I think one of the tricks to meal planning (for me at least) is to plan to use those leftovers! At the moment I'm clearing out my freezer & pantry, so you can see the list of things on the right hand side that I'm wanting to use up & how I've crossed them off as I've planned for them. I also like to leave a few blank spaces here & there for those days when only pizza will do (or when those leftovers stretched further than you thought)
Do you have any Meal Planning tips to share?
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I do meal plan, for a month in advance. My only tip to share [aside from your leftovers thing, which is great]...Use the lunch calender the school puts out. I like to use it to pick out which days the kid's at school are having something that I know my daughter would really enjoy. Like Brunch for Lunch or Mac & Cheese. She sometimes feels left out, different, and self conscious about packing a lunch and I have to remind her I do it because I love her and want her to have the best possible foods. Packing things that are similar occasionally helps her feel less different than her friends [which she claims have told her they won't play with her because she eats different food. But I don't know if that's true].
ReplyDeleteThat's sad about her friends being so mean about her lunch - I must admit I forget sometimes how cruel kids can really be. Fitting in with what's going on is a great idea! We don't have much of that to contend with yet, but I can certainly see it coming in the future :-)
DeleteThank you for sharing!
Wow! I need to take a leaf out of your book (or chore planner). I often think there is no food in our house, yet there are meals I could make if I just kept better track of all the ingredients. Next week's project might be to start a freezer/pantry inventory.
ReplyDeleteGlad I've inspired you Anna :-D
DeleteIt's normally only when we're getting busy (like Christmas or visitors) or when I'm on a clean out & tidy up binge (like at the moment) that I tend to do this on paper. Also if I'm planning a series of special lunches (like Cinderella week) I jot down some notes so I don't have to think too much during 'rush hour'
I am very good at having lots of ingredients, but little inspiration :-) I find we have a varied 'menu' as it were, and yet we continue to 'order' the same things. So when I've bought enough ingredients to do 2 lots of something special & then we only have it once, I end up with a pantry full of bits & bobs. I find that writing it down also helps to get 'in the mood' for things we don't have that often. I don't know how many half packs of poppadums I've thrown out over the years :-)