Easy Meal Planning

No more stressing about what to cook for dinner tonight

Thankfully there are only a couple of steps to easy meal planning. Here are steps 4 to 6. If you missed the first three steps, you can go back to meal planning basics.

Step 4 – Returning Home, Put Away Your Groceries

You've survived the grocery shopping trip with relative ease. Now spend a few minutes putting your stuff away.

It's seems like another obvious thing to do. And it is. But here is where you can take mental note of how organized your kitchen is.

Knowing your kitchen and where certain goods are stored becomes a time saver the more you meal plan. Instead of filling your pantry or cabinets any old way, think about organizing them to make it easier for you when you plan and when you cook.

To learn more about how to better organize your kitchen, check out our pantry organization section of the site.

You've put the groceries away and made a mental note of where things are, (and another about organizing your pantry a little later).

Now on to Step 5.

Step 5 – Post Your Plan

Perhaps the easiest of all of the basic steps is posting your plan.

You post your plan to remind you what you will be cooking during the week (if you are planning for the week) and to remove meats or other frozen goods from the freezer to the fridge the night before so that they can thaw safely and be ready when you need them.

Also, posting your plan lets everyone in your family know what's for dinner this week. You don't even have to put a date next to each meal if you want to be flexible within your plan, like me.

You can simply write out your plan on a piece of paper and stick it on your fridge for all to see. Or, you can use electronic organizers to send reminders to yourself about your plan.

Step 6 – Preparation

You can skip this step if you wish. However, prepping ahead can save you loads of time on the day you cook.

So think about what's on the plan and do as much prep work ahead of time.

That’s it. You're done.

Once you've got these 6 easy meal planning steps down, you may want to check out our advanced meal planning tips.

I hope that these tips have been helpful in making practical meal planning work for you and your family.

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