Nowadays I’ve found myself looking for ways to accomplish more than your average Joe without dropping the ball in another area. As most of you know, I’m a mom of six, a novice farmer, and we’re a homeschool family. Things can get pretty crazy really quickly around here, particularly surrounding meal time.
I have a passion for “life hacks”, and my latest find is a Weekly Meal Planner. I’ve always “meal planned” and wrote out my grocery list but not in the most functional way. In the past I’ve started one of the these and quickly failed at keeping up with it– it just felt like one more thing on my plate. I now know it was due to the complicated notebooks I’ve previously purchased.
My Wonder Woman Meal Planner Notebook is simple and to the point. The first week will always take the longest, but then it will be smooth sailing because you’ll have a “master list week” already done. You’ll be able to change a couple of the meals around to keep your menu fresh, but there’s no better feeling than knowing what you’re putting on the table for each meal ahead of time.
Some of my suggestions for the new “Meal Planning Mama”.
TIP #1 – Remember to add fresh fruit after your grocery shopping day. For instance, on Monday and Tuesday I make blueberry muffins with organic FROZEN berries. We do our shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday, so by Monday our fresh fruit is pretty much gone. On Thursdays and Fridays we have yogurt and fresh fruit parfaits because we have fresh fruit from the previous day’s shopping.
TIP #2 – Do meal prep when you can. If you’re making taco meat for Tuesday, make an extra pot and season it for Wednesday’s chili ?.
TIP #3 – Get your kids involved! It’s fun to plan meals together and even more fun to try and stick to a budget. Also, making your kids aware of the amount you spend makes for a great impromptu math lesson. It also helps them in being a little more thankful for the applesauce– If ya know what I mean.
I hope this helps make your days a bit easier so that you can snuggle just a bit longer with your babies.
Jenn
