Being organised with shopping for food then preparing and cooking for our family for the week is one of the areas of my life that I am continually growing and learning in.
When I’m organised we eat well, the meals are healthy and delicious and the children have a much more at-ease Mother.
When I’m not as organised, well it’s a lot more stressful for everybody.
Meal planning saves time, money and it helps you eat for nourishment rather than survival!
There are LOTS of different ways to plan your meals for the week ahead, organise your grocery list and make shopping for food easier.
I’ve compiled a couple of my favourite links for inspiring you with meal planning.
First is Jo Whitton of Quirky Cooking fame. The resourceful, practical nature of Jo’s post are a real winner here. We’ve taken on board lots of her suggestions over time. Check out her comprehensive guide to meal planning, as well as her example meal plans on her facebook group Quirky Cooking
Bulk buying saves so much money and time! Read more about that here
Wholefood Canteen, a Brisbane based company who make all the meals for two Montessori preschools, have a great post waxing lyrical about the benefits of meal planning.
So getting down to the practicalities of it.
How do you plan for a week for meals?
There are lots of Apps that help will meal plan, create grocery lists, store recipes.
If you want to keep track of your menu plan and grocery list over a number of devices for convenience and ease there are lots of options out there, some free, some that cost.
My take is the apps are great if you get most of your recipes and ideas for meals online.
If all of your recipes are in hardcopy, on cards, scraps of paper and you don’t want to spend hours entering in all your favourite recipes into the digital age, stick with a menu planning template, like these ones from The Nourishing Home
Then there are people out there who have made up meal plans and provided all the recipes for you! Bliss ?
One of the most comprehensive planning tools I’ve found is an app/website/program which combines Wellness Mama’s union with Real Plans.
Real Plans has everything that I’d look for in a meal planning app with so many nutrient dense meal options and the ability to eliminate particular foods if there’s allergies or sensitivities to certain foods in your family.
A subscription (approx $130 (AUD) for a year, with monthly or quarterly payment options) will give you access to over 2000 recipes. It has traditional (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free options), Paleo (Primal and Autoimmune Protocol options) and Vegetarian (Ovo-lacto) options. With a 30 day money back guarantee, it’s worth a trial if organisation is holding you back from eating more nourishing food more often!
The Eat for Life Cooking Workshop is the missing gap between KNOWLEDGE & IMPLEMENTATION
Where we will take you by the hand and help you make the transition from KNOWING what to do, to actually DOING it!
In this four hour interactive workshop you’ll be learning:
- How to create a weekly menu
- How to find the best deals and make it affordable
- Food quality and what you should be prioritising your budget on
- Food Prep… we’ll be covering how to PREP for the week, to minimise your time in the kitchen with both cooking and cleaning
- Food Demo… we’ll be showing you how to create some of our favourite meals in the kitchen (and best yet, you’ll actually get to eat them)!
We’ll be covering options right through from breakfast to dinner to sweet treats!