Weekly Meal Prep

Happy Sunday! Mornings at our house tend to start earlier than most. Our puppy, Duke, finds 5:30 AM wake up calls to be the thing these days; yes even on the weekend. Coffee has turned into even more of a must. While I find myself sipping my coffee I am here writing to you. Jotting down my thoughts and advice to keep your life moving in the forward direction.

Weekly meal and house prep used to be a thing I dreaded. Don’t get me wrong I still dread it at times even though we have a, for the most part seamless system in place. I have found over the years that having to go to the grocery store during the week doesn’t really fit into the schedule. Yes, there are those one off times where I still find myself making that trip during the week, but for the most part Sunday’s have turned into the day to get it all bought and done.

Where does thes chaos of organizing your weekly meals start? It all starts with grabbing and planning recipes for the week. Where do you grab them from:

Cookbooks
Pinterest
Blogs
Instagram

I grab my inspiration for the recipes you see on my blog in all different areas. I tend to be one that doesn’t like following recipes, but I know I am not like most. While I find inspiration and plan recipes I jot down what we are going to have on what days of the week in a weekly/monthly planner. If you don’t have a planner you can:

Create a calendar reminder on your phone
Download and print some from Pinterest

Things to take into account when planning meals for the week:

Plan meals that are going to take more time on days of the week that you don’t have a hundred things going on.
I tend to be a bit more exhausted come Thursday and Friday evenings, so I plan meals that I know I will be able to whip together without too much fuss.

Secret: I always make 4 portions of dinner, so that my fiancé and I have lunch the next day. This not only saves time and money but eliminates the stress of having to plan what you are going to have for lunch everyday of the week. Furthermore, it eliminates the unnecessary having to go out for lunch and puts money back in your pocket

Once you have your recipes picked out it’s now time to make a list of all the ingredients to take with you grocery shopping. Even though paper is ever so diminishing from today’s society and technology is taking its place, I still like taking a paper grocery list with me. I find it much easier to cross off that item on the list while grabbing it than to have to fuss with my phone. If you prefer technology though, there are quite a few fabulous grocery list apps that you can download for free in the app store. Some of my favorites are:

OurGroceries (I have this one downloaded on my phone so when I am not home and think of something we need I can quick add and then later transfer to my list)
Shoplist
Shopping List Ease
Anylist

If you do decide to surpass technology like me, below is the template I use. I find it super easy to have your groceries organized by category, so that when you are in that section of the store you don’t miss anything. Feel free to curtail it to your needs.

You now have your list and your meals planned for the week. Time to hit the grocery store.

Benefits for planning your meals:

Saves Time: Doing it all on Sunday puts time back in your week. Time you can spend doing something you like to do.
Saves Money: Having all the ingredients for meals you like eliminates the need to order take out and grab that lunch out.
Eat Healthier: While there are many healthy options while eating out, making food yourself allows you to know exactly what is going in your body.