I wash and cut fruit making it easy to grab. When it comes to prepping, I mean just that. So in my case it is completely useless to plan without the prep, they must go together or the whole thing just falls apart. Our weeks get super busy and the yummy dinner I had all picked out to cook will get repaced for something faster like popcorn and almond butter. If I meal plan but don’t prep I will waste food. In regards to prepping, I have noticed that it is one thing to meal plan, but it is another thing entirely to prep. So it’s really not all that bad! If you are concerned that meal planning will take over your life, don’t be it actually does the opposite! I’m always worried that meal planning is going to take up the entire day on Sunday, but in all actuality it’s about 3ish hours from start to finish, including the shopping portion. We’ll stop by the grocery store on the way home and once we get home I’ll turn on an audio book and get to work chopping, washing, and slicing! Typically I try and knock out my meal planning and prepping on Sunday after church. The Shopping & Chopping:įor the most part I try and make this happen each week, except for the weeks where we travel, because those weeks are a bit nutty in general. And lastly, my favorite part is that it stores all of my recipes, it’s magical. I love this app because I can import recipes in directly from my favorite websites and it instantly makes a shopping list for me… it honestly has saved me from going back to the grocery store more times than I can count! I also love that the app makes it possible for you to plan out your meals and specify the days. When I make my list I use a notepad and an app called MealBoard. I have a few go-to recipes (my favorites are listed here!) that I tend to cycle in and out along with a few websites that I’m constantly going to for inspiration Skinny Taste, Gimme Some Oven, Minimalist Baker, Two Peas in Their Pod, and Cookie & Kate. It’s like what they say about getting to the the gym, showing up is always the hardest part. I think this is by far the hardest hurdle to jump over, so if you can get past this you can 100% turn this into a habit.
Otherwise when the week gets hectic I am liable to forget what meal we’re supposed to have when, or end up with the wrong ingredients during the ‘prep’ phase.īut don’t you worry, there is a super helpful FREE downloadable/printable Weekly Meal Planner I designed at the end of this post! So if you are on the fence about meal planning or are sometimes grumpy about it like I am, then this post is for you! Write It All Down:įirst off, leave nothing to chance! I like to have a written meal plan complete with breakfast, lunch, and dinner the entire week as well as my shopping list. So I’m not sure why I fuss over it each Sunday, because it is 100% worth my time and I ALWAYS regret it when I don’t plan. And in all reality it saves me a million hours throughout the week. I don’t know why, but it always feels like a such big task and that it will take my entire day, which it never does. I have a love hate relationship with meal planning.