Meal Planning Made Simple: From Chaos to Connection

How To Meal Plan in 6 Simple Steps

1. Consider your actual life.

Look at your actual calendar, and plan for your actual life. There are plenty of meal plans out there, but those creators aren’t living your life! Meal plans are not a one-size-fits-all thing. If you have work until dinner and baseball games until bedtime, planning for an in-depth dinner is never going to work. You’re going to end up grabbing nachos at the ball field and Chick-fil-a on the way home. While there’s nothing wrong with those things, lack of intention often leads to guilt. So be intentional to plan for your actual life, and set yourself up for success!

2. Consider what actually matters to you.

Before planning meals, take a moment to consider what matters most. If your schedule is packed, opt for quick family favorites. Save new or time-consuming recipes for a less busy time. It might be a great week to choose your family’s quick favorites. Also, I plan weekly, but you might plan bi-weekly or monthly. You get to choose.

How do you want to fell at the dinner table?

While this question guides me a great deal, this is also the time to consider other goals/desires. Are you trying to stay within a certain budget? Does next week feel daunting? Maybe this would be a good week to double up some meals to toss in the freezer for next week. Is someone within your reach struggling? Making their favorite meal may be a big encouragement to them. Like I said before—dinner on the table is not always the end goal. There is so much more to be had than just a full belly. The easiest possible meal may not cause you to meet your goal every time.

Finding Your “Thing”

I recently realized that I was dreading being in the kitchen. As someone who loves to cook and extend hospitality to others, I knew something was off. For nearly a year, my husband had been away from home a great deal in the evenings writing his Ph.D dissertation, I was homeschooling our oldest, and our energetic little man dropped a nap. We were living in full fledged survival mode.

During that time, the “easy button” meals even seemed impossible, but as we were coming out of that phase, my time spent in the kitchen felt empty. I realized that I had grown accustomed to the quick and easy, and it was robbing me of something I enjoyed. So instead of buying the frozen mixed veggies for chicken pot pie, I skinned and diced the carrots myself. My goal for that week was to slow down and enjoy the process, and it was lifegiving.

I realize that making food from scratch is not everyone’s “thing.” But everyone does have a “thing” when it comes to food. So this is the time to consider what that is!

3. Start with what you already know.

Consider what’s working and start there! There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time you run out of groceries. Start with a list of meals you know your family likes—everything from hot dogs to homemade lasagna. If you know how to make it, it counts. 

If there is an element of your meal routine that you love, make sure to hang on to that as well. I have several elements of our meal routine that I rarely adjust. We are a Bentgo Box kind of family during lunch time and I love that. My husband works through lunch, so most of our mid day meals are eaten on a playground. We eat many of the same things every day for lunch, and I have no intention of changing that! It’s part of our family culture, and I love it.

4. Be kind to yourself first thing in the morning!

Although I wake up quite early most days, I am not a morning person. As a matter of fact, I wake up early so that I can start the day slowly. My kids, however, pop out of bed ready to start the day, and by that I mean eat!

Because I don’t like being rushed in the morning and I never know how my people will feel when they wake up, I opt for several breakfast options over a set menu. If the option takes more than 10 minutes to bake, I’ll usually make it during the afternoon and freeze it for a quick reheat in the morning. So I never have a set breakfast menu, but I always have options readily available. Although we all eat the same meal, being able to pick something based on the mood of the morning is one way I am kind to myself at the start of the day.

5. Dinner Menu

I do typically set a menu for the week. While we don’t always adhere to the beloved “Taco Tuesday,” we do have Monday night dinner guests every week (I rotate through a small number of meals), Community Group with church friends on Wednesdays (usually a quick and crowd-pleasing meal), and a Family Night (homemade pizza) every Friday. Plugging those meals into my planner first eliminates decisions and makes the task smaller.

6. The Extras

To create meaningful connections through food with those God has placed in our lives, we must plan beyond daily meals. This includes preparing special occasion treats, meals for new mothers, classroom celebrations, and similar thoughtful offerings.

Sally Clarkson often mentions how a cup of tea and a snack in the afternoons was an anchor for her family. She also mentions how she would often pull a cookie dough ball out of the freezer to bake for the kid that needed a pep talk or gentle training. I love the idea of being prepared for these types of encounters. I have found that as I plan and prepare the elements of those types of conversations, my heart becomes ready for them as well.