One responsibility and job you have as a parent is to feed your kids and family, and to do so every day of the week. This can be tricky and even overwhelming when you don’t have a plan and you’re a busy person.
What you don’t want to do is wing it every night because it might cause stress. You also likely don’t want to eat out every night if your goal is to be healthy and save money. Therefore, consider learning some family meal planning tips and advice that can help you succeed with this task.
Think Ahead
Family meal planning and eating a healthy diet require you to think ahead and not wait until the last minute to decide what to cook or eat. Instead, sit down during the week or when you have a little free time and begin to map out what you want to prepare for food for the week. Write down these details and make your grocery list so all the details are figured out in advance. Determine your menus so that you know what you’ll be serving and what kind of prep you’ll need to do. It takes a bit if time upfront, but it saves running to the store multiple times mid-week. You will also save time figuring out what to make each night since it is already planned!
Find Healthy Recipes Online
Another family meal planning tip and piece of advice is to find healthy recipes online. Use the Internet and the fact that you have easy access to information to your advantage. As far as family meal planning goes, there are many recipes online that are healthy, practical, and suitable for any day of the week such as learning how to make greek yogurt chicken. Once you find bloggers and sites you like you can follow them for additional recipes and cooking tips. I have several boards on pinterest to make it easy to find the recipes I would like to make.
Grocery Shop on the Weekends
As you plan your weekly meals, you should think about when might be the best time to grocery shop. One idea is to use your time off on the weekends to go to the store and gather all the ingredients you need for cooking. Consider chopping up ingredients and preparing some of your meals on Sunday so you’re ready to go when the new week rolls around. Make a grocery list so that you know what you need to buy and aren’t tempted to purchase other items and spend more than you intended.
Freeze Some Meals
When you’re planning meals for your family keep in mind that not everything has to be fresh and made on the spot. Instead, plan ahead and if you know you’re going to have busy nights or a busy week then cook meals in advance that you can freeze. This way you can pull these make-ahead freezer meals out as you please and be able to feed your family any night of the week when you don’t have time to or don’t feel like cooking. Another tip is to make double batches of things. Eat one that day and then freeze the other for later.
Conclusion
You now have some useful family meal planning tips and advice that you can use and apply in your home. Following these suggestions will make your life easier and help you succeed at feeding your family and ensuring everyone is happy and satisfied.
