The #1 meal planning strategy that will save busy mamas from complete overwhelm
Life never seems to slow down, does it? I thought we had a busy summer with vacation plans, but man, the school year is something else altogether. My kids have nine practices a week plus multiple games every weekend and I can’t even imagine what my life would look like if I didn’t have a meal plan! My backward meal planning strategy is a life-saver for busy moms!
In 15-30 mins a week I can plan out all of my family’s meals for the week and get groceries ordered so that we’re set up for a successful week!
I’ve taught this to my Macros Made Easy clients for years and every time a new mama learns about it she’s blown away by how easy this strategy is. Even for the mamas who say they’re terrible at meal planning or the ones who prefer to decide in the moment what they want to eat, this strategy is the first thing that’s worked for them.
Today I’m going to share with you exactly how I plan my family’s meals in 15 mins or less, so that I’m not completely overwhelmed by the “What’s for dinner?” question every single day! Because that’s literally the most annoying question you can ask a mom! Bahaha
First, I want you to pull out a calendar (or head to my free Facebook group, Busy Mom Simple Nutrition to download my free meal planning calendar) so that you can write down your dinner meal plans!
Start your meal plans with protein
I always, always, always start my meal planning by choosing what proteins I will serve for the week. Here’s the key to making your meal planning process simple! Only pick 2-3 proteins for the week!
Now, you might say, but Krista, there are seven days, so I need seven proteins. Yes and no. Yes, you need to have a protein planned for every day of the week, but it doesn’t have to be seven different proteins!
If you pick 2-3 proteins you can serve them a few different ways throughout the week.
For example, say you choose pork, chicken and shrimp for your proteins. You can make 2-3 meals out of each of those proteins.
With the pork I’ll make:
Shredded pork burrito bowls
BBQ Pork sandwiches
I’ll use the chicken in
Chicken shwarma salad
Chicken shawarma kabobs
BBQ chicken nachos
Then, I’ll have two shrimp meals:
Shrimp fajitas
Lemon shrimp pasta
Planning like this also simplifies your meal prep process! You can bulk cook your proteins and then just add different seasonings or sauces to them depending on the meal. This will save you so much time during the week too! Proteins typically take the longest to cook, so if you already have it cooked and all you have to do is heat it up for dinner, you’ll save so much time on busy weeknights!
Add sides to your proteins
As you saw in my example before, you will take your protein (chicken, pork, beef, etc.) and then choose your main dish.
Once you know your main dish you can add any sides or other ingredients you’ll need to your meal plan. I love to see the whole plan laid out in one place so that I know everything that I’m going to need for that meal. Here’s a quick example of how I plan out the main dish and sides or ingredients.
Shredded pork burrito bowls will need:
Pork Roast
Lettuce
Salsa
2% Cheese
Sour cream
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Black Beans
Pork BBQ sandwiches ingredients include:
Pork Roast
Buns
BBQ Sauce
Pepperoncini's
Alexia Fries
I go through and do this for each of the meals in my plan until I have a list of everything I’ll need for the week. Then I move on to the final step!
Use your meal plan to grocery shop
Those nice lists make grocery shopping so easy! I know exactly what I’m going to need for the week - down to the seasoning! This means I can quickly open up my Walmart app or Instacart app and shop for all of my groceries as part of my meal planning for the week.
I love using grocery pickup or even delivery to make my life even easier! I’m already busy enough helping my kids get to sports, running my business and keeping track of all my other wife/mom duties that if I can take something off my plate, I do it!
If you prefer to shop for your own groceries, then you still have the perfect shopping list to run to the store with! What I love about meal planning is that it saves you so much money at the grocery store. You don’t end up buying things you don’t need that will go bad before you use them. And you don’t overbuy because you can check your cupboards for the week’s ingredients before you shop.
The best way to make meal planning fast and easy is to make it a habit! I know that the first few times you try backward meal planning it might take you longer than 15 mins. But I promise, once you get in the habit of it this becomes so simple!
I have a client, Lacey, who has a full year’s worth of meal plans because she took the time to plan just once! She started by creating a weekly meal plan. Then after 4 weeks, she had a month’s worth of meals planned out. After doing that a few times she had months of meal plans. And now she has a plan for every month of the year! Each month she pulls out those meal plans and she has healthy meals to serve her family without even having to think about it!
Meal planning doesn’t have to be overwhelming and stressful! I can help you learn how to know what a healthy meal looks like so that you can easily plan, prep and serve healthy meals to your family that they’ll actually enjoy eating! Schedule a free discovery call if you’re ready to start creating healthy habits for yourself and your family!
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