Making a Meal Plan is the key to saving time, money and stress in the kitchen!

UPDATE: I have great news to share! You can now view my Mastering Meal Planning presentation as well as download the course handout I provide to local friends who attend my Mastering Meal Planning presentations throughout the Southern California area. Simple visit Free Video Course: Mastering Meal Planning to watch my free eCourse on meal planning.

Or if you’d prefer, I’ve kept this post in place for those who would like to read through much of the information contained in my Mastering Meal Planning Presentation. I’ve also included a sample (picture) of one of my meal plans for your reference, as well as free pdf downloads of my meal planning templates for use in creating your own meal plans.

My goal is to help busy families eat healthy, well-balanced meals on a budget by teaching meal planning strategies that truly save time, money and stress in the kitchen! So, when you’re finished reading this post, please check out “Cook Once, Eat Twice or More,” for additional helpful strategies to save time and money.

Free GF Meal Plans the whole family will love:

Just a friendly reminder, that I provide free monthly meal plans over at The Better Mom blog. Each week’s meal plan contains delicious family-friendly GF recipes utilizing a time-saving method to make getting a healthy dinner on the table a snap! I highly recommend you pop over to The Better Mom and download these free meal plans.

Mastering Meal Planning

Your Meal Plan is your flight plan for the week ahead – what you will be making for dinner (and lunch, if you get that detailed with it). It should include the main entreé as well as the sides. Some tips for creating your Meal Plan:

• First, create a “Master List of Meals” that your family enjoys. Your Master List of Meals is simply a listing of all the meals that you make. For example, a few of the meals on my Master of List of Meals include: Chicken Pesto Pasta, Taco Salad, Spaghetti & Meatballs, etc. Taking time to really think-through this first step will save you a ton of time in the long run – no more racking your brain to try to think of what you should make for the week. Simply look at your Master List of Meals each time you make your weekly meal plan. And, as you start trying new recipes, remember to add the ones your family like to your Master List of Meals.

• Never make your meal plan without first consulting your calendar of events for the week and make sure to confer with your spouse too. Take a look at what is happening each day and plan your meals accordingly. For example, if you have a super tight schedule on Tuesdays, plan for it to be a quick and easy-to-prepare meal night. Or plan for it to be a “left-overs night” where you can simply warm-up a meal from a previous evening. Ensuring you actually have left-overs for “left-overs night” is simple when you plan ahead for it – just make extra of a meal that reheats well, and “voila,” leftovers night!

• Plan to make more complicated meals (or try out a new recipe) on the days you will have the most time. For example, if you have more time during the weekend, then save a new recipe or a more complex meal for the weekend – don’t try to tackle it on a day you’ll be short on time!

• Before making your weekly meal plan, check your frig, pantry and freezer to see what you already have on hand. then, plan meals to use those items – using what you already have on hand will really help you save MONEY!

• Be sure to utilize the “secret” to quick and easy meal preparation – grouping meals to cook once and eat twice or more! By planning ahead to group meals, you will be able to pull-off a healthy meal even on the nights you’re pressed for time! See post on Cook Once, Eat Twice or More.

Creating a Shopping List to Save Time and Money

“The List” is your prime directive at the market, to keep you focused and save you time and money by limiting distractions and frustrations. The List ensures you quickly get exactly what you need for the week ahead. Tips for creating The List:

• Keep a pad of paper on your kitchen counter and jot down items as you run out of them so they can quickly and easily be added to The List.

• Make your meal plan for the week and then go through each meal and list out all the ingredients needed to create that meal. First, check your frig, pantry and freezer to see what you already have on hand. Any missing ingredients go on The List.

• Never go to the market without The List! It is a sad, sad day when you lose or forget The List. Keep a careful eye on it!

Time-Saving Tips for Shopping Day

Shopping Day is obviously the day you’re going to purchase all of the ingredients you need for the week ahead (i.e. all of the items for your meal plan). Below are a few tips for saving time and money at the market:

• Clean out your frig and pantry before heading out to the market – remove expired food and old leftovers you can’t use (hopefully you won’t have much as you become BFF with your meal plan), rearrange and reorganize food on the shelves for ease in locating, take one more look to see if you need something not on The List (e.g. did your loving hubby or child put the milk back with just a few drops left in the carton?). Reorganizing your frig and pantry ensures you know what’s on hand, where it’s located and enables you to quickly and more efficiently unload your groceries when you return home from the market.

