Monday, July 18, 2016

Summer schedule and meal planning

 
I have been having a pretty busy summer so far. Both kids are in sports on top of their Karate classes. We had either meeting, events or classes Monday through Saturday this past week. Other than the constant driving back and forth, the most concerning part is probably dinner.
I am not a big fan of eating out, mainly because of the quality of food in the majority of restaurants (and my body would tell me shortly after whether I had a quality meal or not). Grass fed beef, pasture raised chicken are not commonly served in restaurants. Besides, eating out is not cheap. I personally would rather to spend money on quality food and cook myself. But working full time and run around between classes and events, I need some preparation ahead of time.
I have been doing meal planning since January of this year. Nothing really fancy, I just use an Excel Spreadsheet and plan out for the week. Ideally you will plan the whole week, but in reality, I usually plan 3 days at a time. Here is a snapshot of my meal planning spreadsheet-



What I do is to go through what I have in the fridge and freezer and then plan some of my family’s favorite dishes. On busy days, I plan something nutritious but yet easy to make – fried rice, curry chicken, brats with potato salad were a few things that I made last week. Try to make things that can prep ahead of time that will save time as well.
Keeping them on a spreadsheet also help me to balance out our meals. For example, have we been eating enough fish lately? When was the last time I made tacos etc.
 
Do you do meal planning? If so, how do you do it? Please feel free to share.

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