How to Get your Meal Plan to Live!
Every one has a system that will work for them. Every one can do it differently and still enjoy all the benefits! Meal planning saves you time, money and effort. It makes shopping easier and more streamlined, saving yet more time and money!
Track your meals!
What did you have for dinner last night? The night before? Most people can't even remember last night, let alone a week ago. Do you know what you are having do dinner tomorrow? The night after tomorrow? Do you already have the ingredients?
For a minimum of two weeks, write down all the recipes you use. And now you have a potential meal plan! Do it for a month and you will start to see patterns emerging. Write down your favourite meals, and your special event dinners. Ask the family! They will all have new ideas to add to the plan.
Now you have pages of how you have had your meals, next is to do the planning!
Audit time!
What's in your fridge? What's in your freezer? What's in your pantry? I find this to be fun! Go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer and write a list of everything you currently own. Is anything close to, or passed the use by date? Anything you may have collected slot of, and never realised before?
Now that you have all these lists,what do you do with them?
To start with, get an old calendar, or print one out. Make a new list of dinners you can make with foods already on your list, targeting items you have an oversupply of. Then sit down with your family and the calendar, and plan every social activity for the next week. Work out what nights you will be busy, what nights will be someone else's turn to cook, and what nights you are eating out of the house. Using these questions, your calendar should fill pretty quickly!
Now for the exciting bit!
Match a recipe from your list to each night of the week. Write it on the calendar. Write down who gets to cook it, and make one last final list of items you think you will need for the week. You can always substitute ingredients, which can help reduce your excess tins, can, jars and frozen food.
All done. Now what?
Pin this to the fridge or handy central location. The next person who says 'what's fir dinner' wins the prize of reading the meal plan and collecting all the ingredients to help the chef. Or they can win the grand prize of cooking dinner!
What else can I do with meal plan?
You can also meal plan snacks, lunches and breakfast. You can use your system to manage your baking and food or drink preparation, particularly for soaking of dried beans and legumes, defrosting frozen items, and minimising last minute purchases.
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