Recently I did a poll to find out what the biggest pain point is for busy working mums. (Not to say that busy working dads don’t contribute to the household, but my primary focus is on mums š ). The most popular response was…. *Drum roll* – meal planning! Unsurprising really. It’s a daily chore that can be rather time-consuming and tedious. It’s such a headache thinking about what’s in the fridge or the cupboard or what to cook every night. A common conversation in our house used to go something along the lines of: “What do you feel like eating for supper tonight?”
“I don’t know, what do you feel like?” or “I don’t mind, anything” or “What about this?” then “Nah, I don’t feel like that…” *Sigh, eye roll*
The cluelessness added to the mum guilt of wanting to feed your children a delicious healthy meal makes the idea of meal planning so much more appealing.
Before I start talking about meal plans, I’d like to share my top 6 meal planning tips on how to save time, make meal planning easier and cooking for your family more enjoyable.
1. Keep basic ingredients in your pantry
Having a few basic ingredients in your pantry and freezer can help on those days when you’re short on time, haven’t had the chance to think about what to cook and want to be able to make something quick and easy. I always have these basics available:
- Pasta – spaghetti, macaroni
- Uncooked rice and ready made rice packets
- Canned chopped tomato
- Canned tuna
- Canned chickpeas and beans
- Baked beans
- Potatoes
- Spices such as salt, pepper, mixed herbs, oregano, smoked paprika, cumin
- Chicken stock cubes
2. Use frozen ingredients
Discovering frozen chopped ingredients was a game changer for me. I save a lot of time using frozen chopped ginger, chopped onions, soffrito (chopped onions, celery and carrots), sliced mushrooms and chopped spinach. Other vegetables I have in the freezer are broccoli, peas and sweetcorn. Meal prep time is halved as there’s no time wasted on cleaning, peeling and chopping. Just defrost the ingredient for a few seconds in the microwave if necessary or add it immediately to the pot or pan for cooking.
3. Get into the one-pot, slow cooker, traybake cooking mode
One pot cooking is perfect for those busy afternoons when you’re rushing in between school pickups and after school activities. The satisfaction of having a delicious meal bubbling away in the slow cooker that requires minimal effort to prepare makes you feel like a domestic goddess! The clean-up post meal is also great as there’s less mess and dishes to contend with. Meal planning with one-pot, slow cooker and traybake meals is definitely one of my “work smart, not hard” go to tips.
4. Consider online grocery shopping
Online grocery shopping saves me a lot of time. When you think about the time spent driving to and from the supermarket especially if there’s traffic, looking for parking and walking around the supermarket looking for groceries you can easily save up to 2 to 3 hours a week. I also noticed that we spent more money on a supermarket shop putting unnecessary items into the trolley compared to only buying the items you need with an online shop. Most online supermarkets allow you to create favourite grocery lists or saved shopping lists. This also speeds up creating an online order as you can add groceries directly to your basket without having to search for them. Over time you start to build up a frequently used list where you won’t need to spend much time at all creating an online order.
Of course, shopping online does require planning in advance to think about the potential meals you’d like to cook over the next week which leads me to the next point about following a meal plan.
5. Follow a meal plan
A meal plan initially requires some time and effort thinking about what to cook but once you’ve built up 3 or 4 weeks of a meal plan you can then rotate this every few weeks. You can also save money by only buying what you need for your meals and reduce food waste.
If creating your own meal plan is too much for you, there are many meal plans readily available online or websites and apps that can give you suggestions on what to cook based on the ingredients you already have available.
Another great option I’ve used a few times is a recipe box delivery service. The only thinking required is choosing the meals you’d like to cook for your family size. The pre-portioned ingredients are delivered to you with an easy-to-follow recipe to cook. Depending on the company there are different options such as quick and easy meals, family friendly meals, vegetarian meals, vegan meals and high protein meals. I’ve used HelloFresh and Mindful Chef which we’ve enjoyed eating as a family. I’d recommend giving them a try with their initial discounted boxes.
6. Eat as a family
This controversial point is most likely an unpopular opinion. There are many benefits to eating together as a family. I am aware that different schedules and food preferences can make it impossible to do. But if you can eat together as a family or at least cook a meal the whole family can eat then you’ll save time and effort cooking and having to think about multiple meals. It’s also been said that there’s an added bonus of reduced fussy eating when children watch family members eat the same food. They may even be more willing to try new flavours and textures!
Our time is precious so instead of wasting time on tedious tasks we can start learning to think more about how to work smart and not hard. I hope following some of these tips I’ve suggested helps make cooking for your family less stressful and hopefully gives back more time for you to do the things you actually want to do.