Stay organized with this meal planning challenge!!
It’s the time of year again! Kids are (possibly) going back to school! Well, schools will be starting in some way, shape, or form. Everyone is going to be in a different situation, but one thing is for certain, they will still need to eat! And being organized makes making (and eating) food easier. So, I thought if this meal planning challenge….
I have 3 kids, so we go through a lot of food. Even for little kids, they eat a lot! Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with how much they eat.
One thing I find is that making a meal plan helps out enormously. I post the menu in our kitchen on our chalkboard menu. It gives my kids time to accept the fact that tomorrow for dinner we are having pasta WITH sauce and look forward to fish and chips the day after.
If you want to learn how to make a chalkboard menu, check out this quick tutorial.
How it all began
There was a time, where I didn’t meal plan. Looking back at this, I think it was insane not to do that! But I didn’t plan. I would see the fridge is empty, take stock of what I needed, and head to the grocery store. I would buy a bunch of whatever I wanted/thought of and put it all away.
Then, every day before dinner, I would open the fridge and stare blankly at the contents within. What was I going to make for dinner….?
I’d make something. Whatever I had time to make. Some days it had to be something I could throw together quickly (hopefully there was some of that in the fridge). While other days I had time to prepare a larger more elaborate meal.
But every day was the same. There was no plan beforehand. Although, sometimes I would remember the night before to thaw some meat from the freezer so it would be ready for dinner.
Kids Cause Chaos
My plan for no plan worked well before kids. But once you throw kids into the mix things don’t work as they should.
When kids are hungry, they need to eat NOW!! Not in 20 minutes, not in 2 hours. NOW.
Kids are very picky eaters! For the most part, my kids are not super picky, but they still have their likes and dislikes. And making a last-minute meal for kids who are hungry and picky is challenging, even stressful.
So, after a long day of kid chaos, and crying (the kids, not me) and stress, and running around and just feeling like I had been to battle, I decided I needed to make a change
Little Effort Maximum Reward
That night after the kids went to bed, we sat down and made a list. We made a list of all of the meals we know who to make and all of the meals we like to eat and all of the meals the kids like to eat. It was quite an extensive list.
After the list was done we crossed off some of the items we thought took too much time or were unhealthy. This left us with a list of about 45 items.
Initially, we were only going to make a weekly menu, but we decided to make a 5-week plan. This way, we wouldn’t need to sit down again every week and pick more items from the list. We could simply turn the page to the next week and BAM! We’re done!
Here’s my Meal Planning Challenge to you
Ok, so, here’s my challenge to you. I challenge you to make a meal plan. This will make your life so much easier!
But to help you along the way, I’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you through this. Signup for the challenge in the box below. I will send you 3 daily emails prompting you with the steps of what you need to do. Each part will only take you a few minutes, but in the long run, will save you hours and hours! Trust me!
Take the challenge with me! Sign up below!
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Great work!! Good luck on your blogging journey!!
Some great ideas. I think all of us will be going back to regimented meal planning after this year.
It really makes life so much easier if you have a meal plan! We are currently in lock down again, so having a plan makes shopping much easier.
I love the idea of meal planning.
It makes our lives so much easier! And the kids love to know what we’re having in advance as well.
We are in the middle of a no-eating-out month and I must admit, this is the first time we’ve been diligent about meal planning and actually stuck to it. It’s made things SO MUCH EASIER! Holy cow, I had no idea. My husband and I were just saying this morning that we will be doing this so much more from now on. Thanks for sharing