When to Meal Plan
It’s 5:30 and you are just coming in from work or finishing up with the kid’s homeschool. It’s time to get started cooking so everyone can eat at 6:00 p.m. You look in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer to find something to good to eat. “What am I going to do?”, you ask yourself. This is not the time for meal planning. Actually, this is more commonly known as no plan. No plan is a plan to fail. This may end up with pasta again, some frozen concoction out of a box, a call to the local pizza parlor or even a trip through the fast food drive thru. All except the pasta scenario are a massive waste of money and your health.
So when do you prepare a meal plan? Ahead of time! That means enough time to make the plan and gather or shop for the needed ingredients. It also includes laying out your meat to thaw in the refrigerator in time for it to be ready to cook at the given time.
Where to Meal Plan
It’s 5:20 pm and you are on your way home from work or picking up the kids after their activities. You make a quick run to the grocery store. Then you start deciding what you will be eating for dinner this coming week.
This is definitely not the where of menu planning. This also is a plan to fail. You will inevitably forget to include essential ingredients. You also don’t know what you have at home in the pantry. You could possible save $4 on the salad ingredients if you had remembered the lettuce that’s a day from going bad in the refrigerator.
Once the food is in the cabinet and freezer, you will probably forget what you decided to have each night. The hunt for food continues…pantry to freezer to refrigerator.
The where of menu planning requires a quiet time of focused concentration. “That does not happen at my house,” you say. Maybe you could go to bed 20 minutes late or get up 20 minutes earlier. How about when you are sitting in the car while the kids are having ball practice and the baby is asleep. A one week plan will take very little time. The more you do it the quicker you’ll get. Take some time off social media or don’t watch the news tonight. Record your favorite show to watch another night.
The key to meal planning is to take the time to do it AND write it down.
What’s coming up next week? Yes, you guessed it. WHY Menu Plan? Our final post in this series will be How to Menu Plan. To get the next post in your inbox sign up my freebie “12 Strategies for Getting Dinner on the Table Fast.” This free resource will provide a great start to your meal planning journey.
Follow this link to view last week’s post What Is a Meal Plan and Who Should Make One.
I look forward to seeing you next week!
Jackie
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