The MomSpeak

Meal planning. Sounds so sensible and mundane. Where’s the spontaneity? The allowance for food cravings? And what if there’s no room for the overhead of planning in your already busy life?

I wouldn’t classify myself as particularly organized or systematic, but I do consider meal planning to be the backbone of my domestic week. The fifteen minutes I spend mapping out the week’s meals save me hours of time I’d lose dashing around my house trying to scare up dinner, or running back to the store for an overpriced item from the deli case.

I’m here to reassure you that meal planning does not have to include seven days’ worth of perfectly balanced meals, nor does it require a lot of work or time. Just a few minutes and the willingness to sit down with a cookbook and a grocery list.

Keep it simple. No one’s going to call the Betty Crocker police if you serve a side dish of bagged raw baby carrots, or if you declare “Cereal night.” Think about balancing your meals over the week instead of every day, and you’ll have a lot more flexibility.

Use a single cookbook for the week. Saves lots of time planning. Plus, when I restrict myself to a single book, I find I’m a more adventurous cook because I try recipes I might skip over at first glance.

Plan at least two tried-and-true, no-recipe meals per week. Our favorites are spaghetti with tomato sauce, vegie burgers, tofu-vegetable stir fry, and “breakfast for dinner.” My family never minds the repetition, and it makes for much quicker planning.

Plan for a weekly “scrounge buffet.” Ours is usually on the weekend when I don’t feel like cooking. We take everything out of the fridge, heat up what’s necessary, then eat little bits for dinner. We use everything up, and the fridge is clean and ready to be filled on grocery day. 

Make room for seasonal produce. If it’s summer, make a no-cook pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes and basil, followed up with melon spears and blueberries. During the winter, make root vegetable stew with orange wedges for dessert. Let the seasons inform your cooking.

Cook a little extra for the freezer. Once a week, cook a double portion of your meal and freeze the extra. Having readymade meals in the freezer is like having money in the bank — they can cover those evenings when you just don’t feel like cooking.