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Meal Planning Tips for Busy Moms

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Meal planning can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. With these 7 meal planning hacks for busy moms, you can streamline your process while saving time and energy. From involving your family to embracing one-pot meals, I’m sharing practical and effective tips for meal planning.

Look at Your Family’s Schedule for the Week

As busy moms, we know all too well the demands of after-school activities, homework, late work meetings, and weekend commitments. Set yourself up for success by planning meals that are quick and easy on busy nights and saving time-consuming meals for weekends when you have more time. You can also use a slow cooker or instant pot to decrease hands-on time for busy nights.

Plot out your family’s activities, sports, events, and anything after work/school that could impact dinner time. This also includes things that affect your dinner prep/cooking time. By adapting your meal plan to your family’s schedule, it will be easier to stick to your plan.

Get Your Family Involved in Meal Planning

Getting your family involved in the meal planning process can make it more fun for everyone. When the kids have a say in what’s on the menu, there’s a chance that they may be more inclined to eat their meals. This works well with Lady A, but not always with my pickier eater, Little J.

If you also have a picky eater, I do have a picky eater post sharing the tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way to make mealtimes a little less stressful.

Start by asking your family for their input. Maybe your kids have a favorite meal, or your partner has been craving a certain dish. Take these requests into consideration when creating your meal plan for the week.

If Little J had his way, we would eat mac and cheese and chicken nuggets every day of the week. We compromise by allowing it one night, and in exchange, he needs to give me another suggestion for a meal he likes and will eat.

Make a List of Family Favorites

Creating a list of family favorite recipes is a great way to streamline meal planning and keep a rotation of meals that everyone enjoys. I recently started doing this and it is a total game-changer.

I made a recipe box with my family’s favorite recipes. If I am short on ideas for the week, I reference the family favorites box and often there is something that we haven’t had in a while that I can add to the week’s menu.

Physically Plan Out Your Meals

Take a few minutes each week to sit down and physically write out a meal plan for the upcoming days. Be sure to take into account your family’s obligations for that week as noted above. I do this when I make my grocery list for the week.

I pull out my recipe box of family favorites, my go-to recipe books, grocery list, and calendar for the week. As I choose recipes, I add their ingredients to the grocery list and add the meal to the weekly meal plan I post in the kitchen. If I’m pulling from multiple sources in a week, I’ll jot the cookbook name on the meal plan to make it easier to find.

Plan out your meals for the week on your phone, planner, family chalkboard, or dry-erase board, anywhere you will remember to reference. Having a plan in place will alleviate the stress and anxiety of deciding what to make for dinner each night.

Posting the meal plan somewhere everyone can see may save you from being asked “What’s for dinner” 50 times a day. It also helps when looking at leftovers in the fridge and can decrease wasted food by putting “expiration dates” on everything based on its cook date.

Utilize Family-Friendly Cookbooks

When I’m stumped I peek through my cookbooks that offer family-friendly meals for ideas. I tend to mark recipes that sound good as well as though that have been a success in the past, so they are a quick reference when meal planning. My favorite family-friendly cookbooks are:

Prep in Advance if You Have Time

Certain meals may require more prep work, such as dicing vegetables, than others. I try to take a few minutes and get this done when I can. For example, dicing vegetables for chicken noodle soup while the kids have a snack after school before I head out to sports and activities. The diced veggies go into a container in the fridge and are ready when I start dinner later in the evening.

Embrace One Pot Meals

At this stage in my life, I don’t have the time to cook something that requires 4-5 pans, nor do I want to deal with the cleanup that comes along with a meal like that. While sheet pan dinners have never worked well for me, I love one-pot meals, especially in my Instant Pot.

This is the Instant Pot I have, on Amazon. I use a 6 quart and have never needed bigger. I mostly use it for soups, rice dishes, and meats. This is probably my most consistently used cooking pot right now, at about 2-3 times per week, on average.

My favorite thing about my Instant pot is that I can saute meats and vegetables, then throw everything else in the same pan, and off it goes. My husband insists that meats and soups come out better in the Instant Pot than they ever did in my crockpot or Dutch oven, so everyone wins!

Not only are one-pot meals easy to prepare, but they can also be incredibly versatile. From hearty stews to flavorful meat dishes, there are countless options for every taste preference.

Use Leftovers Strategically

Leftovers are an underrated resource for busy moms looking to save time and money. Instead of letting them go to waste, use leftovers strategically to create new meals or simply reheat and enjoy them. By incorporating leftover ingredients into your meal planning, you can reduce the amount of cooking and prep work required.

We have at least one night a week that is planned leftovers. I usually try for Fridays when dinners are staggered the most due to sports and after-school activities. Everyone picks their favorite meal from the week to reheat and eat, making dinner prep quick and easy.

Stock Your Pantry

To make meal planning a bit easier, keep your pantry stocked with items you use frequently in your recipes. Having a variety of essential ingredients on hand will not only simplify your meal planning routine but also make meal prep quick and effortless. When you’re in a pinch and don’t have time to go grocery shopping, a stocked pantry can save the day.

Start by stocking varieties of pasta, rice, and grains that can be used as a base for many different meals. Canned goods like tomatoes, beans, and chickpeas are versatile ingredients that can be added to soups, stews, salads, and more. Cooking oils, and sauces are great to keep on hand as well.

When you have a well-stocked pantry, meal prep becomes less stressful, and you can quickly whip up a meal without having to run to the store. Additionally, creating a list of frequently used pantry items can save you money by allowing you to buy in bulk.

Make Use of Your Freezer

This is something I need to work on. I do not utilize our freezer at all when meal planning. I tried freezer bag meals once and that was a greasy gross flop, but there are other ways your freezer can save you time.

One example is freezing individual ingredients. For example, if you have a bunch of ripe bananas that you won’t be able to eat before they go bad, peel and freeze them for future smoothies or banana bread. You can also freeze chopped veggies, cooked grains, and even fresh herbs.

You can also batch-cook and freeze meals. If you’re making a big pot of soup or chili, portion it out and freeze it for later. This is also a great way to prepare for the week ahead, as you can make a big batch of lasagna or enchiladas on the weekend, and then freeze individual servings for lunches and dinners.

7 Meal Planning Hacks for Busy Moms

Meal planning for busy moms doesn’t have to be a chore. I hope these 7 ideas helped you to take back meal planning saving you time, energy, and stress. Comment your favorite meal-planning tip below!

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