Raising All Kinds of Hale: Meal Planning

I've been meal planning for a while, and it really helps the afternoon and evening go a lot smoother. Whether you have kids or not, work full-time or not, I think everyone can benefit from meal planning. It might sound like a lot of work, but it's not, and it becomes second nature.

Make a list before grocery shopping. I go the same day each week and plan for one week's worth of meals. Decide what you are going to eat for the next week (or however often you shop. Some people like to shop for 2 weeks at a time). Purchase what you need for those meals. This means determining what you're eating and sticking to it. I've mentioned before that we eat oatmeal almost every morning. Sometimes I get fancy and make French toast or eggs on ciabatta rolls, but most days it's oatmeal.
Since we've cut out almost all processed food, it can get tricky to make fresh ingredients last for a week. I plan to prepare the freshest things first or freeze other things if possible. I freeze meat, fish, some veggies, fresh lime juice, and cilantro. I plan for a meal towards the end of the week that has frozen and/or dry ingredients. This quinoa recipe is a great end-of-week recipe. It calls for frozen corn, cilantro, canned black beans, quinoa, and some spices, none of which are too perishable.
For us, meal planning eliminates waffling over what's for dinner. Every now and then I call an audible if there were unexpected leftovers that can be the next night's dinner, but other than that I don't stray from the plan. I cook and that's it: take it or leave it.
For us, it also eliminates sporadic trips to the store (which I hate) and eating out. We have an eating out budget that allows for Friday night pizza and breakfast on a weekend morning. Other than that, we rarely eat out or get take out. I think it's easier to justify getting take out when you feel like you don't have things on hand at home or when you don't "feel like" eating what you have at home. There's nothing wrong with enjoying food, but we just don't really give ourselves the option of getting take out whenever we feel like it.
A big time saver for me is chopping veggies and freezing them together for a recipe. For example, I just went to the store on Wednesday and bought the ingredients for fajitas in the Crock Pot. I'm not making them until Tuesday, and the peppers, onions, and lime will not be fresh by then, so I chopped the peppers and onion and put them in a freezer bag. I just came across a great idea to squirt the lime juice in an ice cube tray and freeze it. I tossed the lime cube in the bag of veggies. Now they will not go bad, and they are ready to dump in the Crock Pot Tuesday afternoon. Also, Whole Foods has a section of chopped fruit and veggies. Sometimes the price is comparable to the buying the whole items, and sometimes it's a rip off. They usually have a pepper medley for the fajitas, which I find to be the same in price as buying 2 whole organic peppers. Another time they had exactly what I needed for a vegetable soup: a mix of chopped onions, carrots, and celery. It would have cost more to buy those 3 ingredients separately, and most of the celery would have been wasted. Other times it is way overpriced, such as a $6 container of cauliflower florets that contained no more than you'd get in a $2 head of cauliflower. I had to pass on that one.

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Have your kids eat what you eat. I do not make Raegan a separate meal unless what I've made is too spicy (usually a soup), which I try to avoid. GIrlfriend doesn't do spicy! If your kids eat the adult meal, it will save money, prep time, and eliminate unhealthy things from your grocery list, such as the typical hot dogs, nuggets, and boxed macaroni. Sometimes she doesn't eat as much of the vegetables as I'd like, but she can put away some fruit! The only fruit I've seen her turn down is a raspberry because "it's hairy."