Trick #3: Meal Planning

I strongly believe in having a family dinner time as often as possible - no matter what your family looks like! There's tons of research on the benefits of family dinnertime (google it!). Whether it's roommates, a couple, or a whole family, dinner is when we get to relax and enjoy each other and share about our day. But it's tough to have home-cooked meals with today's fast-paced lifestyle. Here's where the meal-planning comes in.

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First, I must give credit where credit is due. I started meal-planning because I was inspired by Liz Edmunds, "The Food Nanny". This woman is incredible - raised a gaggle of kids while her pilot-husband was away from home. She credits her "Nanny Plan", or 2-week meal-planning strategy, for keeping her family close together. She preaches what she calls "La vita vera", or the true life - an Italian ideal which stresses the importance of good food and family time around the dinner table.

How to Meal-Plan

Step 1: Make a table.
You can make your own table like I've done here, or go on thefoodnanny.com to download a form.

Step 2: Decide on food themes.
Notice that in my meal-plan, above, each day has a designated food "theme". It's much easier to think up recipes for each night if you have a designated genre of food to choose from, instead of trying to choose from every recipe in the universe. This also ensures some variety in your diet, so you don't end up eating tacos every night.

Step 3: Decide what days you'll cook.
Let's be real - you probably will not be making meals every night - some nights you'll be too busy or will be eating out. Decide based on your schedule the nights that you will actually be cooking. Planning any meals is better than planning none - if you can start by planning just 3 MEALS A WEEK, this will save you time and money. Strive for at least 3 days, and work your way up from there if you can. 

Step 4: Pick your recipes.
Assign a dish for each night that you plan on cooking. If you know that you'll get leftovers from a particular recipe because it is large, schedule in a 'leftovers' night. This is a handy trick when you know that you're going to be really busy!

Step 5: Make your grocery list.
As you can see from my menu plan, the bottom row contains my grocery list. I look at my recipes, then compare what the recipe calls for with what I've got in my kitchen. If there's something I need but don't have, it goes in the list.

Step 6: Post the list and carry out your plan.
Put your list somewhere that you can see it. Follow the plan as best you can, but be flexible if needed. Swap recipes if you are in the mood for something on one day, or make another leftovers night if you have too much in your fridge.  

Conclusion

If you think you don't have time to meal-plan, think again! It takes half an hour once a week, and then you don't have to spend twenty minutes every night wondering what to make. Plus, when you make your meal plan, you also make your grocery list for the week, so you end up spending less time and money at the store. There are literally NO DOWNSIDES to trying this, so just do it!!!