Raise your hand if meal planning has caused you problems. If you’ve tried every method in the book to stay organized and list meals, buy the ingredients for those meals and then cook them on certain days of the week. But failed. Over and over again.
There are dozens of brilliant meal planning strategies out there. Calendars. Notepads to hang on your fridge. Even phone apps for crying out loud. All genius.
I love organization. I work very hard at staying on top of things. But meal planning has been a struggle for me. Blame it on my season of life, or the elimination diets I’ve been on for my health – I haven’t mastered it. Sometimes this has made me feel guilt over my housekeeping. But as I learn to receive grace and quit shaming myself, I’m finding ways to care well for my family in the kitchen in a way that works for me.
So over 8 years of marriage, I’ve boiled my meal planning down (pun intended) to a few simple strategies. These work because after the initial work, they require almost no planning week to week. They’ve saved my sanity and helped our family eat consistently healthy meals even during seasons of survival mode.
Make a Master List of Favorite Meals
What does your family like to eat? Even when you feel disorganized, you do make certain meals over and over again. Write out a list of favorites. It doesn’t matter how brainless they seem: tacos, spaghetti, chili, hamburgers, etc. Doing this for our family, I made columns for each meal and even for snacks. If you can cook it and your family eats it, put it on the list. Some of those meals might be easier to make than others, but put them all on the list. Don’t overthink it.
Also, grab a 3-ring binder and page protectors and print out recipes you like from the internet. The way to make this really work: only put recipes in that you’ve tried and liked and plan to make again. Otherwise, you’ll end up with an infinite number of recipes you’ve never tried and it will be no more help than your bookmarks tab on your phone. Ask me how I know.
Utilize a Master Grocery List to Keep Your Pantry Stocked
Now, make a master list of the ingredients you need for these recipes. I like to keep my pantry stocked with all the basics and this really helps me keep from running on spontaneous grocery store trips that cost far more than they should. Here’s a link to download a free copy of my master list (Available on Pages or Microsoft Word). It’s not fancy – feel free to customize.
I love to shop at ALDI. They are basically heaven for a pantry and a bank account. I know they have what I need and shopping there eliminates so much decision fatigue. “I need tortillas. Great. Grab the tortillas and go.” None of this “Well, this brand has 8 10” tortillas for $2.99 and this other brand has 10 11” tortillas for $3.19. Now which one is cheaper?” business.
But you can’t find everything you need at ALDI so my master list helps me know where I can find other pantry staples. I priced them out at the stores in my area and know where I can get them the cheapest. The master list is a great way to keep your brain on paper. Every time I go shopping I check my pantry and don’t forget as much on a shopping trip.
Use the Grill and the Skillet
Here’s where simplicity and healthy eating meet. What’s simpler and healthier than grilled meat and sautéed veggies? This kind of eating has changed everything for our family. For a few years now, we’ve basically eaten grain-free meals for dinner every night without even trying. I’ve eaten restricted diets for several years but my husband and kids just recently quit eating wheat and corn and I’ve been so thankful that even though I’ve had to adjust some of our other meals, dinners haven’t been hard to shift.
My husband loves to grill, and we use a charcoal grill, which isn’t as convenient for me if he’s not home. But even if you’re single or your spouse doesn’t grill, you can. Find a Bobby Flay cookbook from the library or a good grilling blog like Amazing Ribs. Gas or charcoal grills are for sale on Craigslist or Facebook messenger all the time. They make meals so much simpler and yummier.
Also, don’t think that meals have to be elaborate to be delicious. Grilled chicken thighs with green beans sautéed in olive oil is a common type of dinner in our house. Start cooking simpler and your family will adjust. We can give ourselves grace in the kitchen, too.
Make Changes to your Diet One Meal at a Time
If you find yourself at the receiving end of a food allergy or sensitivity diagnosis, don’t panic. Start small. You’ve been told you shouldn’t eat wheat anymore? Start by taking the pasta or hamburger buns out of dinner. Once you’ve made those changes for a while, switch out your snacks. Our brains can sustain slow changes better than huge ones, anyway, and we feel less overwhelmed when we take it slow.
Take Your Meat out of the Freezer in the Morning
My fabulous friend Joy over at thejoybox.com made this point: even if you don’t have a plan for supper, no plan plus meat thawed out is a lot easier to deal with at 4 pm than no plan with nothing but frozen meat. This is life changing. Seriously. If I have the ingredients for a dozen meals in my freezer and pantry, all I need is thawed meat to bring any of those meals to life. I’m not sure how I didn’t think of this for the past few years, but there you have it.
Somewhere along the way we Americans have decided everything needs to be complicated in order to be sufficient. But when we live life this way it leads to stress and burnout. God’s grace and freedom reaches into every part of our seemingly mundane lives. It’s all infused with his goodness. Even meal planning.
If you’re looking for some more structure, my two favorite meal-planning gurus are Kendra at The Lazy Genius and Natasha Red. The Art of Simple blog also has wonderful simple tips for getting meals on the table.