Want to start meal planning and make your week nights easier?

Our suggestions on how to start Meal Planning:

1. Plan for 3 meals per week.

• This allows for change of plans, leftovers and less of a commitment. Do what works best for you! If 3 is too many, try 2!

2. Recruit the household for help coming up with meals.

• Put meal ideas on a spreadsheet, popsicle sticks or folded pieces of paper. Take ideas from the family of any meals they can think of and write them down. This will help when you are low on ideas!

3. Identify the week's menu and added needed items to the grocery list.

4. Prep as much as you can ahead, brown meat, chop vegetables or mix sauce ingredients.

• These are all extra timesaving steps that can help you save time later!

5. Bulk prepare meats and certain grains.

• By making bulk proteins, you can contain the mess to clean up once and it saves a lot of time. I like to make bulk (3 to 10lbs) of Burger, Sausage or even Roasts at once! This saves lots of time and clean up. Just individually pack into freezer bags and label. Note, shred the roasts before freezing.

• You can cook and freeze previously frozen meats. The state of the meat has been changed by cooking there for it is able to be refrozen. I also go as far as lightly or completely thawing certain cuts, adding to a marinade and refreezing.

• Rice freezes very well. I make double or triple batches and freeze. (It helps to write the number of servings or cups on the bag!)

• Pasta freezes well too - this link explains how!

Like or drop a comment with your favorite meal planning tips! We may just feature them on a later post!

Happy planning!

Kate