• Go to the market alone whenever possible to avoid distraction and temptation – so you can limit the purchase of unnecessary items.

• NEVER go to the market without your shopping list! Without “The List” in hand, you will forget something and you will buy things you don’t need!

• NEVER shop hungry! You will find it extremely difficult to resist the temptation to impulse purchase when hungry. So don’t put yourself in that position.

• If you must make an impulse purchase, limit yourself to one or two items at most.It’s good to try something new, but only if it’s healthy and only if you’re certain that you’ll have time to actually incorporate it into your meal plan for the week.

• Frequent the same one or two markets regularly. By shopping at the same place each week, you will become very familiar with the store and will be able to more quickly navigate through it, thereby saving time and energy!

• Shop early in the morning, if possible. Most markets restock at night, so you’ll have the best, freshest selections by shopping in the early morning.

• If you have extra time to shop, check out Farmer’s Markets for produce, they are generally less expensive and have fresher selections since most come from local farmers.

Schedule a Prep Day: Investing Time Now = Less Time Later

Scheduling a Prep Day, whenever possible, allows you to get prepared for the week ahead. By prepping ahead, you’ll save time and you’ll be less stressed out in getting a healthy, homemade meal on the table during busy weeknights. Ideas for the types of tasks you can accomplish by scheduling a Prep Day:

• Meats: Cut and divide meat into portions based on your meal plan and freeze (you can even place the meat into a marinade and freeze). Use ground meat to mix and form into meatballs and burgers that can be frozen for later use. I also like to precook and freeze ground meat for use in meals like tacos, chili, soups, etc.

• Veggies/Fruits: Chop any veggies/fruits needed for recipes (that can keep well once chopped). For example, I find it super helpful to pre-chop, rinse and store lettuce for salads for the week ahead.

• Other: Prepare anything that can be prepared ahead of time, e.g. bake a batch of healthy muffins and freeze them for snacks for the week ahead.

Other Time-Saving Ideas

1. Cut your chicken breasts horizontally into thinner breasts – thinner breasts cook faster and are also a better individual portion size. After cutting the breasts, place them in a ziplock freezer bag with your favorite marinade. Either freeze immediately or place in the frig and use within 24 hours. (After 24 hours, the marinade tends to make the meat too soggy.) To defrost froze chicken/meat, place in frig 24 hours before cooking.
2. If you can grill it, GRILL IT! Grilling is so fast, easy and there’s virtually no clean-up necessary. You can grill everything from chicken and turkey to fish and beef. If you don’t have a good propane grill, I recommend that you seriously consider investing in one!
3. Grill/Cook double the meat and use it for another meal. (See post, Cook Once, Eat Twice or More.)
4. For a healthier, yet just as quick breakfast for your kids – phase out all those frozen waffles, pancakes and French toast brands you’re purchasing and replace them with your own homemade, healthier versions. Even the healthy brands are not as healthy as homemade and they are much more expensive per serving! Simply plan ahead to make a big breakfast (or have breakfast for dinner) and make a double batch of homemade waffles, pancakes or French toast and individually wrap and place in freezer bags the leftovers. Then simply take them right out of your freezer and place into your toaster oven for a quick, yet healthy breakfast.
5. Since our kids take their lunch to school everyday, healthy and easy kid’s lunch box sides are a must in the Smith house! So to save time, the kids and I prep the sides on Sunday afternoon for the week ahead. You can use either mini-snack-sized baggies, or if you want to be more sustainable, use mini-plastic containers that can be washed and reused. You can place healthy sides into these, such as fresh cut veggies, fruit, nuts, etc. Here’s a secret for making your own fresh-sliced apple sides for the week ahead: Cut apples and place into individual containers with a dash of pineapple juice, shake well to distribute the juice – they will stay fresh all week. And are so yummy!

