Meal System

Last year, I decided that I never wanted to think about what I was going to make for dinner again.  I never wanted to sit down to make a grocery list and have the mental anguish trying to brainstorm what meals I was going to make for the next couple of weeks.  So I created a meal system.  It was a little bit more work at the beginning, but now it literally takes me a few minutes to plan my meals and add my groceries to the Walmart app for pickup.  I pick up my groceries on the way home from dropping off my kids and the whole entire process takes a ridiculously small amount of time.   It is honestly amazing.  The amount of time spent planning and shopping for meals and groceries is minimal, which means I have more time to devote to other activities that are way more enjoyable.  Everyone should have that, so let me break down the process.

1. Make a list of all the meals your family likes eating, or that you enjoy making them eat.  🙂  You could brainstorm about this for a week, jotting them down as you think about them.
2. Determine how many weeks of meals you’d like.  I decided on 6.  I try to shop for 2 weeks at a time, knowing that I might have to restock fresh food in the middle of my two weeks.  After using our system for awhile now, I’ve decided there are some meals I don’t want to repeat.  Usually I know what meals they are because the leftovers don’t get eaten, so I’m in the process of making some revisions to our system.  I found that 4 meals a week worked well for us.  We eat dinner with my parents on Sunday, usually go on a date once a week and let the kids fend for themselves with frozen pizza or mac and cheese, and  have leftovers at least once.  So two weeks of meals is really just 8 dinners-much less overwhelming than 14.
3. Group the meals into weeks.  I have a spreadsheet that lists the four meals for each week along with the sides.  I also include a miscellaneous snack or dessert for each week.
4. Make spreadsheets for each week with the ingredients needed listed below the meal.  List the 4 meals for the week at the top (including side dishes), and then list every single ingredient you need below-include everything all the way down to the spices.  Do this for each week.  If you have 6 weeks of meals, you’ll have 6 spreadsheets.  These will be the spreadsheets you use when making your shopping list.
5. Optional-Make another spreadsheet detailing what you buy from which grocery store.  I did this because I do most of my shopping at Walmart, with a Costco run thrown in every once in awhile.  I have listed everything I buy at both stores, under category headings (dairy, frozen, canned, etc.)  This is a good place to keep track of items you need for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  When I’m going to a specific store, I can glance through the list and see what I’m low on.  I don’t have to try and rack my brain to remember what we are out of.  It’s all there on the paper to refresh my memory.
6. Pick which week or weeks you are going to shop for, write those dinners on a paper to hang on the side of the fridge, go over the ingredient spreadsheet and specific store spreadsheet to make your list, add it all to your cart on the Walmart app, then pick it up.  It is so easy and requires hardly any time at all.  Doing this has freed up so much mental space in my head and has made meal planning and shopping as easy as possible.

Too often in life, we don’t step back to evaluate how we can change the repetitive things that bring us stress or misery, like meal planning and grocery shopping!  Taking some time to step back and evaluate how you can simplify or even eliminate certain tasks is time well spent!