Meal Planning for a Year. Crazy or Brilliant?
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From our friends at Momversation.com
Most parents are lucky if they can plan out the dinner meal for a week. One mom, who was sick of her sky-high grocery bills, decided to plan out her dinners… for an entire year. Crazy talk…or sheer brillance? See how top mom bloggers approach meal planning in the video below.
How far in advance do you plan your meals? Do you consider year-long meal planning a good idea? Feasible? Absurd? Does meal planning help you save money, or do you find yourself veering from the plan? And does your family ever complain about your choice for dinner?
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Comment by Becky Richards on Feb 02 2010 07:57:17:
I absolutely plan every meal for a one week period. I think it is crucial to make a weekly menu and grocery list to go along with it. If you don’t do this you will find yourself in the “fast food trap”. I have never missed a week of menu planning from the day my son was born and I feel that my entire family is healthier for it.
Comment by Holly on Feb 02 2010 08:18:01:
I am all about planning for the week – it is a must in my life. I really can’t imagine planning for a month! I have to look at my calendar at soccer practices and dance etc so that I know what nights I need a crockpot meal and so on.
Comment by kelly on Feb 03 2010 02:56:46:
Planning yes of course – it is just like the airlines schedules – it gives us a baseline from which we can track deviations!
I plan yes, but I also plan that folks may not like my meal so I may be eating those leftovers for the next two days while they eat eggs on toast or cereal! I belong to a produce coop (huge savings in produce) so essentially I just plan around what happens to be in the basket this fortnight. So at least my meals are planed around seasonal produce items: Of course you have to plan if the basket contains 5lbs of broccoli or 20 bananas! God bless epicurious! (allows you to search for recipes based on ingredient)
Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you are going to get. The only think my family can count on is that they will get fed – one way or another. Seconds of broccoli anyone?
Comment by Heather on Feb 03 2010 07:14:28:
I plan my family’s meals for the month. It really helps me when I’m shopping for groceries. Of course, I haven’t planned our menu
since the birth of my son three months ago, but I plan on starting again soon. I’ts just to hectic to worry about what we are having
every night. With the meal planning I know what to have when. At first it was really hard to do it, but then I just began with my family’s favorite meals for two weeks and it became easier. I try
to include our favorites and add in one breakfast dinner, one crockpot meal,and one leftover night each week. Planning what we are going to have also encourages me to try new recipes to broaden my kid’s culinary horizons.Sometimes it doesn’t pan out-
and that’s ok, but for me it’s much easier to plan ahead.
Comment by Hannah on Feb 04 2010 10:21:28:
I am using relsihrelish.com to plan my meals for the week! It’s fabulous and is saving me a lot of money with a set grocery list of items I know I will use.