As a mom of four kids, often in survival mode, I know full well how important menu planning is. I don’t always do it perfectly or to a T, but – I do it, to some degree or another. I find if I can get a plan on paper, I can save money, time and my sanity. If I don’t, we spend more money and I spend more time stressing over what we will eat and end up getting more irritable when meal prep comes around.
As I talk to more people that are learning to eat real food, usually women, I am finding that their biggest stress is knowing what to eat and what meals to plan. If you happen to be a mom of several kids, you really don’t have choice. You need to menu plan! Trust me, it’s not a hard habit to pick up because once you do it and see how freeing it is, you’ll keep it up. I can assure you!
How I Menu Plan
Once a week, or biweekly (lately it has been biweekly), I sit down with my schedule to see what we have on our agenda. I use a 
menu chart and fill in the meals for each day in pencil, along with any prep I may need to do that day. This menu goes into a page protector and gets hung on my bulletin board in my kitchen. Before I figure out our meals I take stock of what food I have on hand already including already made meals in the freezer. I try to work with that first before I make my shopping list and go shopping. I keep a pad of paper on the fridge and write down staples as I see they are needed. I take this list into account when I plan each new menu and add to it as needed. I keep it as simple as possible. Some weeks I know I have more time than others, those are the weeks I may try something new and more elaborate. Overall, having this plan or system in place keeps me from stressful meal times. I almost always have a few meals back up in my pantry too, such as something that I can fix quick in place of the original meal should something come up that I can’t go with plan A. I often have extra meals in the freezer too. I like to cook large batches of things like soups, chili, stews and stir fries to have some for the freezer. This is so to pull out in a pinch, or to put into the menu plan when the budget runs low. Not to mention I save time in the long run by occassionally doubling recipes or batch cooking.
I realize we all have what works best for us individually, based on our own unique needs. I am by no means a menu planning expert. I know how to make it flow well for my family and I always stay flexible. That said, there are those that excel at planning, such as my friend Kerry Ann of Cooking Traditional Foods. She has been doing menu mailers for traditional food the past several years. She has a plethora of recipes and great tips to help you work from a tight budget as well as with food intolerances. Her meal plans are thorough, they include shopping lists and prep work for each meal. I marvel at how she puts these things together. I, on the other hand, keep it all in my head. I talk to a lot of real food newbies and I often direct them to Kerry Ann’s menus. So if you are scrambling to get your meal times organized, I know Kerry Ann can help. Not to mention, I have tried many of her recipes and enjoyed them all, so far. And I am pretty picky! Right now she has a giveaway going on for a FULL YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to her menu mailers. If I were a newbie, I’d jump all over that one! The giveaway runs until next Monday the 23rd. Head on over to Cooking Traditional Foods, enter the giveaway and check out her stuff on meal planning. (I am an affiliate for any of Cooking Traditional Foods products, so I do earn a small commission if you purchase through me.)
In light of the New Year, I highly recommend making Menu Planning a goal to regularly implement in your real food journey as well as your day to day regime! A little advance planning save a lot of future headaches. Plus, with practice, you will soon become a pro at what works best for you and your family. Ultimately, this practice is good for your mental health! (not to mention the health of your food budget!)
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You should repost this tomorrow when Cooking Traditional Foods is not on internet strike:-) Good stuff Lydia…I too couldn’t live without a menu plan but I would like to get more handy with storing more bulk and stocking up on meals.
Ha! Well I posted this yesterday not knowing CTF would be on strike today…….
Anyway, I read her Real Food Storage Guide back in the fall and thankfully it inspired me to think about stocking up because my budget shifted massively and I was still able to make it work since I had stocked up quite a bit! It’s a good guide but it would be cool to see one more GAPS minded.