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During each month in 2018, I am focusing on a different simplicity challenge or mini SMART goal. So far I have practiced daily gratitude, meditated every day, moved my body for at least 15 minutes every day, and completed a no-spend challenge, just to name a few. Scroll to the bottom to see a list of all the challenges for the year!
It has been so encouraging to work through these challenges each month and share my experiences on social media and in my email newsletter. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to stay in the loop! Or sign up for my newsletter below – I’ll also send you a copy of the SMART Goals Guide for FREE!
September Challenge: Weekly Meal Planning Routine
In August my simplicity challenge was to declutter my recipes and cookbooks. I did cull through a lot of the books on my kindle that I no longer use or have never (and probably never will) use for cooking. When I had so many options I ended up not ever using the cookbooks. By choosing a select few that I will regularly use I will be so much more likely to prepare homecooked meals and experiment with what my family loves to eat.
In this post, I will share some of the many benefits of using a meal plan on a regular basis, how I plan to meal plan for this month’s challenge, plus a few of the resources I love that will hopefully help you with your own meal plan as well.
I am excited about this challenge, so let’s get right to it!
Benefits of a Regular Meal Planning Routine
There are many benefits to spending 10-15 minutes each week to plan out your meals.
I talked about several of the benefits in a previous post but wanted to highlight a couple of the benefits I hope to achieve during this challenge.
First, I want to start preparing and eating healthier meals with my family. With several recent changes in our lives, such as moving to a new house, changing schools, and starting a new job, I have fallen off the wagon with being intentional about what I feed my family. I hope to change that by completing this challenge!
Second, I want to minimize some of the stress around deciding what to feed my family every day. Having a plan, while it doesn’t always go as written, allows me to think about other things during the day. A plan gives me options to pick and choose from. And a plan takes the guesswork out of “what’s for dinner?”
>> Related Post: 6 Reasons to Have a Simple Meal Plan Routine
How To Meal Plan The Simple Way:
Step 1. Declutter your cookbooks
This step is not mandatory but I think it’s super helpful to think about where your recipes are coming from. If you have too many options it can get overwhelming fast!
I decluttered my recipes and cookbooks in August and I think it helped set me up for success this month!
>> Related Post: Declutter Your Cookbooks and Recipes
Step 2. Look at your calendar for the week.
Do you have any events or practices that you need to plan around? Can you plan for a slow cooker meal or something from the freezer for those nights?
Step 3. Use theme nights or a general matrix of the types of meals you cook.
This month I am using theme nights to help simplify coming up with recipes to cook for my family. I am coming up with two weeks of themes and then repeating them every other week. I am not specifying the day of the week I will cook each type of recipe. For me, that seems too restricting! Instead, I have thought about the types of meals and then I’ll spread them out during the week how I see fit. Here are the themes I have come up with for this month:
Weeks 1 and 3:
– Mexican
– Pasta
– Pizza
– Sheet pan
– Easy: panini, sandwich, breakfast
– Leftovers
– Takeout
Weeks 2 and 4:
– Stir-fry
– Seafood
– One pot
– Bowl
– Easy: panini, sandwich, breakfast
– Leftovers
– Takeout
Step 4. Choose your meals for the week
It helps to display these on a board or have these written out on a pad of paper for everyone to see. I am using Trello and their calendar view to plan out and visually see what we are eating during the week.
Here is a snapshot of week 1:
If you are new to Trello, I highly encourage you to give it a try! It has been an amazing productivity tool and has saved me tons of time with planning and task management. This Trello course is amazing for beginners and they even have a free mini course to get you started and see if Trello is for you (psst…I bet it will be!).
Sign Up for Free Here >> Organize Your Life with Trello Mini Class
>> Tip: Plan for leftovers! We only have a family of four including 2 kiddos (ages 5 and 2). You can’t always plan for the kids to eat everything (they usually don’t!) so we almost always have leftovers. I like to plan in leftover days to simplify my life and not have to cook every single day.
For more great tips read this post: How to Make Mealtimes Simpler
Step 5. Hold yourself accountable. (optional)
This step is not mandatory, but I think it will help me to hold myself accountable for the challenge this month. I plan to publish our meal plan for the week on social media. Here is our first week’s plan!
Sunday: Instant Pot Burrito Bowls (Mexican)
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Chicken tenders, veggie, rice (sheet pan)
Wednesday: Grilled ham and cheese + salad (Easy)
Thursday: Takeout or leftovers
Friday: Homemade Pizza + Salad
Saturday: Leftovers
Other Resources for a Successful Meal Planning Routine:
My Favorite Cookbooks: 100 Days of Real Food and 100 Days of Real Food Fast and Furious
Articles:
My Favorite Tools for Meal Planning
Organize Your Life With Trello e-course
Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle
Read More in the Simplicity Challenges Series
January: Daily Gratitude
February: Meditation
March: 15 minutes of physical activity
April: No-Spend Challenge
May: The Mins Game Decluttering Challenge
June: Declutter Your Digital Life
July: Capsule Wardrobe (Project333)
August: Declutter Recipes and Cookbooks
September: You are here!
Stay In The Loop
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Do you have a regular meal planning routine?
Let us know in the comments below!
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