Family Meal Planning Made Easy

As busy people, we have hectic schedules. Some of us work out of our home, in our home and some of us are full time stay at home parents, we definitely have a big challenge. We often wait until we feel the hunger pains to remember that on top of all we thought we needed to do that day, we still have to figure out what we're going to make for dinner each night.

Here are a few tips to take the guesswork out of family meal planning:
Designate a block of time every week when you have enough down time to plan and prepare your menu for the coming week.

"Shop" your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a mental note of all the food you already have in there. You could already have a several meal components that you just have to put together and that will make less to buy on your shopping list.

Start with the food you want to use for dinners. Plan the menus based on the food you already have so you just need to buy the things you do not have. So for example, if you have potatoes, onions and flour, simply add milk and cheese to your shopping list for an easy potato gratin.

You will be pleasantly surprised with the amount of meals you can plan with the food you already have. Some recipe sites even have sections now where you can input several random ingredients and it will populate recipes that include those ingredients. Once you have used as much of the things in your cabinet, then planning new meals from scratch. Move on to breakfast and then to lunch if you have family members who are dependent on you for them. Some households have older kids who eat lunch at school and are fine with having cereal in the mornings.

As you are completing your list, do not forget to add all of those must haves for every busy family like snacks, fruit, juice, milk and all those little extras we always seem to need. You want to stay diligent about going shopping only once a week. This goes hand in hand, with your meal planning. When you have to keep going back and forth to the grocery store several times during the week, you end up spending more time and money.

Post your weekly meal menu in an obvious place in your home so all you need to do is glance at it each morning. Take out whatever meat needs thawing if it is frozen and you can plan how much time you will need to prep and cook later on that night. It certainly pays to plan and be prepared for your week. I assure you that if you just take the time to do these few things every week, you will actually save time and definitely save money.