Meal Planning...just start!

We meal plan for a couple BIG reasons.

1. Budget 
2. We don’t like eating out often and we are busy. Time is important 

Those 2 reasons determine how we plan. I try to keep our meals pretty simple, we do not have time during the week for long recipes. Simple meals don’t mean convenience meals. Convenience =expensive. It won’t matter how much we save at the grocery store if we don’t have time to make the meals, we would just end up with expensive take out. Simple is where it’s at for us. 

1. Blank calendar or paper or notepad on your phone.  It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive or specific for meal planning. 
2. Check your planner! Have insane days? Long work days or extra kids over? Make sure you take those into account. 
3. Start with dinner, breakfast and lunch can be kept simple and basic. Don’t overwhelm yourself. 
4. Have a list of simple meals handy, I keep our list in my planner. 
5. Make your grocery list based on the meals and your pantry. CHECK YOUR STOCK. Don’t buy another bag of rice when you already have 3 at home. 

• You can do this weekly or every 2 weeks. But if you are making a meal that requires veggies that won’t stay fresh long, make that shortly after you shop!

If you don’t have a big list of easy meals,start making one! I’ll work on sharing ours. Very few have a recipe, and many are prep ahead to make them quick.