Ready to get started?

One of the best ways to learn how to meal plan is to start checking out meal plans from experts. There are a lot of wise meal planners out there and many provide their meal plans for a fee. But I’d love to help you at NO COST to get started creating easy and functional meal plans your whole family will love. All you need to do is pop over to The Better Mom blog to get access to my FREE monthly meal plans. Each meal plan contains delicious family-friendly GF recipes utilizing a time-saving method to make getting a healthy dinner on the table a snap!

Happy meal planning!

Throughout the year (and especially when our schedules get over busy), one of my favorite time-saving techniques is to “Cook Once, Eat Twice or More!” This basic meal planning strategy really helps you save time and work more efficiently in the kitchen, which is why I always incorporate it into each of my weekly meal plans.

In a nutshell, you cook (or simply prepare) a double portion of something and save half for a future meal.

How does this save time? Well, think of all the work that needs to happen to get a healthy meal on the table – there’s the preparation time, cooking time, and of course, everyone’s favorite – clean-up time! So, if you make double of something during one cooking session, you’re being more efficient because you don’t have to repeat those same exact steps twice.

Cook Once, Eat Twice or More can take several forms, such as:
• Purposing for Leftovers
• Planning Freezer Meals
• Batch Cooking
• Grouping Meals

We’ll cover each of the above principles in detail below. Because once you adopt these time-saving strategies, I’m certain they will become your newfound favorite tips, especially when planning ahead for busy days, when time in the kitchen is limited.

FREE Gluten-Free, Family-Friendly Meal Plans:
Just a friendly reminder, that I provide free monthly meal plans over at The Better Mom blog. Each week’s meal plan contains delicious family-friendly GF recipes utilizing a time-saving method to make getting a healthy dinner on the table a snap! I highly recommend you pop over to The Better Mom and download these free meal plans.

How to “Cook Once, Eat Twice or More!”

As with most things related to saving time in the kitchen, it starts with your Meal Plan! So if you’re new to meal planning, please view my Mastering Meal Planning presentation, or visit the Meal Planning section of this to help you get started.

So here’s how it works … as you’re creating your weekly meal plan, consider what meals you could cook (or simply prepare) a double batch of and freeze or refrigerate for future use. Then schedule time on your meal plan (or on your meal planning prep day) to utilize one of the following Cook Once Eat Twice or More principles, such as:

Purposing for Leftovers

One of the easiest and most common time-saving strategies is to intentionally plan for leftovers. Simply double an entire recipe, cook it and then refrigerate/freeze the leftovers for a future meal. In general, soups, stews, casseroles, and pasta dishes make excellent leftovers. In fact, some dishes taste even better as time passes, because the flavors have had a chance to meld.

And of course, there’s also the option of “repurposing” leftovers, which simply means using your leftovers to create a slightly different meal. For example, leftover ground meat from taco night, can easily be used to make a Taco Salad for lunch. Or a bit of leftover grilled chicken can be turned into a delicious Greek Salad Wrap. Leftover black beans can be used to make a fun Rainbow Bean Dip lunch. And the great thing is, repurposing leftovers not only saves time, it saves money too!

Planning Freezer Meals

With freezer meals, you simply spend a little extra time upfront prepping and freezing meals for future use. This is a popular strategy especially with crockpot meals, casseroles, soups, stocks and stews.

I find the most efficient method is to prepare (and cook, in some cases) two or more of the same meal in one session. Then use one of the meals for dinner that night, and freeze the other(s) for future quick-n-easy dinners.

One of our favorite crockpot meals is Sweet & Spicy Crockpot Chicken. This is a great example of a meal that can easily be prepped ahead and frozen. Then it’s as simple as removing the ingredients from the freezer, popping them into the crockpot and coming home later to a delicious, healthy dinner.

Another example is my Turkey Times Three (T3) strategy for making three great ground turkey based recipes all at the same time and then freezing them to have ready-to-go meals on busy days.

