Busy parents will be all too familiar with stressful evenings, frantically searching the refrigerator for something to cook for dinner. Your meals can’t be too complicated, as the kids have to be in bed early for school the next day, but you want to stay away from yet another pizza. You may have heard smug moms at the school gate, boasting about how they plan every meal for the week or have read blogs about Meal Planning Monday. Well, now is the time to join in with the trend and see your weekly stresses melt away, as quick has you can say homemade meatballs! The basic con-cept is that you spend time at the start of the week, planning what food to buy, according to your budget, and the activities you have booked in for the week ahead.
If Monday is not a good day for you to go shopping or if you don’t have spare time to spend on a plan on a Monday, you can shift your planning day to whatever day suits your family lifestyle. Fridays could be a great alternative, so that you can shop together at the weekend. If your daughter has dance class on Monday, you will want a quick pasta dish or if you finish early on Thursday, you can plan a roast dinner for all of the family. Take a look at these meal planning templates that you can print out and stick on your fridge, to keep you organized at every meal time. We take a look at the top 5 benefits of taking part in Meal Planning Monday

Save Time

Lack of planning can lead to disorganized evenings, where you rummage through your cupboards and end up making the same old meals, week in week out. Your dinner is often eaten as quickly as possible, as you are focusing on everything else you have to fit into your evening, before bedtime. Meal planning allows you have a full range of food bought in for the week, with all of the ingredients at hand, ready to cook whatever is on your plan for that day. If you want to save even more time, why not have your shopping delivered to your door? Stores, such as Safeway and Walmart have delivery services, where you can order your food online and choose a day for your groceries to be delivered.

Save Money

Grocery budgets are growing bigger and bigger, with many families looking to get as much food as they can whilst watching the purse strings. If, like many other families, you have weeks where you need to be more frugal than others, meal planning can alleviate the stress of walking around the store each evening, wondering what meal is more affordable. By planning your week ahead, you can plan a daily budget and shop for food that fits into that budget. Thinking ahead often means you can buy in bulk, saving money in the long run, with items such as ground beef, that can be bought for meatloaf one night and spaghetti Bolognese another. Writing a list is also a good way of prevent-ing impulse buys and food waste, as everything will be accounted for.

Work Together

Do you have a fussy eater on your hand? Or maybe a keen baker? By turning your Meal Planning Monday into a family activity, each family member can have an input on what they will be eating for the week ahead. This will mean that you can be creative together in thinking up new meals and can also educate children on ensuring they eat from all of the main food groups each week. If your family is anything like mine, you will often have leftover nights once a week, which can be incorpo-rated in to your creative meal planning.

Resist Junk Food

We are more likely to reach for microwave meals or dial for takeout when we have not planned ahead, for our evening meal. If you know what you are planning to cook as soon as you walk through your front door, you won’t grow so hungry that you crave convenience food. The more that you plan your meals, the more you will get into the swing of knowing how long you will need to cook each meal, choosing quicker options when required. We are all human, so it is OK to go off plan from time to time, which is why a ‘Wild Card’ night comes in handy. Instead of slipping into ordering a takeout, you can employ your wild card and cook something off plan, if it is easier. If you don’t use up your wild card, you can roll it over to the next week, but make sure you don’t roll too many over!

Great Date Nights

Meal planning is not only a great way of encouraging the whole family to sit around the table to-gether, it is just as good for couples looking for a romantic ‘date-night’ meal. Picture this; Saturday night, the kids are fast asleep and you have cooked a lovely, stress free meal for you and your partner. Add in wine and a nice CD and you have the perfect evening, thanks to clever planning at the beginning of the week.

Is Meal Planning Monday sounding appealing to you? Sure, you may still have the odd night when you dial for a pizza, as you are just too tired, but they can become less of an occurrence. If you are going to get on board, we would love to know how meal planning works for your family.

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