Menu Planning: How To (4 Simple Steps)

It's Monday morning and if you are like me, you need to plan your meals for the week. What? Plan meals? I've been meal planning since I first got married (7 years in April!). My best friend, Kristen, explained to me how she planned her grocery list and I've been following this plan ever since. Now that I have a toddler (Colin, age 16 months), it is even more important to plan out our weekly meals to include healthy options.

Here are some simple steps to making the best meal plans and efficient grocery lists around!

1. Grocer Circulars
I always check out my local grocery store circulars before making my meal plan. You'll save more money if you plan your meals around what is on sale for that week.
Example: Canned tomatoes are on sale at Market Basket this week, so I'm making chili and more tomato sauce. I also have a coupon, which seals the deal! My favorite creamer is also on sale and I have an extra coupon, so I am going to stock up on that, too.
2. Freezer/Pantry Check
Sometimes, I stock up on certain staple items if they are a good price and stash them in my freezer or pantry. Or, maybe you make extra of something and freeze it for later use! I usually do this with pizza dough and my tomato sauce. Then, if you are in a bind budget wise, you can plan an easy and cheap meal with what you already have on hand. Check to see what you have to use before you plan your meals!

• Example: Pasta and Sauce - last week, I made a double batch of yummy tomato sauce (yep, homemade, I'll write a post on that one later!) and froze the second half in a freezer bag (love them!). I knew I'd have a ready made meal for one of our crazy nights. When meal planning, all I had to put on my grocery list was pasta. I serve salad with my pasta and sauce, and I already buy that anyway weekly. Easy, quick, and healthy!
  

3. Calendar Check
What kind of week are you going into? If you are like us, we have a few evenings a week where either one or both of us have commitments, which make for hurried meal times. To lessen the stress on me (the meal preparer!), I chose easier recipes for nights like these. Slow cooker meals and less step meals like the pasta and sauce (from above) are great options! Soup, sandwiches and salad are are a great way to go, too!

4. Menu Plan
Once you have exhausted the first three steps and hopefully have at least 2 or 3 meals written down, you can begin filling in the blanks. This is an example of what my meal plan paper looks like:
I choose meals that my family enjoys, are budget friendly, and are healthy. Once I have chosen meals for the week, I fill out my grocery list with the ingredients I need. Then, I add in the other items we need for breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc.

What do you do for menu planning?

If you need a new approach, try this out and let me know how it worked for you.

Check back next week for tips on how to make the best grocery list ever.