Menu planning is a well used term, and one that most people are aware of. If you ren’t basically its planning out the meals ahead of time for a week, fortnight or month normally. Some people do all meals, other just do dinner.
I’m a dinner planner. Its the meal that causes me the most stress and the only one we are all together for. I’ve tried various planners over the years but the one I’m currently working on has been the best for us.
I designed it myself which is why I like it! We lead a very hectic life in the Mini Peas household so dinner time sometimes only has a very limited window to be prepped, cooked and eaten.
To create my planner I looked over our schedule and allocated a time limit for cooked each day. I then broke our meals up into time categories (20min or less, 30min, 45min, 60min) so I know how long each one takes to make.
Next I gave everyone a day to cook. Everyone except Mudson is old enough to either cook alone or with some help, and cooking is such an important life skill and learning opportunity that I feel its vital each of my kids gets the chance to learn it.
I listed all the meals we regularly like to eat on the side and things to snack on or bake at the bottom. Its not an extensive list but the one on the fridge has over 30 meals listed so its at least a months worth of meals.
I laminated the page and use a whiteboard marker to update the list each week. I’m thinking of increasing it to a fortnightly planner so I only have to think about it once every 2 weeks instead.
I’ve been taking time on a Sunday night to plan our meals, make a shopping list and do a bit of a stocktake of supplies on hand. My kids are now requesting to make different meals and are enjoying trying new recipes.
Menu planning has taken away the “what are we having for diner?” question, reduced the stress at 5pm of “what on earth am I feeding these people tonight?” and saved us money with no takeaway purchase, less wastage and planning for leftover lunches (my sons favourite school lunch).
I’ve got my planner listed on my etsy store ready for you to fill in or you can draw up your own planner how ever it suits you! Meal planning is certainly worth trying.