One of the hardest parts of meal planning can be figuring out what to make. What will everyone like? Didn’t I just make that last week? What can I get on the table in 30 minutes or less? And sometimes you just can’t think of anything.
Well, I don’t spend hours pouring over cookbooks. I do pin lots of recipes on Pinterest, but I rarely get around to actually making them. I don’t make everything from scratch, and most of what I cook isn’t anywhere close to gourmet. I even schedule eating out into my meal plan. There are two tools I use that are essential to making meal planning easy for me.
Meal Planning Tool Number 1
The first tool is a list of all the main dishes I know how to make and that my family likes. So here’s your first assignment. Don’t worry. It doesn’t involve algebra. Get a piece of paper and a pen and start brainstorming. How many meal ideas can you come up with off the top of your head? When you’re done you’ll probably be surprised. Write down everything from easy stuff like grilled cheese to more time-consuming dishes like chicken pot pie to super simple stuff like delivery pizza. Here’s the list I came up with in about 5 minutes:
- Hamburgers
- Sloppy Joes
- Tacos
- Enchiladas
- Pork chops
- Spaghetti and meat balls
- Sausage stew
- Sausage biscuits and gravy
- Breakfast for dinner
- Brats (The sausage. Not naughty children.)
- Chicken and Noodles
- Broccoli cheese soup
- Beef stroganoff
- Swiss Steak
- Steak
- Pulled Pork
- Shredded beef tacos
- Broccoli chicken alfredo
- Lasagna
- Sour cream chicken casserole
- Ham
- Turkey
- Pork burgers
- Mac & cheese
- Pizza
- Pot roast
- Beef and noodles
- Fish
- Tuna noodle casserole
- Ravioli
- Roasted chicken
The meals on my list aren’t all completely from scratch. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little help from the grocery store shelves. I buy pre-made sauces and pastas, taco kits and that sort of thing.
Ham, turkey and fish are foods that can be prepared very simply or can be an ingredient in a dish. So if you’re tired of breaded fish let it be jumping off point for coming up with another meal idea. Fish is seafood. Shrimp is seafood. Shrimp cocktail! For dinner? Why not? Get creative. And you can’t get much easier than shrimp cocktail. Do you have pizza on your list? What other ways are there to make pizza? Pizza casserole, pizza burgers, stromboli. So maybe you take something you know everyone likes and just change it up a bit to give a little variety. Just keep it simple. Especially if cooking isn’t necessarily your best skill. There’s no reason to make Beef Wellington when grilled steak and baked potatoes will do.
I’ve been at this for 16 years, so I could come up with even more to put on the list. Don’t worry if your list is shorter. Your list will grow as you continue to cook and meal plan. Try adding a new recipe every couple of weeks. That’s about how often I try something new, because it takes longer to make a recipe I’m not familiar with.
If you need new recipes there are millions online, and you can always go old-school and pick up a cookbook. But the best source I’ve found for new meal ideas is family and friends. They won’t pass on recipes that don’t work. Have you ever spent an hour making something only to have it not turn out even though you followed every single instruction? So frustrating! Also people who know you usually have an idea of what you like to eat, so they’ll probably give you recipes you’ll enjoy. If you would like the recipe for any of the dishes on my list, shoot me an email. I’m happy to pass them on.
Meal Planning Tool Number 2
When you make a plan, you have to consider outside factors that might affect your plan. Well, when it comes to meal planning one of the biggest factors is the schedule of the people you’re feeding. The second tool you need is your family calendar. Do multiple after school activities mean everyone will eat dinner at a different time? Make a dish like a casserole that can be kept warm or warmed up when they get home. Maybe you only have an hour to make and eat dinner before you all have to go to the school concert. Plan something fast like chicken tenders and french fries from the freezer aisle. Won’t be home at all that night? Instead of planning to cook, plan on eating out.
You’re more likely to stick to you meal plan if you sync it with your family calendar. I can’t spend two hours making lasagna if I don’t get home until 5:30 and have to go to the PTA meeting at 7.
So you have a little homework to do this weekend. Just a little. Make your list of meals and get your family calendar together. Next week, in the third part of this series, I’ll talk about making your weekly menu and shopping for groceries.
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Part 1: Why You Need a Meal Plan
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I keep a running list on my smartphone called “Go-To Meal Ideas.” Like your list, some of the ideas are time-consuming from-scratch dinners, while others are easy peasy and quick. I use that list as a reference probably every week!
It sure gets tricky with food allergies and elimination diets. Can put me off completely from meal planning.