I won’t lie, if I had the money, and if eating out for every meal wouldn’t be harmful for my family’s and my health, I would do just that. I would order out for every meal. Meal planning is exhausting, and like the laundry, it never ends. Throw a couple young kids in the mix and you add another stressor; they won’t eat anything you make. So, if you’re like me, you end up making a rotation of foods that looks like this; pasta with red sauce twice weekly, chicken fried rice, and nachos.
Don’t worry, this isn’t just a post about me complaining about meal planning, because over the past ten years I’ve figured some things out. Yes, meal planning is still stressful for me, but also, I don’t let it stress me out as much as I used to. Here are my top ten tips for making meal planning a bit more manageable;
- Choose a meal planning day; and carve out 30 minutes to do the plan. That’s it. But first decide how your brain works; would you rather use an excel sheet? An app? Your phone’s “Notes”? Or a handwritten type of plan?
- I’m someone who likes to handwrite and cross out. I have this meal planner that is simple and no fuss. I scribble in my plan for the week, get the ingredients, and go from there.
- Be flexible. If you scheduled “homemade chili” for Tuesday, but don’t feel like it when Tuesday comes around, be ok moving it to Wednesday. S*it happens. You’re human.
- Don’t try to make it perfect. There is nothing wrong with pasta and red sauce for dinner (twice!). Make it a little more balanced by adding some broccoli or other vegetable (and I’m talking, buy the frozen steamer bags, and have them as an option. If your kids don’t eat them, oh well, you tried. You certainly can.)
- Create a list of “Filler Meals”. These are what I consider super simple meals that can be planned for or made at any point of the week, without a recipe or multiple steps. When I do my weekly meal planning I generally include two “new recipes” (on a night where there isn’t much going on) and then the rest are “Filler Meals”. Some examples include grilled cheese and tomato soup, BLTs, baked potatoes. Simple. Easy. No recipe needed.
- Want more ideas? Check out my Nourishment guide!
- Figure out some favorite recipe sources.
- I love Budget Bytes, All Recipes and the New York Times Recipe app ($5.99/month)
If the idea of meal planning, at all, just overwhelms you, there are other (a bit more expensive) options. Here are some favorite meal prep delivery services that some of my clients use; Hungry Root, Hello Fresh, and grocery chains such as Kroger and Publix even offer services that include premade meals or simple meal prep kits!
Good luck, you got this!
Learn more:
Sign up for an insurance-covered appointment with me through Nourish!
Visit my personal business website; www.NutritionUnmeasured.com
Check out my 10-module self-paced intuitive eating course on my new You Tube channel!!
