Meal Planning: Taking the Angst Out of Dinner

You stare hopelessly into the refrigerator’s abyss. Mustard, pizza from last week, milk of questionable character. Close the door. Look around. Open the door again- nothing’s changed. No miraculous discovery to answer tonight’s question: What’s for dinner? Fifteen minutes of rummaging through cupboards and the freezer…and the winner is…takeout. Again. Sound familiar?

In our early married days we ate so much Thai I learned the language. Jimmy John’s every Saturday, Chipotle at least twice a week, and a shocking amount of frozen pizza. Then, along came the meal plan. My mom used to sit down once a month and map out our family dinners for the next 30 days. She’d craft a miles long grocery list, haul us kids to the commissary, and we would spend approximately one year shopping. That approach worked for her, but it doesn’t work for me. I cannot commit to a specific meal two weeks from now. It’s too much pressure. But I can do this a week at a time, and so can you. Today we’re going to look at why meal planning rocks, how to do it, and some easy starter meals.

Why Meal Planning Rocks

It may seem tedious at first to pull out your recipe box and cookbooks, or allrecipes.com (fantastic resource by the way), but the rewards are worth the work.  Preparing your choices ahead of time saves all kinds of evening heartache.

• Meal planning saves time. Take half an hour (less if you’re decisive) once a week to write out what you’re going to make for dinner for the next seven days. This prevents countless minutes of fridge-staring, desperate delivery calls, and last-minute grocery stops.
• Meal planning saves money. We’re all guilty of aimlessly roaming grocery aisles sans list and sans plan. Check out is $173, and still dinner is a huge question mark. Back to the store for a few missing ingredients to piece together a meal. Armed with a grocery list based on your meal plan almost eliminates this issue entirely.
• Meal planning saves angst. No more question marks, no more takeout guilt, no more missing pieces. Having a plan and preparing to follow it means the hardest part of dinner is remembering to pull meat out of the freezer.

Clearly you’re convinced that meal planning solves all the dinnertime woes. So how do you actually make a plan that works at your house?

How to Craft a Successful Meal Plan

As with any new habit, starting too aggressively is inviting failure.  Start slow with meals that you know your family enjoys, that you’re confident in your ability to do well, and that you have the time to make.  Give yourself some wiggle room and plan for grilled cheese sandwiches one evening, and eating out on another (if it’s on the plan well then who can argue?).

• Make what you like to eat. Choose recipes that sound good to you, trick the kids into vegetables, or emulate your favorite menu items.
• Incorporate new options. To prevent kitchen boredom, pick out new recipes a handful of times each month. When I’m feeling ambitious, I like to try at least one new thing each week.
• Use what you have on hand. If meal planning is really going to save you money, choose dinners that maximize your available inventory. I don’t pick recipes that require me to purchase the majority of ingredients. I do like menus that add one or two items to my pantry that can be used continuously (new spices, oils, vinegars, sauces) and opens up more options for me in the future. This way you gradually build up supplies without blowing the budget. If you don’t have a budget, let’s talk about that over here.
• Repurpose leftovers into something new. If you’re making grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner on Tuesday, grill extra pieces for a yummy salad on Wednesday. Here are some awesome leftover strategies and a few of my favorite repurposed meal combinations.
• Review the meal plan side by side with the grocery list. As you choose meals, write the missing ingredients on your grocery list. Double check that you have enough of your on-hand ingredients to make everything on the meal plan (common ingredients like onion, garlic, olive oil, butter, and potatoes are easy for me to overlook).

Now you can go to the grocery store with confidence! No more lurking. No more guessing. Come home from work and approach the fridge like a boss. You know what’s in there, and you know what you’re going to create out of it. Sweet sweet freedom.

Easy Starter Meals

As promised, here are some easy and delicious meals to practice with. If you don’t like these, don’t make them. Choose something that you want to eat, otherwise why bother?
Again, there’s no pressure to cook seven meals each week. Plan to make six dinners, or four. Start small and prevent burn out.

• Spaghetti with spinach salad. Spaghetti sauce can be as easy as a jar of Ragu and a pound of ground beef. If you want to get fancy, check out Nonna’s Meat Sauce.
• Burgers with oven fries and fruit. Dinner: A Love Story has a fantastic recipe for Spicy Oven Fries.
• Crockpot pork roast with sweet potatoes and roast vegetables. You can also put the veggies in with the pork, but then everything sort of tastes the same.
• White chicken chili with chips and salsa. My favorite recipe came from Bread and Wine, but everybody’s mama has a chili recipe that they’re willing to share.

Best of luck on the journey. Please please share any meal planning tips you may have with the rest of the Salt community! We want to know what you’re having for dinner!