Weekly Meal Planning
Do you ever feel like it’s all too much? Every Thursday, I share one action, habit, or project you may want to undertake in order to improve your health, happiness, and sense of well-being.
PROJECT OF THE WEEK
Weekly Meal Planning
Planning your meals ahead saves time and money and is often healthier.
Getting Started
Decide where you want to "write" your meal plan. You can use a piece of scrap paper, but digital platforms have a lot of advantages. You may want to consider a platform such as Evernote, where you can easily create a separate shopping list for each recipe, which intern can be pasted into a weekly shopping list. This will save you time as you repeat recipes in future weeks. Other apps that are easily shared with multiple users are Apple Notes, Google Keep and Trello.
Create your template, List the days of the week (Monday - Sunday) and meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks).
Look at your family’s schedule for the upcoming week.
Choose where scheduling take-out or a prepared food option will add the most value.
Pro Tip: It can be helpful to designate days of the week, such as "Meatless Mondays" and "Taco Tuesdays". This can help give direction to the meals you are choosing.
Create a shopping list. Use the meal plan you wrote and the recipes to list each ingredient.
You may want to spend a few moments grouping ingredients by category. This is much easier on a digital platform. For example, combining produce, dairy, and meat, will make your shopping trip faster.
Plan a date and time to grocery shop.
Schedule when you are going to prep and cook for the week. Do you prefer to cook on Sunday for the week, or make one meal each night?
Happy Spaces’ Tips & Tricks
I would recommend printing out each recipe you plan on cooking during the week. If you would rather go digital, I would save the recipes to a platform that is searchable, such as Evernote.
Meal plan for 4 - 8 weeks at a time. This way, you won't have to find new recipes, unless you want to.
Remember: There is nothing wrong with repeating meals.
A Note from Happy Spaces
The goal is to add value to your life. If you think this project will add value:
Estimate how long you think it will take. I would recommend doubling the time you estimate.
Look at your calendar over the next week and pick a date and time to get started.
Make an appointment on your calendar for the estimated time.
If you estimate that completing this project will take longer than one hour, I recommend doing it over multiple days. This will support you in getting started!
Prior to starting this project, take a few minutes to make a step-by-step list of EVERY action you need to take to complete this project.
It's not all or nothing. You can choose to implement only the parts of this project that add value to your life.
An Accountability Partner can be a great support in following through on your goals and commitments.
We understand how challenging it can be to implement new habits and systems. For additional support please go to HappySpacesBySarah.com.
Creating a life you don't need a vacation from! ®
Sincerely,
Sarah Weingarten
Meet Sarah
Growing up as the oldest of nine siblings in Upstate New York, I learned to use organization to create sanity among the chaos. Today, I work together with individuals, families, and small businesses to create habits, systems, and spaces that support their needs, goals, and dreams. Clients often refer to our work together as "life-changing" and "better than decades of therapy". What I love most about my work is the lasting impact it has on real people's lives. Nothing makes me happier than hearing the many success stories of clients I have worked with.