The Five Do’s of Menu Planning

This is an example of what shouldn’t happen after a trip to the grocery store. This is how my week generally went before I started meal planning, except it wasn’t just after a trip to the grocery store…it was every day! When I went grocery shopping I would walk up and down the aisles of the store, looking at everything that looked tasty or I thought I would want to cook that week and buy it. I would set out to cook the next day, but had no idea what I wanted to cook so I wouldn’t. We would end up ~~going to~~ getting take out from Chipotle, Outback, or Pei Wei…just to name a few. I’ve been menu planning now for 4 weeks, and I am so glad that I am. Yes, there are those days that I can’t physically take one more step–fitbit begs to differ–and we eat out, but generally we
1. Plan a Day in Advance

Don’t try and menu plan and go shopping all in one day. You will be tired and you won’t want to make dinner that night! I generally do my planning on Sunday afternoon and go shopping right after stroller strides on Monday morning. If you are a coupon clipper this gives you time to clip coupons too!

2. Go Through Your Pantry and See What You Already Have

I am completely bothered by the fact when I buy something that I already have. I’m not want to buy in surplus, so buying an extra can of cream of mushroom soup, just bothers me. A seasoning list is always helpful in or near your pantry that way you aren’t purchasing garlic salt every time it’s in a recipe!

3. If You Skip a Meal Add it to the Next Week

You already have the stuff for the recipe, might as well cook it up! There are many times I have to skip because I am busy, adding it to the next week is easy and I already purchased the stuff.

4. Use PlanToEat

I get almost all of my recipes from Pinterest or various blogs throughout the week. I have a widget on my browser that allows me to add the recipe directly to Plantoeat instead of saving somewhere in my bookmarks or Food Board only to forget about it in a week. With Plan to Eat the recipe is added there and you can add it to your planner, it then adds it to a grocery list. (I will do a tutorial on this soon!–Hoping to VLOG about it)

5. Plan Out Your Sides

I can’t tell you how many times I have purchased everything I needed for my meals for that week, only to not have any sides to go with my main course. Then Nic ends up stopping on the way home to pick something up, and generally grabs something for us to have for snack on later…definitely not needed! Click on the link below for a Menu Plan print out!