Designing Sane Habits – Meal Planning

You may recall my unfortunate post here.

As I mentioned, planning out our meals was the first place I wanted change because it would bring the greatest relief. This past week was my first week designing the change I wanted in our home.

We sat down at dinner one night and made a list of all the meals the kids and my husband like. Then on Sunday, I grabbed a cup of coffee, that list, the weekly ad, pen and paper and I planned out what meals I would make for the next seven days using mostly what I could find on sale.

From there, I made a grocery list of all the things I needed to buy to have everything I need to prepare the meals.

Then I looked at the calendar and wrote in the meals on the days I would make them – I made sure the easiest meals (crock pot pork ribs & left-over-chicken burritos) were on Tuesday and Thursday since we have Bible Study and Nature Study those days.

On Monday, I had planned on getting the shopping done early in the day, but we dawdled and ended up having to squeeze it in after swimming. I hardly felt like shopping and the kids were extra squirrely but I. was. doing. this. no. matter. what.

It felt like a BIG shopping, but I bet we probably saved some $$ not heading to the grocery store so many times the rest of the week – because you always buy more stuff when you’re there.

And guess what? My family had home-cooked meals, on time, all week! Except one night when I forgot to take the chicken out and had to defrost it and my daughter cut the potatoes a little big so we had to cook it longer. But we learned from both of those things the right way to do things next time!

The planning really took a huge load off my back all week and I’ve already planned and shopped for this week. I even have left-overs for extra nights in the freezer.

Another change I made was actually a suggestion by Pam in the comments of my previous post. She recommended having one child help me cook one night while the other cleans and then alternate. I really love that! I used to have three cluttered in the kitchen saying “Can I do it? Can I do it?” and chairs to stand on and everything else. Now, I only have one at a time so I can teach them to cook much better and we also get individual time together. Thanks Pam!

Next area of relief: MY CLOSET. I’ll keep you posted 🙂