“It’s 4:00 and I have no idea what to make for supper“. I know I’m not alone on this!
Meal planning just wasn’t happening around here. The odd time I’d try to scratch a quick list together before a trip to the grocery store but I’d often end up forgetting a crucial ingredient, or with extra food I didn’t need that would end up rotting in the fridge.
Not cool.
I had once chatted with a fellow mom who planned her meals out a month in advance. A MONTH! I couldn’t wrap my mind around this. In fact, I chose not to wrap my mind around it and decided it wasn’t possible for me.
Then COVID left our grocery store shelves scavenged over and created long wait times for scheduling grocery pickup (which I had fallen in love with pre-pandemic!) Now I was ordering groceries 3 weeks in advance. I thought I’d give this monthly thing a try!
Turns out, it’s a game changer. And is remarkably easy.
3 Reasons I LOVE Monthly Meal Planning:
Saves money with far less wasted food!
Have you ever wandered through the grocery store, grabbing random ingredients for things you might make that week? This was me for a long time…but I strongly dislike throwing away food. On “fridge-cleanout-day” you may have found me crying in a corner. Planning out my month of meals ensures that I buy EXACTLY what I need without anything in my cart that just doesn’t belong!
Easy grocery lists and recipe locating.
Easy. Is there really any other word that sounds more appealing in the craziness of raising small kids?! Taking a quick glance at the meals coming up for the week kicks you into high grocery-list-making gear! That list is done in NO time, leaving plenty of time for a peaceful (aka. snack filled) grocery shopping experience. All the recipe links are just a click away if you need to double check that all the ingredients you need are on your list!
Stress free. No more 4pm frantic chicken defrosting!
The number of times I opened the fridge and freezer, staring at the array of food, hoping something would magically come together in my mind to create an epic dinner in under an hour, was exhausting. To already know what is planned for dinner before you even get to your (lukewarm) breakfast coffee leaves your mind ready for the rest of the wildness the day may hold in store! And that, my friends, is worth every minute of planning!
And remember, having a monthly plan doesn’t mean you must follow it to a T! It’s just a helpful guide. Somedays, on a whim, I’ll trade our Thursday meal for a Monday, just because it’s sunny. Or we may go out on an unplanned family adventure and just decide to order pizza on the way home. Life happens – keep it fun and enjoy the freedom of simply having a ‘plan’!
Click Here To Download Danae's Customizable Meal Plan Template
3 Steps To Customize Your Meal Plan:
- Identify 7 meal categories.
- Fill in your favorite 4 recipe names in each category.
- Hyperlink the recipes in your calendar for easy access! No printing required!
Step 1: Organize Your Favourite Meals by Category
This is where you get to customize to your family’s taste-buds! The categories are up to you. Our family loves trying food from different cultures. It’s so fun introducing our kids to new dishes from other countries and knowing that their appreciation for diversity is growing daily!
I set up our monthly meals based around regions of the world.
The categories are endless! You could try:
- Meal Proteins – chicken, beef, fish, chickpeas etc
- Types of meals – casserole, stir fry, instant pot etc
- Family Member Faves – Monday-Mom’s fave, Tuesday’s – Tots fave, Wednesday – Wildest child’s fave
Fun right?! You get the idea!
One of our favourite traditions is “Breakfast for Dinner” on Sundays! Sundays are just one of those days that I don’t want to think, prep, or fret over dinner. I truly think it’s so important to take a rest at least one day per week, to recharge, refocus and reconnect as a family. Waffles and pancakes lend so easily to a rest-filled day!
Step 2: Identify Your Favourite 4 Recipes From Each Category
It‘s easiest to fill in your Meal Plan template by column/category. It just seems to fill in faster that way since your brain is already tracking within ‘Mexican Food’ (for example).
This is where the oh-so-handy Google Sheets app comes into play. I love using it because I can hyperlink my favourite recipes right into the plan (or even attach a photo if it’s your Grandma’s secret!). This makes it a breeze to find the recipe quickly and not get sidetracked browsing Pinterest on my way to the recipe. The struggle is real my friends!
Trust me…when it’s prep-time and you pop open the Meal Plan spreadsheet, you want to be only 1 click away from the recipe. So go ahead and plug in your 4 favourites for each category!
Step 3: Hyperlink Your Favourite Recipes Into the Meal Planner
If you have recipes you find yourself going back to often, you’ll be glad you took the extra time to do this step. You’ll need to hop on a computer to add your hyperlinks in.
- Open your Meal Plan by going to sheets.google.com (sign in with your Gmail account).
- Click on a meal in your Meal Plan to highlight it.
- Click on the ‘insert link’ tool.
- Copy and paste the recipe URL in.
Now that you’ve got your month ready to go, just imagine how EASY this will be next month! It’s just a simple copy, paste and tweak (or not!) from there. Basically, you just planned a year’s worth of meals. Congrats momma! You’ve got this!!
Here’s your new 4:00 scenario:
- Open Google Sheets on your phone
- Click on your Meal Plan
- Click on the link for your recipe-of-the-day
- Get cookin’!
I’d love to hear what categories you come up with for your family’s plan! Comment below and let me know what you’ve got planned.
Here’s what our family’s meal plan looks like!
Ahh! What a great idea! I love organization and I love lists and I love food! So with 5 kids, and always having friends and family over, this is going to be a huge help. Also, I can imagine this will be such a better way to methodically stock up my deep freezer for winter…since we just got our first snow already, eek!! Maybe I’ll add a Soup category…Mmm! Thanks Danae!!