Three Keys to Successful Meal Planning

There are three keys to successful meal planning:

Having the right mindset
Knowing what you have and what your options are
Planning accordingly, with these things in mind

Key #1 Do you have the right mindset?

Or is your mind “right”? (about food!)

If you want to eat better, waste less and save more, you have to first “get your mind right.” What do I mean by this? The first step is ACCEPTANCE! If you want to get your kitchen under control and be SAVVY, you have to accept the real purpose of the kitchen (and food!). It is for nourishing us! Our body has certain chemical requirements to function well and that can only happen with food-and food is prepared in the kitchen.

The whole “nutrition” piece is often pushed down to second or even third place as we race through our days, just trying to figure out how to stop “them” from saying “I’m hungry!” Mealtime happens over and over again and can easily seem like a grind, especially if we lose sight of the real purpose of food and the kitchen. The purpose of the kitchen is really to provide nutrition, not just stop the whining. Even if we try to provide nourishing meals, food often makes its way into our homes that, let’s face it, is not nutritious.

We buy items based on emotion, because we haven’t eaten lately, to reward the kids for letting us get out of the store in time to get to baseball practice, or even because we’ve been fooled by misleading ads or labels on food-and that can easily happen. Do not believe everything on the front of the package.

Once you accept that your kitchen is for providing nutrition, everything will fall into place. This happened for me years ago, when I developed a wellness company and worked with Registered Dieticians to present nutrition classes to employees of a school district. I thought I knew about nutrition-I’d studied the food pyramid, taught health classes, and had heard my mother go on about vegetables my whole life.

I did like to cook, and I had tried to provide nutritious meals for my kids when they were at home, but food was still entertainment for me, or often met emotional needs. In helping the dieticians develop and present classes and food experiences, one of whom you’ll meet in March, (National Nutrition Month), I got the picture that food is nutrition-WHAT A CONCEPT; it’s what we do for our bodies.

I hadn’t really thought about the kitchen as a means to an end-NUTRITION! When I made the switch in my mind, I no longer struggled with my weight. I’m a short person and every pound really looks like two for a taller person! While this is not a weight loss blog, I can tell you that when you come to believe that the kitchen, cooking, and food are all about nutrition, your life will change. If you already know this, great!

I hope the ideas I have can help you enjoy your kitchen more, stress less and save money. I want to hear your ideas, too. If your mind is already “right” about the role of the kitchen and food, you’re well on your way to having a Savvy Kitchen. I understand that if you don’t really like to cook, or you feel like you have so little time, the kitchen can feel like a prison; and you can build up a lot of resentment about being in charge of meals.

When you have your “mind right”, the stage is set for a better outcome. It’s never perfect, but believe me, it will be better. You’ll know that what you’re doing is for your own health and those you prepare food for. I used to think that meals started with groceries, what you buy; now I know they start in your head. So “get your mind right” and come along!

I’ve had many years of experimentation with different plans, recipes, food items, etc., but I’m always looking for better ways to do things. Collecting ideas and solutions is a passion of mine-thus, Savvy Kitchen Solutions was born. Join our community and share your ideas!

Key #2 Know Your Options

What do you need to consider before meal planning?

Once your mind is “right” about the purpose of the kitchen and what it should do for you (not to you!), you’re ready to move ahead. Planning will be a key element to a Savvy Kitchen, but before you can start to plan a meal or meals for the week, you have to know your options. Here are my suggestions for getting started. This is certainly not the only way, but it makes the most sense to me and to many who write about planning meals. I’ve incorporated meal planning ideas from a number of sites-no one has ALL the good ideas!

Meal Planning Considerations

1. Make a list of all the meals your family likes.

This might be the most important thing to consider when you think about options. Your family will be a lot more excited and willing to help with all the aspects of food if you cook what they really like. I’d break it down into main dishes, vegetable sides, and salads. Notice I didn’t say desserts!

I LOVE desserts; I love sweets so much that I have to periodically break up with sugar. Desserts should be a treat, not a daily occurrence. Sugar is not good for us, even though we’ve been programmed to expect it as something we should have often, maybe a reward-when we were kids, by our teachers, coaches, parents, grandparents, and others who wanted to make us happy; or maybe it was to deal with a mood-bad mood, boredom, stress. Sugar should be thought of as a treat, something that is special and only happens occasionally. If you drink alcohol, it should be put into the treat category also. It is NOT a food group-and neither are desserts.

