Ladies, we’re getting organized and efficient this Autumn now that the excitement of the appointed times is settling down. A family daily schedule, a plan for fall cleaning, a sourdough bread routine going. Me-oh-my! What’s next? The 3 keys to successful meal prepping!
You’ll want to keep reading to learn what 3 keys make for successful meal prepping, 6 meal prepping hacks, and 3 meal planning tricks!
3 Keys to Successful Meal Prepping & Planning
1. Running List of Meal Ideas
A successful meal plan begins with not having to think very hard about what meals to include. (Because I don’t know about you, but I seem to always forget what I cook— even though I serve 3 meals a day!)
Having a running list of meal ideas, divided into categories of like-dishes, lessens the mental load of deciding what to cook. If you make it, if your family enjoyed it, write it down on your list.
Your categories can be whatever you want them to be. Maybe you categorize based on the primary protein source, “Legume Meals,” “Chicken Meals,” “Beef Meals,” and so on.
Maybe you have categories for “30 minute meals,” “Elaborate but worth it meals,” or “No prep required meals.”
You may even have a category of “Leftovers Reimagined Meals,” if you consistently make certain leftovers from certain meals.
When I wrote my categories, I also wrote notes beside some of them. My categories are:
- Soup and Stew Ideas
- Meat Stewed in Broth Gravy (to serve with mashed potatoes, naan/roti, biscuits/bread, or noodles, and I also wrote my general “formula” for making this type of dish from any meat or vegetable combination)
- Casseroles/Combination Dishes
- Meat Dishes (that require sides)
- Sides
- Desserts/Baked Goods
- Fermented Foods
- Breakfast (and I have a “flow” of choosing one item from each of 4 sub-categories that together makes the breakfast meal; the subcategories are: animal protein, carbohydrates, fermented food, raw animal food).
Meal Planning Tip & Trick #1!
If you do decide to try a new recipe, either screenshot the recipe or take a picture of it with your phone. Use your editing tool to make any changes to the recipe as you cook it. If you love it, save the recipe to a “Recipes” Album, and then add the name of the recipe to your running list of meal ideas. If you don’t love the recipe, simply delete it.
I can’t tell you how many times I would find a recipe online, try it out, love it, and then not be able to find it the next time I wanted to make it. This meal planning trick saves the day!
2. List the Ingredients Beside the Meal Idea
Make your running list of meal ideas work even more efficiently for you by listing out the ingredients needed for that meal. (You don’t have to list every single spice, but you will want to include any abnormal spices you don’t normally keep on hand.)
My friend, this little meal planning key will save you so much time, help you save money, and make meal planning overall less daunting!
On your running list of meal ideas, simply leave space beside it for writing its ingredients. (Or grab my free meal planning PDF.)
I discuss my step by step of how to meal plan in the video below. One of the steps of budget meal planning is looking at what ingredients you already have on hand.
How handy to have a running list of meals that also has a list of the ingredients needed for those meals! You can quickly see what meals you can make with the ingredients you have on hand, and you can simultaneously make a quick grocery list for any additional ingredients you need.
You’re saving time. You’re saving money. And you’re doing it all at one time in a super convenient way.
3. Leave Margin for “Prep” Notes in Your Meal Planning
If you’re using my meal planning PDF free download, there’s a column already allocated to “prep” notes.
But if you’re using another meal planning sheet or even just a piece of notebook or copy paper, be sure to leave margin beside each day for what needs to be done that day for upcoming meals.
In your meal plan, look ahead to what you plan to make in the next day or two (or what you may want to make, if you’re being more flexible and spontaneous with your planning).
Try to think of anything that either needs to be done ahead of time (such as soaking beans) or that can be done ahead of time to save time (like browning extra ground beef for chili later in the week, while you’re already browning ground beef for tacos).
Write those prep tasks down in the margin of the day you need to do them.
My prep column can look like “soak beans AM,” “mix up tortilla dough PM,” “whole chicken to thaw AM,” and “soak oats PM.”
Having a prep margin or column is incredibly helpful in keeping food from scratch flowing, making sure that especially grains and legumes are prepared properly, and there’s homemade bread for the meals of the week that need it.
Meal Planning Tip & Trick #2!!
You already did the work of finding meals and writing out the prep needed for a week. Save your meal plan sheet for repeating another time! This meal planning tip especially saves you from having to rethink through all the prep that needs to happen.
If you are choosing to laminate your meal planning sheet or place it in a clear sheet protector and use a dry erase market to plan your meals each week, take a picture of the plan and place it in a meal plan album on your phone!
6 Meal Prepping Hacks
When writing out your prep tasks in your weekly meal plan consider these 6 meal prepping hacks and include them, when they apply.
- Pre-chop vegetables— For example, if you need carrots, onions, and garlic for several recipes in the week, go ahead and chop them all at once. They’ll last just fine in the refrigerator.
- Batch cook meats— For example, if you’re roasting one chicken, might as well roast two and debone one for that soup you have planned later in the week.
- Batch soak beans— I primarily freeze excess beans in plastic storage bags, but you could also pressure can them.
- Batch make sauces & condiments— Most sauces & condiments last a long time in the refrigerator but are a really nice “extra” to dishes. If you’re making ketchup or BBQ sauce for one meal, it’s easy enough (and fewer dishes) to make double or triple the batch.
- Keep meat stock or broth always simmering— Throw the meat bones of one meal into a pot. Cover with water and simmer, and now you’re prepping broth for a different meal. Broth is an extraordinary ingredient that can transform just about any recipe!
- Cook one for now, one for later— For the recipes that make sense, double or triple and eat one now and store the other for later. That might mean freezing casseroles or canning soups & chilis, or it might just mean making a triple batch of biscuits to be divvied up throughout the week. Making more of the thing you’re already making is usually just as fast as if you had made the one batch.
Meal Prepping Tip & Trick #3!
For my friends that like to soak, sprout, or sourdough their grains, keep sprouted grain flour (store bought or homemade) in the freezer for those last minute biscuits or crackers or cookies. You don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience!
Successful Meal Planning
I hope you have found something of these meal planning keys, meal prepping hacks, tips, tricks, and my meal planning PDF helpful as you endeavor to feed yourself and your family nutritious and delicious foods!
One final thought: Meal planning doesn’t have to look the same from one season of your life to another!
I personally find that in some seasons of life I need more order, and in some seasons of life, I can be more flexible and spontaneous. (And it’s usually when things are feeling a bit overwhelming and out of control that I need more order in my meal planning— not less— to achieve peace!)
I don’t share this article on meal planning as “the one and only way” to meal plan and prep, but rather, as simply ideas and considerations as you determine the best routines for you and your homemaking in the season of life that you are in.
Many blessings and shalom!
Raquel
Women Living Torah 