My Meal Planning Secret

There is a secret to how I get anything and everything done in the kitchen. It’s actually quite simple: I’m a planner.

At the beginning of each week or grocery cycle (and I try to arrange life so the two coincide), I conference with the boy and figure out what we’re eating each night that week. We have this great chalkboard which makes it easy to remember everything:

Menu from a couple weeks ago.

Usually we have just returned from the grocery store where we’ve picked out our proteins and veggies for the week, and writing it out on the chalkboard keeps us organized. That way one of us will remember to thaw out the chicken and no one gets home at 7 from working out asking,”What are we having for dinner?”

Weekends, except for Sunday, are more relaxed so  we don’t usually plan those out. We never know what last-minute plans we might encounter, or there’s the off chance one of us will be gone for the weekend, leaving the other to fend for themselves.

This week’s menu was dictated by leftover pot pie makings, and some finds at the farmer’s market this weekend:

Yummmm!

It takes some time to get organized and even more time to make this little ritual a habit, but we’ve found it is totally worth it. We can regularly have meals that look like this:

Roast turkey breast with mushroom risotto

Or this:

Spicy shrimp & noodles

Instead of this:

Happy Planning and Happy Eating!