Family Meal Planning Made Easy

I grew up in a busy household of five children.  As you can imagine this fact made dinner no small matter at my house!  Over the years I learned some strategies to make the process of shopping and meal planning easier. 

Create a printable list: Writing a shopping list for the entire week can be a daunting task as you try to figure out what meals you wish to make, not to mention remembering the staples you need to re-stock your pantry!  We came up with a printable list in Word (Excel is fine too) of all the foods we typically buy, with extra space to write in amounts or exotic foods.  This may take a couple edits to truly be all encompassing.  Foods were arranged in categories (not alphabetically) so we were not walking back and forth through the store wasting time.  This list was printed off the computer and hung up every week.  During the week if we ran out of something or were getting low my siblings and I would circle the food item.  By the time shopping came around almost all the work was done.  My mom simply circled the foods that we needed to buy for meals. 

 Create a menu of your favorite foods: There are so many different ways to customize this step so it works for your family!  At my house we designed a categorized list of all the meals and sides we enjoyed.  The list was divided into pasta, soup, meat dishes, vegetables and starches.  My mom could easily make meal combinations without wracking her brain.  She then wrote out the meals for the week on the family wall calendar. 

For people who are more visual you can create your own magnetic calendar for meals.  Below is one of my favorite examples but the possibilities are endless:

Use the same ingredients several times: If you are on a budget it will take a bit more creativity to make meal planning work.  I have found choosing meals that have similar ingredients in succession prevents waste and uses up the leftovers that would normally sit around in your fridge.  If you need to buy herbs try to make several meals in a row to use up the fresh greens before they spoil.  Or if you are making chicken use the leftovers to make soup the next day.

How to effectively use your paper planner

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I prefer using an old fashioned paper planner over the new electronic panning tools any day.  The idea of Blackberries, PDAs and smart phones with calendars have never appealed to me.  Paper and pencil in my hand have always won out over the newest technology breakthrough.  My planner never crashes, never takes a few days to become accustomed to and never messes up a sync between itself and the computer. 

The paper planner system only had one flaw.  If you are like me and use a large wall calendar at home in addition to your more portable planner, you run the risk of forgetting to put appointments on the calendar that you made while being out and about.  I feel a large calendar is very important to the overall time management process.  It is essential   to see a whole month at a time to be sure you are pacing yourself properly.  However, how do you overcome the schedule disaster that can occur should you forget to transfer an event from your planner to your home calendar?

I came up with a very simple solution.  Post-it® Half Inch Flags are a great little invention.  The little dispenser can easily be adhered (glued or taped) to the inside cover of your planner.  Every time you make a new entry in your datebook, simply flag the page with the tiny Post-it®.  Now you will never forget to add the date to your wall calendar.  Even if you walk in the door with a kid in each arm and start making dinner, you can pick up your planner two hours later and remember that you have appointments to add to your home calendar.