We are currently in the process of moving from Alberta to BC. In this process we have had a number of weeks away from work and school. It’s been amazing to get a chance to relax. Unfortunately, it also means we have gotten into a fairly prolonged vacation-type meal pattern. This means we are having plenty of impromptu snacks at ice cream stands or markets for fresh summer fruits and pastries and eating out way more often.
Back to life, back to reality…
Just this past week, work has started up again and I was (somewhat) ready to get back into the swing of things. As such, on Sunday this week, I spent sketched out our meal plan for the week. We are currently staying with my parents, while we wait to get possession of our new house on September 1. This means that we are cooking for 6 instead of 4. It also means that there are more schedules and taste preferences to consider.
How did our real-life, non-vacationy meal plan go?
Scratching out this rough meal plan certainly made our evening dinner turn-arounds much smoother.
It meant that each night when we got back to the house, we knew exactly what to prepare and were able to get dinner on the table within about 30 minutes of getting home.
We also used the meal the plan to plan the grocery list and were able to get all the ingredients with one quick shop. GREAT!
Key things we considered in this meal plan
Our main focuses in this meal plan was time to prepare meals. With 6 people living in one house, with one fridge, doing our typical meal prep on Sunday isn’t feasible. We just don’t have the fridge space. So my goal was to choose meals that didn’t need much meal prep.
The other consideration was the my mom had a recipe from her childhood appear in her newsfeed that she said she wanted to prepare. I wrote it down as Haluska on the plan, but it was really Haluski and it was delicious. It meant that we would be buying cabbage and I wanted to put it in a second cabbage dish so that none of the head would go to waste. This prompted the addition of the cabbage roll soup on Saturday – chosen for tonight when I would have more time to cook.
Take Aways
For busy families with lots of moving pieces, meal planning is a key component of getting meals on the table that help you meet your nutrition goals.
When building your meal plan consider:
- How much time you will have each night to prepare the foods
- Can you prepare anything a head of time? If not, plan for something quick and easy
- Are there any new recipes you want to try? If so – great! Give them a try but check the ingredient list and make sure that you get everything you need and come up with a plan for any leftover ingredients you may have
- If you have left over ingredients (like cabbage) or other foods in the fridge that need to get eaten make sure you work in a space to have those items too.
Clients have often asked me to make a meal plan for them and I am convinced that a meal plan made by someone else is doomed to fail. In my experience, meal plans created by someone else fail to meet the needs of your family from week to week and become more of a hassle than a help.
But a meal plan that you sketch out week to week that uses recipes your family likes (or would like to try) is responsive to your needs and preferences and makes a huge difference in meeting your nutrition goals.