And yet another example, is doubling casserole-style meals. Whenever I plan to make Chicken Parmesan, I always make two at the same time. I cook one for dinner that night and freeze the other for a future meal. Or in this case, you can make a double batch of just the chicken and use half to make Chicken Parmesan and the other half can be frozen for use as Chicken Tenders for a future meal.

Sidebar: If you participate in any meals ministries, doubling casseroles and freezing them is a great way to always have an extra meal on hand for a family in need!

Batch Cooking

Batch cooking is really just another way to describe intentionally planned leftovers – you simply make large quantities of a food that can be stored for later use. For example, on the weekends, I like to make double or triple batches of pancakes, french toast or muffins, which I can then freeze and use for quick breakfasts during busy weekday mornings.

One of my favorite batch cooking strategies is to simply double or triple a main ingredient in a meal (such as meat, poultry or beans) and save half to create a future meal that uses the same main ingredient. For example, as shown in the photo above, I intentionally made a large 6 lb. roast turkey breast for dinner. Then, divided-up the leftovers for 4 more meals: Sliced breasts for leftovers night, two 2-cup portions of shredded turkey (frozen for future use in turkey noodle soup and turkey pot pie) and turkey salad for lunch.

In addition, whenever I make Stovetop Chicken Stock, I always make two batches instead of one. That way, I end up with lots of stock and meat that I can freeze and use to quickly make other soups and meals in the future.

And don’t forget your veggies! When having grilled veggies as a side dish, plan to grill extra and use them to make Veggie Quesadillas for lunch or dinner the next day, or add them to a salad or sandwich … these are just a few ideas to get you started.

The yellow highlighted meals demonstrate how I group meals with the same main ingredient on my meal plan so I can “Cook Once, Eat Twice or More.” The pink highlighted meals show how I further use batch cooking and “purposing for leftovers”to save even more time in the kitchen. With just a little planning and practice, you’ll be saving lots of time too!

Grouping Meals on Your Meal Plan

A simple twist on the batch cooking concept is a strategy I call “Grouping Meals.” How it works is, you take a look at your Master List of Meals and consider what recipes contain the same main ingredient. Then, you intentionally schedule on your meal plan to serve at least 2-3 of those meals with the same main ingredient over the course of the week. (Obviously, the busier the week, the better to have more meals with the same main ingredient.)

For example, whenever I plan make our favorite Grilled Pineapple Chicken (or Grilled Herb Chicken) recipe, I also take a look at other meals that use grilled chicken and plan a couple of those meals on my meal plan as well. That way, I can simply double (or triple) the amount of chicken I toss on the grill. Then, I refrigerate or freeze the extra grilled chicken for use in the other grilled chicken based meals on my meal plan.

To better illustrate Grouping Meals, take a look at the meal plan above. You will see the yellow highlighted meals each use grilled chicken as the main ingredient. So by planning several meals that use the same main ingredient – grilled chicken in this case – I can save a lot of time by simply preparing and grilling all of the chicken needed in one cooking session.

Honestly, it takes very little extra time to incorporate batch cooking into your schedule. Yet, this simple step saves a ton of time later since you only have to prep, cook and clean-up once, rather than two or three separate times. And of course, it also saves a significant amount of time when you go to prepare other meals using this same batch-cooked item.

Applying these “Cook Once, Eat Twice” concepts across the board

Now that you know these time-saving secrets, start thinking about how you can apply them to many of your favorite recipes, such as casseroles, soups, meats, poultry, and side dishes.

As you start looking over your Master List of Meals, it will be exciting to see how you can group meals with the same ingredients together to make preparation time and cooking time faster, easier and less stressful via batch cooking.

Remember to also look for recipes that make great freezer meals, and schedule time to make two of these meals during one cooking session – one for now and one to freeze for later. That way, you can start creating a nice stockpile of quick freezer meals for back-up on nights when you are limited on time.

And of course, one of the easiest ways to save time is to simply plan for leftovers (or repurpose them).

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. And if you have some meal planning success stories or time-saving tips to share, please leave a note below.

Remember, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God!” (1 Cor 10:31) So have fun and give all praise and glory to the Lord as you strive to provide healthy, home-cooked meals for your family while saving lots of time in the process!