italian, Pizza, etc.  Some families have their favorite meals that are all-around winners (Spaghetti Bolognese?).

In our family, we tend to include a mix of theme nights and family favourites along with a couple of the kids “votes” for the week:  Each child is asked to contribute one meal idea for the week of something they would LOVE to eat.  That way, the kids have input into the weekly meal plan (saving you from coming up with ALL of the ideas) AND you are guaranteed that they will LOVE at least one of the meals (reduces the complaints!).

Write it down

The key to Meal Planning is to do it once per time period (e.g. weekly) and to write it all down. 

You can use a blank sheet of paper or a pre-made template of some sort.  That way it’s out of your head and you don’t have to remember all the details - each day you can just easily reference your piece of paper. (Download a super useful template below.)

At the same time, write down what shopping you’ll need to do for the week to have everything you need so that when you take your trip to the supermarket, you can be super efficient with your time and also avoid any impulse items.  (Or better yet - do your weekly shop online and avoid going to the shops altogether!)

To start off with, you could make a quick list of all the meals your family generally eats or that you find yourself cooking.  Then use this list to complete your weekly meal plan. 

For example, your quick breakfast list could look like this:

Breakfasts:

Cold cereal

Porridge

Yogurt & fruit

Fruit salad

Green smoothie

Vegetable omelette

Pancakes

Scrambled eggs and tomatoes

Egg soldiers

Toast

etc.

There are more than 7 things on the list so it’s pretty easy to pick one item for each day and make sure that the menu doesn’t repeat itself two days in a row (if this is desirable - of course, if your family generally eats the same thing every morning and is happy with that - go ahead and put what’s realistic and achievable).

Repeat the process for lunches, snacks and dinners.

The lovely thing about seeing your weekly meal plan on one page is that you can very quickly see if there is a good balance and variety of foods.  When you use this quick-list process, I’m sure you’ll be surprised at how many great meals you’re already a wizard at cooking and the variety that your family is already eating!

If you find that you need some inspiration, then look up some recipes online or in a cookbook and intersperse these with your “regular” meals - just make sure you allocate them to a meal/day when you know you’ll have a bit more time to experiment and follow a new recipe.

Won’t this take more time?

If you are not used to meal planning, this might seem like a lot of work and upfront effort.  Especially if you’re not used to thinking about each and every meal of the week that you prepare!  However, in reality, this whole process should take you around 15-30 minutes each week, and you’ll find that you get faster at it with practice.

Also, as I’ve already mentioned, if you find that a particular week went well - that your meal plan worked with the family schedule, that there was something for everyone in the plan (kids and adults alike), that it was affordable for the family budget and achievable in terms of prep and cooking time, then you may consider using that successful meal plan again another week. 

When you have at least 2 weekly meal plans, you can start to rotate them so you’re not constantly thinking of what to feed the family. 

Then, just think about adapting them slightly with seasonal changes.

Are You Busy, Mama?

“Mama, what’s for dinner?”

That inevitable question….  What would it feel like to not dread it or to always, happily, have a prompt answer to it?

If you’ve never tried meal planning or have fallen off the wagon, I strongly urge you to try out this habit.  It’s a great organisation tool for busy mamas and way for you to be intentional about what you feed your family without spending hours of your time and energy on it. 

More importantly, you’ll begin to feel a weight lifted off your shoulders of the relentless burden of meal prepping (and all the thought that goes behind it).  You’ll experience the freedom to use your time to have fun with your kids (instead of panicking in the kitchen or spending more time than necessary at the shops) and do the things you really want to do in life!

So, if you missed it above, go ahead and download the amazingly simple template (see below) I’ve put together for you to get started with your meal planning right away!  Complete the process and stick it up on your fridge or family board for easy reference. 

Start lifting the burden today and be surprised at how efficient you become.

You’ve got this mama!