I love Excel spreadsheets! You can add pages for different categories, sort your list of recipes by degree of complexity, main ingredients, etc. I also like to keep a log of the meals I’ve planned so that I have a list ready with main dish, vegetables, and sides. Less thinking required=less stress.

Be sure you keep your recipes in one place. Even if I use a recipe from a cookbook, I make a copy of it so I can make notes on it: comments about prep time, ingredients, level of simplicity, amounts, cook time and most important-was it delicious? I have a rating system of 1 to 10 on repeatability that is an overall rating and covers all qualities of the recipe.

2. Know what you have on hand.

There are two strategies to meal planning that I’ll talk more about later, but one is organizing: your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. The second strategy that is very helpful is keeping a running inventory. Make friends with your refrigerator and freezer and they’ll work for you. Pay attention to them like you would a pet! This is where waste starts-by not knowing what you have. Of course, labels with dates always help. Check sell by dates. I’ll have more tips for keeping up with that later. Food waste is a terrible problem. The average American family of four wastes $1500 a year in food-that’s one to two months or maybe even three months of groceries! The pandemic has made me much more aware of this, as I’ve tried to shop less. I sure don’t want to make any more trips to the grocery store than I have to.

3. Check your schedule and figure out how many days you’ll need to prepare a meal for how many and how much time you’ll have.

This is a really important consideration in meal planning. Not long ago, I planned to bake a chicken in my air fryer for dinner, but fell asleep in the afternoon, which I NEVER do. When I work up, it was 5:00pm. I was so glad I have a meal in my freezer from a few weeks ago! Fortunately, I didn’t have to dig too far to find it in my freezer. Are there special events coming up? Will the kids’ schedule make it impossible for you to cook at home? How much time will you have each evening for meal preparation? Are there days you won’t have to cook at all or when it will just be you? And what options do you have for a quick meal in case your day falls apart-or you fall asleep like I did?

4. Know your budget.

A good rule of thumb for the food budget is 15% of income after taxes. For example, if your net income is $5,000 a month, then you can expect to spend about $750 each month on food. Of course, you may spend more or less, but this is just an average at the time of this post. This includes dining out, but does not include non-food items you might buy at the grocery store, like detergent or paper goods. I’ll be writing about tips to save money in my “Savvy Shopping” post.

If you’re on a tight budget, make checking the grocery ads part of your weekly routine as part of meal planning. I love the online weekly ads-you can search for specific items in many of them. I like to stock up on things that I use a lot of if they’re on sale. Sometimes, I go over my weekly budget, but I look at the month as a whole.

Key #3 Plan Accordingly

Benefits of Meal Planning

If you want to have a SAVVY KITCHEN, here’s my advice: FIRST, PLAN A TIME TO PLAN!!

And if you fail to plan, you plan to fail! I’m not sure who said this first, but it’s genius! You can eat better, waste less and save money with a plan. And one of the greatest things about planning is that it reduces stress. It’s an investment of time with a huge payoff.

Why planning is so great!

1. You don’t have to worry about what you’re making for dinner/lunch on a daily basis.

2. You don’t wonder when you’ll get to the store-less stress!

3. You’ll stop your last minute, panicked trips to the store on the way home from work or ballet class-less stress

4. You’ll stop buying things that “look great”, but that you don’t need-save money and reduce stress

5. You can plan more nutritious (nutrient dense) meals-eat better and reduce stress

6. You’ll be able to try new recipes and know you have the ingredients-have fun!

7. You can plan to fill your family up at mealtime, and they won’t even think of dessert😊-eat better

8. You’ll be ready for the unexpected if you have a backup plan-less stress

9. You stop feeling guilty about throwing out food-save money!

10. You’ll get more buy-in from your family if you involve them in the meal planning-less stress and more fun!

Steps to Savvy Meal Planning

Plan a time to plan your meals for the week!

Make planning part of your weekly routine (or monthly if you can plan that far ahead or have to travel a distance for grocery shopping.) You may even come to love it. You can sort through recipes, pick out new ones, have time to consider all the factors that might totally screw up your week and even make a backup plan in case all the “plans” fall apart. Plan a time to go to the grocery store and plan a time to put away your groceries. Be sure you give yourself enough time-not doing this can make you hate meal planning!

