Recently, while settling into a new season in our lives, I realized that we needed to switch up how we do meal planning in our home. It needed to be more basic and simple. It needed to be more predictable, but not too boring and easy to execute! Check out the previous post to see how we changed things up to meet these goals and make it work for us.
The positives have far outweighed any challenges with planning like this.
- Everyone loves knowing what to expect each week and they really look forward to certain days they love, like Taco Tuesday!
- Most of the meals we chose for our rotation are fairly simple, basic meals that are easy to make and don’t take a long time.
- Because the meals are basic, we don’t have a long list of specialized ingredients, so shopping is easier and a little less expensive.
- Since we repeat meals, we are able to prep in bulk and freeze half for a later date. It’s SUPER helpful on busy nights when you need to just be able to reheat something quickly. We love making a ton of seasoned, browned taco meat at once, extra muffins and even some extra full dishes like chickpea curry and freezing for the next week or two.
- I’m finding that we don’t waste as much food. For a lot of things, if we don’t use it all for the first time around of a meal, we can save it and use it the next time. For example, maybe we had extra shredded cheese, salsa, taco shells or sour cream…those last! They won’t be wasted.
- Nobody has gotten bored so far. It seems that we have enough variety for people to still be happy. We do change some things up to add more variety, like on Fishy Fridays we switch between salmon and flounder, which helps too.
- The last benefit is the AMAZING feeling of planning once for the ENTIRE month! You don’t have that dread of meal planning constantly looming over your head. Plus, once you’re done, you don’t have to think about what you’re going to feed your family every day. It’s all laid out for you! The work that you are willing to put in at the beginning is WELL worth it in the end.
So, all in all, I’m loving this way of meal planning! It has worked so well for our family. If you’ve never been a meal planner before, but are looking to give it a try, this is a wonderful way for you to start. Or maybe you’re looking for a way to change things up at your house, or you are in a season of life like we are where you need to simplify a bit. Give it a try! I’d love to hear your experiences too.
