Meal Planning for Dummies

Sitting down to write out a weekly meal plan is among the most hated chores a mom has to do. It ranks right up there with anything regarding poop or laundry. Then, considering that meal planning leads to grocery shopping, coupon clipping, cooking and dishes, it's understandable that most moms decide to just wing it. Ignorance is bliss afterall and I generally prefer to remain ignorant about the amount of work I have awaiting me.

I have found several tricks that minimize my work load and make meal planning (and all that comes with that) a little easier for me.

First, sort through your cookbooks and toss the ones that you won't use. Index your favorite recipes from the remaining cookbooks so that you can find them easily. You can do this by creating a running list of meals that are quick and easy to prepare and listing the cookbook and the page number beside the recipe title. You could also take the time to write your favorite recipes on index cards and store them somewhere, but that's a lot of work. This simple indexing step will eliminate the task of getting out your cookbooks and sorting through them every week to try to find something different to make that week.

Second, when you attend a potluck, a family dinner or a dinner party with friends, solicit the recipes of the foods you like. Store them with your index of favorite recipes so that you have all of your recipes handy for when it's time to meal plan.

When it's time to plan your menu gather the following items: pen, paper, weekly sale ads, and your recipe index.

Choose meals that reflect what's on sale at your favorite grocer that week. You'll save time and money that way.

Be a cafeteria cook. Plan to cook a large meal only two to three times a week, then base your other meals around those two or three larger meals. For instance, cook a chicken in the crockpot on Monday. Serve it over rice and with fresh veggies. Maybe on Wednesday, revisit the chicken, but this time serve it in quesadillas with a side of salad and some salsa. Then on Friday, turn the remaining chicken into chicken soup with fresh veggies. You can do the same thing with spaghetti sauce that you turn into lasagne and pizza later in the week.

One day of "hard cooking" and you've essentially go three meals ready to whip up. You're saving time, money and energy using this method, PLUS, you are having good, home-cooked food.

Finally, use the resources you have available. The following are just a few resources I've pulled together, but really, there are countless others.

http://www.kraftfoods.com offers recipes, a recipe box that you can create on their website, a free subscription to their Food and Family magazine and a host of other dinner helps.

www.savingdinner.com provides recipes and meal plans for a fee.

Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals is a great resource for moms on the go.

The Joy of Cooking is a classic cookbook that won't save you time necessarily, but that will teach you how to make classic dinner favorites that you can build on and use in your "cafeteria" meal plan.

Happy cooking!