Menu Planning Road Blocks
If you have hung out with me here in this space for any time at all you know that I am a big fan of menu planning. It might have even saved my life once or twice! However, the year 2018 has thrown me for a loop. Menu planning has been my passion for over 11 years, so it was a shock to find I had suddenly hit a wall with my menu planning. Some of my issues were: it wasn’t fun anymore, the picky eaters wouldn’t eat it anyway, and food allergies were making every meal a drag–I could go on, but you certainly get the drift of my issues. So, I started procrastinating and even tried going without a plan a week or two. Nothing was working until…
A New Discovery
Then a couple of weeks ago, I discovered the Lazy Genius on Instagram. I thought that was a brilliant title and so I started following her, listening to her podcast and generally finding out what she was all about. On her Instagram stories she talks all the time about Meal Planning and then a couple of weeks ago she did a podcast titled, “The Lazy Genius Meal Plans.” Let me tell you–it was life changing! I had no idea there was such a smart way to meal plan.
To summarize she advises coming up with a super general plan for your week. For example mine is: Meatless Monday, Waffle Wednesday (or breakfast for dinner), Leftover Thursday, and Pizza Friday. These are just ideas for a starting point for your menu planning. Then you have a list of your favorite recipes (or even things you make so often you don’t need a recipe) and plug them into your general plan where appropriate. Eating out and frozen pizza totally count as meal plans! Isn’t that a marvelous way of meal planning? She of course explains it much better then I do, so please go listen to her episode on meal planning!
So I combined that method of meal planning and took it a step further–meal planned for the month! That way I only need to make weekly shopping lists and it is easier to find deals on meat because I already know what I’m having for the entire month. Next week, I’ll share my plans for the month of October if you can’t read the picture.
Share Your Tips!
What about you? What method do you use for meal planning? Do you enjoy meal planning? What is your least favorite household chore that you wish you could find a brilliant way of dealing with it?