January: the time of year when gyms are packed, diets are started, and closets are purged. I am sure it comes as no surprise that eating healthier and getting organized are two of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Fortunately, something as simple as planning out your meals ahead of time will help you do both. Regardless of whether are new to the whole concept of meal planning or have been doing it for years, here are a few tips to help you create healthy meals and save you time.
Tip #1: Create a recipe binder
I think the most overwhelming aspect of meal planning is deciding what to cook. For me, that used to involve pulling out a dozen cookbooks, opening up my Pinterest “recipe” board, and thumbing through countless pages that I’d torn out of cooking magazines. A few years ago, I created my recipe binder -- or as I like to call it, my recipe Bible. Every time I find a recipe I want to try, I make a photocopy of the recipe and put it into my binder. My binder has grown to over one hundred recipes that I’ve divided into sections for meat, poultry, seafood, vegetable sides, salads, soups, pastas, etc. Now when I am planning meals for the week, I only need to look at one cookbook -- my recipe binder!
Tip #2: Menu plan and grocery shop once per week
Imagine no longer having to ask yourself the dreaded question, “what am I going to make for dinner tonight?”. Now imagine not having to make last minute runs to the grocery store. Sounds pretty nice, right? Planning your weekly menu in advance takes the hassle out of making dinner time decisions, as well as saves you time and money. I start my weekly meal planning by looking at our schedule for the week and figuring out how many meals I need to shop for. I then head to my trusty recipe binder and pick recipes from each of my main dish categories (vegetarian, seafood, poultry, meat, pork, soup) and the accompanying side dishes. In order to save money and keep from wasting food, I also look for recipes that use similar ingredients. As I choose each recipe, I remove that page from the binder and use the recipes to create my grocery list for the week. One trip to the grocery store and I have everything I need to make healthy, delicious meals for my family all week.
Tip #3: Prep foods in advance
The thirty minutes prior to dinnertime is referred to as the "witching hour" in most households with toddlers. It always seems that the biggest meltdowns happen when I have three things on the stove and a timer beeping to remind me that my dinner is about to burn up in the oven. In order to minimize the weeknight burden of cooking dinner, I prep most of my meals on the weekend when I have a bit more time (and hopefully no screaming toddlers running around at my feet). During my prep time, I do things like make marinades and salad dressing, wash lettuce greens and herbs, chop vegetables, grate cheese, wash and cut fruit for the week, etc. The hour I spend prepping food on the weekend typically cuts my weeknight cooking time in half, which in turn means dinner gets on the table faster and with less stress.
I hope these tips help you in keeping up those New Year’s resolutions. You can find more ideas for de-stressing dinner time and check out the meal planning calendar I created in my pantry by heading over to Everyday Organizing (www.everyday-organizing.com) and searching for “meal planning.”
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Kristin Bauer is the author of Everyday Organizing, a blog dedicated to providing simple and affordable organizing solutions. As a mom to twin toddlers and a wife to an infinitely patient husband, Kristin delights in developing creative ideas for streamlining busy lives. She loves all things related to organizing and can often be found sorting, arranging, containing or labeling one space or another in her home. Kristin believes that even small steps towards organization can lead to less stress, more time, saved money and greater enjoyment of everyday life. Prior to having children, Kristin spent eight years as a middle school counselor where she had plenty of opportunity to practice her organizing skills with a notoriously disorganized population: pre-teens. When she isn’t organizing, Kristin enjoys going for long runs, drinking chai-tea lattes, trying new recipes, playing with her kids, chatting with friends, and hanging out with her husband. To find out more about Kristin and learn valuable tips and tricks for getting and staying organized, visit her blog Everyday Organizing at www.everday-organizing.com.
