{"id":390,"date":"2023-07-01T21:37:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T21:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/?p=390"},"modified":"2023-07-01T22:50:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T22:50:15","slug":"easy-meal-planning-for-a-month-when-youre-extra-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/2023\/07\/01\/easy-meal-planning-for-a-month-when-youre-extra-busy\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy Meal Planning for a Month When You’re Extra Busy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meal planning is such a valuable asset for moms, but not every way of going about it fits everyone the same.  I\u2019m in a crazy season right now, living in a \u201ctiny house\u201d on our property while we figure out what is causing some major health issues for me when I\u2019m in our home. (We suspect mold, but that\u2019s another post for later!)  During this time, I decided that we needed to simplify things and make it easier for my teens who are helping to carry the load in the kitchen while I can\u2019t be there, so I\u2019ve changed things up a bit.  Honestly though, this is a great plan for any busy mom, anytime!  It makes it so that you can plan a whole month of meals at one time (half the battle, right?) and even make some things ahead of time to reduce the amount of time in the kitchen for later meals.  So what is this magic you ask?  Let\u2019s jump right in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This plan is basically making a simple meal plan for one week and then repeating it each week for one month.  You can add a little variety here and there to make sure life doesn\u2019t get too boring.  To save even more time, since you\u2019ll be eating the same thing next week, you can cook double the first week and have some things already prepared for the next week.  I\u2019m always a fan of saving time and energy!  Planning ahead for a month of meals allows you to feed your family healthy, homemade foods rather than ready made items or feeling like you have to order in.  It also offers peace of mind.  We mommas have a lot on our plates and the daily strain of figuring out meals is no joke!  Making a monthly meal plan takes all of that away and helps your days run smoother.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready for the details?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Get out a blank calendar (or I use the app Plan to Eat for my meal planning<\/a>).\u00a0 Write out your plan for dinners for one full week.\u00a0 Make sure it\u2019s things that your family really enjoys and won\u2019t mind eating once a week for this month.\u00a0 You can either stick with doing the exact same thing each week, or you can add a little variety.\u00a0 For us, we do \u201cTaco Tuesdays\u201d, but we switch back and forth between true tacos and then burrito bowls.\u00a0 They are both in that same Mexican family and share most of the same ingredients, but still feel \u201cdifferent\u201d enough to not feel monotonous.\u00a0 Another example would be \u201cFishy Fridays\u201d where we switch back and forth between broiled flounder and baked salmon.\u00a0 Also, think through the kind of month it is going to be.\u00a0 If every Thursday is sports practice, maybe a \u201cno cook\u201d meal would be best.\u00a0 Maybe on Sundays you\u2019re out most of the day.\u00a0 Crockpot meal it is!\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Now copy this week-long plan and place it in each of the other three weeks, adding in any variety you\u2019d like.  Don\u2019t go overboard with the changes though\u2026remember, simplicity is the goal here.  There are some days that are just exactly the same for us, like Saturdays are always Spaghetti, green beans and a big salad from the garden.  Super easy!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Now you can go in and do the exact same process for your breakfasts.  Check out my sample meal plan for some ideas!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. For lunches, I always plan to make enough extra of each dinner meal to last for a leftover lunch the next day.  Again, keeping things simple.  We just reheat the leftovers and tada!, lunch is served.  No time or stress trying to figure out what do for lunch every day.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Here\u2019s where it gets fun.  During the first week, plan to make double of some of the things you will be having again the next week (or weeks if you want to go bigger).  When we cook our taco meat, we will do enough for all 4 weeks and then freeze the extra in meal size portions to pull out later on each taco day.  Are you planning muffins with one of your breakfasts?  Make double to have again the next week.  They freeze beautifully!  Do you want homemade bread every Wednesday to go with your roasted chicken?  Make 4 loaves instead of one.  It only takes a few minutes longer than making just one and you\u2019ll have all of your delicious bread just waiting in the freezer for you to pull out for each week.  This can be the main dish too!  For our \u201cAsian\u201d nights on Thursdays, we\u2019ll have Pumpkin Chickpea Curry on the first and third Thursdays, so I\u2019ll make double the first time I make it and have my main dish already ready to go next time.  Can you imagine what a good feeling it will be when you get to that day and the majority of your dinner is already done?  Glorious!  <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Now it\u2019s time to make your shopping list.\u00a0 I really love Plan to Eat for this part.<\/a>\u00a0 Once I\u2019ve put the recipes onto my calendar and set the serving sizes, it automatically makes my shopping list for me!\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have that, no worries, just sit down and make your list the old fashioned way.\u00a0 We usually shop for two weeks at a time, making a quick run in between to grab extra fruit and any veggies that may go bad too quickly if I buy them too early.\u00a0 Don\u2019t throw out that list!\u00a0 If you’ve really stuck to planning the same things, you should be able to use the same shopping list next time (with a few tweaks for any variety you\u2019ve added).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Now go shopping!  Have you tried ordering online to pick up?  So many stores offer it now.  It\u2019s been a game changer here!  My husband and I will go grab a quick dinner together, go to Costco, pick up our grocery orders and head home.  A \u201cDate Night\u201d twice a month =).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    So what do you think?  Ready to reclaim your meal planning life and try something new?  Commit to trying it for one whole month and see if this way of planning is right for you.  It takes a little work up front, but it\u2019s well worth it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I’d love to hear in the comments about any tips or tricks you’ve honed with meal planning for a busy schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    EXAMPLE MENU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    *Note- Several people in our family have AlphaGal so we don\u2019t do any mammal products (red meats, dairy, etc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Breakfasts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sundays- Healthy Pumpkin Breakfast Bake, Frozen Yogurt\/Grapes\/Granola Bars<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mondays- Pancake squares or German pancake; Lara Bar, Chicken sausage and fruit for AG folks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Tuesdays- Oatmeal and fruit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wednesdays- Eggs, Chicken sausage, fruit, sauteed greens w\/onion and mushrooms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thursdays- Smoothies and muffins (we switch back and forth between banana and blueberry); Eggs, leftover sausage and greens for AG folks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fridays- Make ahead freezer breakfast sandwiches, yogurt <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Saturdays- GF Breakfast Casserole and applesauce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dinners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sundays- Grilled chicken, sweet potatoes or regular potatoes (sometimes mashed, sometimes baked), steamed broccoli or brussel sprouts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mondays- Turkey burgers, fries or tots, fruit salad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Tuesdays- Tacos or Burrito Bowls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wednesdays- Roasted whole chicken, some kind of salad (kale w\/lemon, cucumber\/tomato, green salad, etc), homemade bread<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thursdays- Asian dish (Pumpkin chickpea curry, Pad woon sen, Crockpot chicken curry) carrot slaw or fresh rolls or thai cucumber salad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fridays- Fish, corn on the cob, caprese salad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Saturday- Spaghetti, green beans, salad from the garden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ** Please note the links to Plan to Eat<\/a> are affiliate links that will give you 20% off and we’ll also get 20% off as well. I’ve been using this program for 10 years. My whole family uses it to figure out each meal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\"Simple<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Meal planning is such a valuable asset for moms, but not every way of going about it fits everyone the same.  I\u2019m in a crazy season right now, living in a \u201ctiny house\u201d on our property while we figure out what is causing some major health issues for me when I\u2019m in our home. (We… Continue reading Easy Meal Planning for a Month When You’re Extra Busy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,9,10,7,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alpha-gal-friendly","category-big-family-organization","category-cooking","category-in-the-kitchen","category-meal-planning","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_2023-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paDqDq-6i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebornstead.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}