Meal planning helps everyone! It means no ones asks, “What should we have for dinner tonight?” in the midst of a growling stomach. It means there are healthy snacks in the fridge and it means less stress. Which we all want! My friend and I were discussing things we would like to do more consistently this year and meal planning was one of them. It helps the whole week go more smoothly and it’s just something that needs to be prioritized. So I sat down, organized my meal planning life, and came up with a solution that I’m excited to use.
I used Trello a lot as a teacher but I figured it would also be perfect for this piece large chunk of life (what we put into our body). It’s a wonderful tool that makes meal planning quick and easy. You can drag and drop each tab wherever you want it to go, add links, comments, and pictures to each tab.
Here is how I use it …
Step #1: Meal Plan
Create a list of dishes you usually eat or make with separate categories such as:
Breakfast. Lunch. Snacks. Saturday Fun Breakfast. Desserts.
and Dinner Ideas such as:
Mexican. American. Thai. Italian. Soups. Breakfast for Dinner.
Input them into Trello or another system for organizing ideas.
Step #2: Grocery List
Create a grocery list based on your dishes/ ideas for the week.
I use an app called Wunderlist.
It allows your to check off items as you shop and then pull them back up if you consistently buy some of the same items each week. #timesaver
Step #3: Prep List
Create a meal prep list based on your dishes/ ideas for the week.
Step #4: Take Notes and Save Links
As you cook, input links to the recipe, photos, and notes. It will make things even easier the next time around if you make the recipe again.
Step #5: Drag + Drop
When you are ready to meal plan for the next week, simply drag new recipes above the “ideas for another week” bar and drop recipes you want to move to another week.
And there you have it–all your cooking, snacking, and desserting ideas at your fingertips so you don’t have to be overwhelmed at the beginning of every week thinking “what should I make this week?”