Diary of an Organizer: Meal Planning Made Easy

Meal planning is a pain.  Any way you slice it, cooking for a family on a budget, and eating healthy are difficult tasks to do simultaneously.  I’m not Julia Child.  Not even close.  In fact, for most of the time my husband and I have been together he has done the cooking.  My problem was that I was always very busy, and because I didn’t really have any idea about what to make at the end of the day.  I also am hypoglycemic, so when I would get hungry it would be very difficult for me to make a decision on what to eat.  Finally, I evaluated why it was so difficult for me to cook, and realized all it took was putting my planning and organizing skills to work—in the kitchen.

Once I got going, I realized that I can plan the heck out of a meal.  Every week I sit down and go over my favorite recipes.  I make sure I have all the ingredients in stock.  I buy in bulk when possible, and also take this time to stock from basement shelves to a small pantry in my kitchen.  I then pick a meal for every night of the week.  Knowing what you are going to eat before you’re hungry makes eating at home so much more likely.  What I found was that when we were too hungry to decide on what to cook, we were significantly more likely to go out to eat.  I am sure that is true for your family as well.

Once I’ve planned out the week, I pick two or three meals and set aside an hour to make them.  I make one to have that night, and two that can be baked/cooked later.  I do this twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday, and the remaining night is out with family or leftovers.

Its not perfect, but it works!  It saves me lots of time and money, and saves my sanity to know that dinner is always ready.