Inside: Learn 25+ tips to make mealtimes simpler in this guest post from A Simple and Contented Life!

During September my simplicity challenge will be to meal plan each week.  In order to be successful with meal planning, it’s important to make it as simple as possible.  In August I decluttered my cookbooks, but there’s way more to mealtimes than just the recipes you use.  That’s why I am so excited to share this guest post with you today!

Sarah Dew, from A Simple and Contented Life, is sharing her top tips to make mealtimes simpler.  In this post, she covers how to simplify meal planning, grocery shopping, and getting a dinner on the table that your family will love to eat.

Let’s get right to it!

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Did you know that over the course of a year, your family will have consumed more than a thousand meals? That’s a lot of breakfast, lunch, and dinners! With so many meals to plan, prep and cook, it’s no wonder us mums find meal planning a time consuming and stressful affair.

Coming up with ideas of what to cook each day is hard enough, but it doesn’t end there. Meal planning is one of those jobs that just has to be done, but there are so many steps to it. There’s the weekly grocery shop and the drive to and from the store. There’s the packing, unpacking and putting away. And then, at least three times a day every single day, we prep, cook, eat, clear up, wash up and put away only to repeat it all tomorrow. It’s exhausting! And that’s without the added stress of making sure we’re giving our kids a varied and balanced diet.

So how do we make things simpler? What can we do to make getting dinner on the table that little bit easier? Here’s my list of top tips on how to make meal planning simpler and mealtimes easier to manage.

For planning your meals:

1. Plan your meals in advance. Look at your diary, see what you have on and write out your meal plan according to what’s happening that week.
2. Give each day a theme so it’s easier to come up with ideas of what to cook. Think Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Slow-cook Wednesdays, Thursday night, Fish night, Pizza and Pasta Fridays etc.
3. Have a list of go-to meals that are quick and easy to make. Keep them in a binder, in your planner or on your phone. Then, when you’re stumped for ideas simply scroll down the list and pick one.
4. For busy nights choose meals that only have a few ingredients.
5. Get inspiration for new meal ideas from cookbooks, cooking programmes, supermarket magazines, the menu of your favourite restaurant or your local takeaway.
6. Use meal plan services that have weekly and monthly meal plans and shopping lists already written out for you. Some will even deliver the ingredients to you too.
7. Write out your meal plan and put it somewhere visible so you don’t forget what you’d planned to cook.
8. Keep a note of what you eat. This helps you to spot when things are getting samey and switch things up. It helps you come with new meals for your go-to list too.
9. Don’t set your meal plan in stone. Keep things flexible and make it easily adaptable in case your plans change.

To make food shopping easier:

1. Use a food shopping app on your phone that stores a list of all the things you normally buy. Use this to create your shopping list each week. Simply scroll down your list and add all the things you need.
2. Keep a running list of everything you have in your pantry and freezer. This helps you to remember what you already have in stock and stops you from buying duplicates or forgetting to use something.
3. ‘Shop’ from your pantry and freezer before shopping at the store.
4. Add items to your shopping list as soon as you run out of them so you don’t forget to replace them.
5. Write out your shopping list according to the order of the aisles in your store.
6. Pack your shopping according to how your cupboards are arranged so it’s quicker and easier to unpack and put away when you get home.
7. Stock up on all the staples you know you need at the beginning of each month. Add things like toilet roll, kitchen roll, toothpaste, shower gel, washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets, and washing powder to the list too.
8. Buy all your proteins at the beginning of the month and freeze them.
9. Keep your shopping bags in the boot (or trunk) of your car. Make a point of putting them back in your boot as soon as you’ve unpacked the shopping.
10. Keep a pound coin in the glovebox for the shopping trolley.
11. Order your food online and have it delivered to your door at a time that suits you.

For staying organized and getting dinner on the table:

1. Stock your pantry and freezer with staples that allow you to cook a whole variety of meals. For the pantry think rice, pasta, tinned beans, pulses, chopped tomatoes, herbs, spices and stock cubes. For the freezer think chicken breasts, sausages, minced beef, pork chops, fish and frozen vegetables.
2. Take meats out of their bulky packaging and freeze them in freezer bags. Not only does this give you more room in your freezer, it’s easier to see what you have in there too.
3. Designate the last week of the month as ‘use up’ week. Use up any leftovers and canned goods before you stock up again. This reduces the amount of food being wasted and saves money too!
4. Batch-cook a range of meals once a month and freeze them in family-sized portions. Defrost them the morning you need them or the night before. Reheat them and serve with rice, potatoes, pasta or freshly cooked veg.
5. Cook twice the amount you need and freeze the rest for another day.
6. Set reminders on your phone to help you remember to take something out of the freezer to defrost.

Making mealtimes work for you…

When it comes to meal planning there is no one-size fits all. No two families function the same and every family has different needs. The key to making mealtimes simpler isn’t finding one method of meal planning and sticking to it. It’s about understanding how your family functions, what mealtimes look like for you, the season you’re in and choosing a method to suit your family’s needs. And then not being afraid to switch things up as those needs and seasons change.

For example:

• Everyone eat at different times? Cook something that can be kept warm in the oven or batch cook a few meals and freeze them in portions so you’re only reheating enough for one person.
• At work all day? Try freezer prepping your meals so you can throw everything in the slow cooker before heading out to work.
• Need packed lunches for work and school? Try prepping something the whole family can take like cold pasta dishes, salads, tortillas or savoury muffins.
• Short on time? Use a pressure cooker or stick to meals with as few ingredients as possible that take no more than 30 minutes to make.
• Jam-packed week but more time on the weekends? Cook meals that are quick and easy during the week and save the meals you can take your time over for the weekend.
• Entering a busy season? Batch cook and stock your freezer with meals you can simply defrost and reheat.
• Don’t like sticking to a meal plan or find it too rigid? Use your list of go-to meals and stock your pantry and freezer with the staples that allow you to cook whatever takes your fancy.

How to make mealtimes simpler…

Meal planning and mealtimes don’t need to be complicated. There are plenty of ways to make things simpler. All you need to do is figure out what works best for your family and do the things you know will make life easier. Ask yourself what season your family is in right now and what mealtimes look like for you. Then scroll down the list of tips and pick the ones you know will work for you. And don’t be afraid of switching things up as and when you need to!

How do you simplify your own family mealtimes?

Let us know your top tips to make mealtimes easier in your household.  We would love to learn from you as well!

About the author:

Incredibly passionate about helping others make family life LESS stressful and MORE enjoyable, Sarah is the founder of the blog A Simple and Contented Life. Her mission is to help busy women reduce the overwhelm, take back control and find ways to become the BEST version of themselves whilst creating a family life they LOVE.

Proud mum of two and besotted wife, Sarah is also the owner of a Frenchie pup called Arthur. When she isn’t blogging, you’ll find her in her favourite Starbucks, hazelnut latte in one hand, book in the other!

Access her free Resource Library packed full of cheatsheets, checklists, printables, workbooks, and ebooks all designed to help you kick-start creating a family life you love here…

Connect with Sarah on social media: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER | YOUTUBE

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