Life can be complicated, but meal planning doesn’t have to be.
As moms, we’re committed to making good food for our family, but many of us are time-starved, scattered, and constantly juggling multiple things—and so we struggle to get healthy meals on the table quickly. “What’s for dinner?” is a dreaded daily question. According to Food Genius, a foodservice data company, 80% of Americans don’t know what they’re going to make for dinner at 4 pm each day.
The solution, of course, is meal planning. But many people think that meal planning is something difficult and mysterious, like the Holy Grail of home economics.
At its core, meal planning is simply answering the “What’s for dinner?” question once a week instead of every single day, and then buying and preparing your ingredients in advance. There’s no one “right” way to do this. But if feeling your best and helping your family live a healthy lifestyle is important to you, then you’ll need to find an approach to meal planning that works for you. After all, the goal is to spend less time in the kitchen and more time making memories with your family!
In my food consulting business as well as in my home, I’ve come to rely on SYSTEMS—simple ways to “Save Your Self Time, Energy, Money, and Sanity.” The meal planning system that I use and also teach to other busy mamas has four steps: Plan, Purchase, Prep, and Practice.
Step 1: Plan
The first step is selecting your meals for the week. Dinner is the most important meal from a “family time” perspective, so start by planning just your dinners. You can expand to breakfast and lunch later, after you get the hang of things.
When I first started meal planning, I would pick specific recipes for each day of the week: Fettuccine Alfredo on Monday, Pulled Chicken Tacos on Tuesday, Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry on Wednesday, and so on. Now I’ve simplified this even more, and we have daily themes that repeat every week: pasta on Mondays, tacos on Tuesdays, breakfast-for-dinner (a kid favorite) on Wednesdays, something Asian on Thursdays, personal pizzas and popcorn on Fridays (movie night!), burgers on Saturdays, and a sheet-pan dinner on Sundays.
Ask yourself, “what are our family favorites?” Start your weekly plan with the things your family loves, and then pick two meals a week to try out new recipes, like a science experiment. You’ll pick and choose the winners that might become regular meals, but it takes a bit of time to figure that out.
Another important question to ask when making your plan is, “what cooking method will I use for each meal?” There are only four different methods of cooking that I use on a regular basis. The first is quick cooking with microwavable silicone steamers, an Instant Pot, or an air fryer. The second is slow cooking with a Crock-Pot or oven sheet pan. The third is stovetop cooking with pots, pans, wok, or skillet. And the fourth is outdoor grilling, which we can do year-round, thanks to our lovely Arizona weather.
So choose your meals and figure out how you’re going to cook each one. Write down your plan (I use a small chalkboard), and you’re set for the week.
Step 2: Purchase
Now that you have your meals written down, the next step is making a grocery list. Simply go through your recipes and write down a master list of ingredients you’re going to need for the week. (I’m a little old school, and I like to write things down on paper, but you might use an app to keep track of your grocery list.)
Compare your list of ingredients to what’s in your pantry and fridge, and cross out anything you already have on hand. I also recommend organizing your grocery list to match the layout of the store and the path you typically follow when you shop. Doing this beforehand will save time in the store, and it will save money too because you’ll be focused on the ingredients you actually need instead of wandering aimlessly through the aisles, filling your cart with whatever catches your eye. (We’ve all been there!)
If you shop online, it’s even simpler. You can just go through and click the specific items you need. Keep your planning and purchasing simple to start. Once you get into the rhythm of it, you can add more variety and mix things up.
Step 3: Prep
You’ve made a plan and purchased your ingredients, and now it’s time to prep them in advance. There are many different ways to do this, and you need to figure out what works for you. Some people really like batch cooking or preparing a week’s worth of meals on Sunday afternoon. They’ll make big batches of their proteins, carbohydrates, vegetables, etc, and pack them in smaller containers for the coming week. That’s great if you want to do it—especially for lunches when you might have limited time or fewer healthy options.
I personally don’t do a lot of batch cooking, because the majority of dinner recipes I make are based on simple ingredients and whole-food seasonings from Epicure that don’t require a lot of prep time. I cook big batches of grains, like quinoa or rice, and also cut up some veggies, like carrots, celery, and cucumbers, for healthy snacks throughout the week. I also make a pot of marinara sauce once a week and keep it in a Mason jar in the fridge.
“The more you prep ahead, the more you get ahead” is the rule of thumb, but I keep it really simple. Just get started, and you’ll soon discover what kind of meal prepping works best for you.
Step 4: Practice
The final step is the most important, but perhaps the most challenging: putting your plan into action. Whenever you’re creating new habits and new routines, it can be really hard to stay on track and stick to your plan. Here are a few tips that will make this easier:
First, figure out when you’re going to make your plan each week. I do mine on either Sunday evening or Monday morning, and it takes me about five minutes to write down my meals for the coming week. Next, figure out when you’re going to do your shopping and prepping. Are you going to do it once a week or twice a week? Block out time in your calendar. Finally, schedule a time to start cooking dinner every day, and set an alarm to remind you. (This probably sounds like the simplest thing, but it made a world of difference for me personally. Try it and see if it helps you.)
It’s important to think of meal planning as a practice, like yoga is a practice. We’ve all been told that “practice makes perfect,” but I really want to emphasize that perfection isn’t the goal here. When it comes to meal planning, there’s really no right or wrong way to do it—just the way that Saves You Time, Energy, Money, and Sanity!
Yes, it’s important to put your plan into practice, but give yourself the space and grace to change it when you need to. It’s your plan, after all.
Jen McIntyre is a homeschooling mama and food consultant who teaches cooking classes for busy moms in Arizona and beyond. She is the founder of Healthy Meals Made Easy, a free online community of 1600+ members where she shares inspiration, recipes, and tips to save time in the kitchen while making healthy meals the whole family will love. Find her there at healthymealsmadeeasy.com