Prepare your refrigerator.

In Key #2 Know your Options, figuring out what you have to work with is pretty well covered. You’ve already figured out what you have and what needs to be used up. Throw out anything that has become a “science project” and make room in your refrigerator for your groceries. Wipe up any spills with a little vinegar and water (half white vinegar/half water).

Check the grocery ads.

If you want to save money (who doesn’t, really?) and you have time, schedule time in your week to check the grocery ads. If you do this before you select your recipes, you can build your menu around what’s on sale. This is really the most efficient way to save the most money and fix budget friendly meals. And this can be a great activity for kids! If your budget permits, stock up on foods that your family eats regularly when they’re on sale. One of my tip sheets will be a calendar showing when to buy what: produce, pantry items, etc.

Select recipes from your list and make a plan for the week.

Putting your weekly menu in a place where everyone can see it can be a great motivator for getting the family involved. I have a white board, but there are lots of weekly menu templates you can fill out every week and post on the fridge, wall, or bulletin board. Make a note of days when you won’t have to cook or will be short of time. The fewer ingredients, the simpler your life will be. I try to use my crock pot at least once a week.

Think about when your kids/partner/spouse/roommate can help you, and plan to prep ahead what you can. A lot of families choose Sunday for this. Or you can choose a meal planning service, meal kits, or delivered meals. I’ll be posting about those at a later date, but planning is still required, no matter whose “plan” you follow. Always double soups, stews and chilis. These freeze really well and sometimes taste even better with time. You might even want to designate one night as “leftover night.” I’ll be writing about how to select recipes for a less stressful week of cooking in a later post.

Include a backup plan.

This is really helpful if your day blows up and you have no time, open that chicken up that should have three days left before it expires, but no one told the chicken that, you’ve forgotten certain ingredients, etc. Always have an easy pantry meal on hand. Meals you’ve put in the freezer are like a miracle on crazy days. Menu planning is great but doesn’t always work. “Man makes plans, and the gods laugh…”

6. Make a shopping list and if possible, organize by store layout.

If you get into the habit of shopping at the same store all the time, this will become second nature. If you don’t, it will be like a scavenger hunt every week! Don’t forget to check your running list-either a digital list, memo board, or paper. I’m not so tech savvy, so I put all requests on a memo board. If it helps, take a photo of it, but ideally, add those items to you list before you go. If you keep a list of things you’re running out of, but don’t need right away, one tip I like for getting your food budget under control is to only buy half of those things at each trip to the store.

Plan a time to go to the store, when you’re not hungry and with as few kids in tow as possible.

This is from my experience. I always bought more and made more emotional decisions when my kids were with me. If you can afford it, get a sitter. If not, think about trading off with another parent-or shop when you spouse can watch the kids. When you do take them, have a plan for how they can contribute if they’re old enough, and if they’re too little, plan to keep them occupied with something.

I don’t recommend cookies-that is a treat and will make them WANT to go to the store with you. I was married to a pediatric dentist, and I know that sugar, especially if allowed to sit in a kid’s mouth, leads to decay, and that is awfully expensive to fix! If they’re older and in training, maybe it’s good to reward them in some way-but watch the sugar. Some might say this is bribery-I say not. I also suggest going at the least crowded time you can. Your trip will be a lot quicker.

Plan time to put your groceries away.

If you’re able to wash any vegetables prior to putting them in fridge, that is the best. If you not, to maximize their lifespan, you’ll need to plan some time for this soon after your shopping day. Don’t let them rot for lack of attention!

Be efficient with your shopping trip.

COVID has made me streamline my grocery shopping. (See my Savvy Grocery Shopping post.) I can’t say enough great things about Walmart grocery touchless pick up! The app is great, prices are good and are the same as in-store prices; pick up is efficient, delivery is to your car, and returns, while infrequently needed, are simple. They just credit your credit card! I place and pay for a time certain order once a week, pick up my groceries and swing by Publix to get items I don’t buy at Walmart. More about what I buy at Walmart and what I buy at Publix in a later post. At any rate, my list for Publix is organized and I’ve been asking them for a layout of the store-not available yet, I’m sorry to say.