Guys! guys! I have been doing it all wrong. Meal planning is heaps less boring than I was making it. Here is what I have realised about meal planning in the last little while. Come and find organisation with this disorganised-ADD-creative-toddler-wrangler.
Look, I know the mere mention of meal planning is pretty yawn-worthy to a lot of people but don't check out just yet ok?
There are so many bloggers who have organised, carefully thought out, purposeful daily plans. I'm not going to pretend to be one of them but I am trying really hard to tame the anarchy around here and that is why I am writing this Finding Organisation series, my last post was on how I streamlined breakfast just in case you are interested.
So my brain started re-ticking on the subject of meal planning when I read this post by This Little Port. It got me thinking of how I had been doing it all wrong. My past attempts had been all about organisation and budgeting so of course I had passed out from boredom before I even found a pen, it's also likely that I saw something shiny and decided to feed that to my family for dinner. Gabby's post reminded me how much more fun cooking dinner would be if I just got my shit together and put a little bit of fore thought into it. Instead of blah, blah, blah, lasagna, blah blah, reading catalogues for specials blah, blah. Her post was all, cookbooks, farmers markets, rahdy-rah, Mexican food and I realised it wasn't just meal planning I was doing wrong. It was dinner.
I have talked before about choosing happy, practicing gratitude and consciously changing my attitude towards the boring stuff that comes along with tiny-human-life so when I realised that I had put food in that category – I felt a bit sad. Food's not boring, it's like one of my favourite things. Ever. So yeah, meal planning is my new hobby, and cooking dinner is not the most annoying part of my day anymore. Also I have heaps of great cookbooks and lots of fancy cookware that I can now justify owning.
Why I started meal planning, weeeeell, as my long winded, slightly ranty-pants intro says, I had lost my mojo and was feeding my family really average meals. Our grocery bill was outrageous and I still never had any food in the house, I was nipping to the shops about a million times a week and I wasn't cooking any of the amazing recipes I was pinning, cutting and hording. I also wasn't spending enough time at the beach or seeing friends or rolling around on the grass getting chicken poo in my hair, I actually wasn't spending any time at all doing the latter.
My little plan, We have more eggs than we know what to do with, thanks to our three ladies, Bessie, Bock and Roxy so one night a week is eggs on toast AKA Brinner night. On the weekends we wing it, so I only need to plan four dinners. Out of those four I try to do one $5 dinner (inspired by Fatmumslim) the other three are chosen from my Pinterest boards or cookbooks. I don't lock anything in, I just have the four dinners on hand and I cook whatever I feel like. 
Casholoa, So far I am saving money because I am only buying what we need and we are throwing out heaps less. Also the Brinner and $5 dinners nights are leaving a bit of wiggle room so we can buy more expensive cuts of meat or seafood when the fancy strikes.
Some stuff you can use to meal plan, well actually, all you need is a pen and paper but if you want to get fancy you can grab this Dinner Planner from Kikki-K for $14.95 or you can use this cool free printable meal planner from Elephantshoe. Both of them are just dinner planners because I'm all about baby steps and planning more than one meal a day would give me some sort of panic attack. The Organised Housewife is where you should head if you are looking for more detailed planning stuff. I'm more of a disorganised-ADD-creative-toddler-wrangler but she has heaps of great tips, recipes and plans available – her site is so rad.
We have been Meal planning for our dinners and it just takes the hassle out of cooking, shopping and even thinking “what the hell do I make tonight..”. We always go for a curry/stirfry, something fancy schmancy, something easy (maybe broccoli and frozen garlic bread…. maybe..) and burgers/wraps/pasta/schnitzels. Its fun planning what were going to have for the week and although I feel like a total dork, I am a stress free, money saving, non food wasting organised dork!
Bec x
I’m a fan, I just draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper, list the meals on one side – with any notes like where the recipe is, or what veg I’m intending for the stir fry, and then write my shopping list down the other – this way hubs knows why I bought baby corn and doesn’t use it up on his night to cook. (I am a bit of a freak in that I write the list in order of the aisles of the supermarket – makes things quicker with the kids hanging off me). Only dinners! And yeah I plan in there things like – ‘eat leftovers’. But also something new, and something the man wants to cook on his night. I plan around those nights we get home late, and the nights I have time and can cook extra to freeze. I love it. LOVE.
I really don’t enjoy cooking, and so thought of meal planning gives me shivers! However I know from past experience when Dave and I did get our shit together occasionally and meal plan, it was always so much easier that week. My big problem is, because Dave is the cook, I have to sit down with him to plan the meals because there is no way he would do his off the bat himself, and trying to get him to sit down and plan anything is like trying to nail jelly to a wall! But you have inspired me because we really need to get our grocery bill under control and I am sick of trying to figure out what the hell to make the nights Dave is at work.
Love the idea of making meal planning something to enjoy. I have been working on recipes lately for a 6 week meal plan and I am actually enjoying cooking for quite possibly the first time in my life ever… I know right. Miracles happen ; xx
I’m a total convert hey! I’m guessing the food that comes out of your kitchen is a bit more fancy than mine though. Hehe
Oh my god, you need to guest post for my ‘finding organisation’ series. I bow down to you!
I want my dave to be the cook! Glad to be of service darling xoxo