Meal Planning - with a twist

The 5:00 o’clock dinner bell gongs, and the dreaded, “what’s for dinner” question haunts us.

Do they really need to eat again? Sheesh - didn’t I just feed them?

When I mention meal planning, most women run for the hills because it is just one more thing to cram on our overextended plates.

We know there’s a benefit in having a plan, but the thought of having to actually sit down and work it through leaves us frazzled and overwhelmed.

Right now, you can google meal planning and choose from 5 million entries to read. The benefits of saving time, saving money and saving your sanity will all be shared.

The professionals will tell you to pull out your calendar, gather the family around and brainstorm favorite meals. They’ll encourage you to fill in the calendar dates with your top choices, create a shopping list and go from there.

Meal planning made easy, right?

That’s in an ideal world.

A world in which I wish I lived - a world in which my best intentions meet reality on occasion.

My guess is that many of you can relate;

“Queen of Best Intentions”…maybe tomorrow.

For many of us, this is the most difficult aspect in making our home a haven.

Our families need to eat...every day...all the time...and that cooking rut just grows deeper.

So how do we get around this lack of follow through?

Just do it – with small baby steps!

I had written another post (in my mind), with some general suggestions for conquering Meal Time Mountain, but after brainstorming with many of my friends on this topic, they finally declared…

“Jen, seriously, just tell us what to do, so we can copy you.”

That’s a scary statement, people…but here goes.

I decided to take a one hour challenge, and see how much I could do to prepare for future meals. I attacked this mission with fervor, and planned on conquering it.

Here’s what I did. I had already de-thawed the meats, and had started a crock pot full of black beans that morning.

So I fired up two of my best friends for the evening – my rice cooker and grill.
I grilled ten combined pounds of chicken, pork and hamburger.

While “I” (well, technically, my 13 year old son - train them young as I always say) was grilling, I fried six pounds of hamburger meat, and started my rice cooker.

I made two separate helpings of brown rice and basmati rice.

One hour later, I had eighteen chicken breasts and pork,

chopped, sliced and diced.

The rice, beans and (seasoned) hamburger meat were completed and divided into baggies.

The mouth-watering ribs and hamburger patties flew straight from the grill to being totally devoured by my family (one meal done...in minutes – ugh – they didn’t even stop to relish it).

Let me tell you, it was a true carnivore’s delight.

And since I tend to minimize the meat – they were in hog heaven.

So what does that have to do with meal planning for the Queen of Best Intentions?

Every thing that I had just put into Ziplock bags now offered a minimum of 15 possible meal choices that I could cook up in minutes.

I know you’re thinking…she must be crazy, how is she getting those numbers?

Well, since I have an “emergency corner” of foods that I am never without, I can draw from this stockpile on any given day.

I highly recommend doing this – even if it’s just with a few items. These are staples that I stock up on when the grocer has them at buy one get one free, and I have saved some coupons

Most of these pantry items, I get for nearly free with coupons, but you already now that.

These are the items that I always stock.

1. can of diced tomotoes

2. cans of cream of mushroom or chicken soup

3. flour tortillas

4. shredded cheese

5. frozen vegetables

6. salsa

7. noodles

8. spaghetti sauce

9. sour cream

10. a few "Pillsbury" type items that I have gotten virtually free - biscuits, pie crusts, pizza dough (homemade or store bought with coupon).

With these items and the food I just prepared, I can make:

*Chicken stir fry – chicken, frozen veggies, rice

*Enchiladas or burritos with rice, beans, taco seasoned beef, cheese, salsa, and sour cream

*Simple chicken casserole with diced chicken, cream of mushroom/chx soup, rice, seasoning, and cheese sprinkled on top.

*Simple Chicken pot pie with chicken, cream of mush/chx soup, bag of frozen veggies, cheese, and an all purpose seasoning…I love Homemade Gourmet.

*Chili – hamburger, beans, water, can of diced tomatoes, seasoning, and water.

*Taco salad - romaine lettuce drizzled with either French or ranch dressings, dolloped with black beans, taco flavored hamburger meat, salsa, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips

*Taco dip

*Taco pizza

*Grilled Chicken salad

*Shredded pork with BBQ sauce makes a great sandwich

*Stuffed biscuits with either salsa or spaghetti sauce, hamburger, and cheese

*Spaghetti

Whew, can you believe it, and I was just getting warmed up. Don’t worry if your freezer space is limited. Look how much room it took up?

Can you believe all that I got done with one hour and 15 minutes of intentional time set aside to conquer this mealtime mountain.

If I can do this…you can too.

I am passionate about families spending more time connecting at the dinner table (yes, another topic), and less time being frazzled with the process.

With simple meal planning, you not only save time, and HUGE amounts of money, but you enjoy the lost art of shared dinner conversations which makes this priceless.

Let’s continue to make our home a haven by taking time this week to move from best intentions to actually answering the “what’s for dinner question” in our own home.

Are you up for the challenge?

Is there anything still standing in your way?

I can’t wait for you to join me as we balance both the beauty and the bedlam of mealtime mountain.

Since this post was written, we have eaten 10 meals from this hour of work.

Most of those meals took less than 10 minutes to prepare, with most of that time spent de-thawing since I forgot to take it out the night before. Our Mexican night recipes are up..enjoy meals made easy.