Now that Adam and I have moved and mostly settled in, it’s time to get back to business as usual with meals.  Most of the summer I flew by the seat of my pants when it came to meals.  Sometimes it was fun (hey unexpected dinner out) other times it was weird (hey weird bowl meals) and sometimes it was just downright stressful.

That’s why I’m getting back into the swing of meal planning. 

For the longest time, I planned out every single meal for the week and made detailed grocery lists and spent time prepping ingredients and getting everything ready.  That was nice but it no longer really fits with my schedule.  I need to be organized but I also need to make things quick and efficient.  

I’m also feeding a few more people this time around.  Because I work from home, it makes more sense for me to prep things for everyone rather than just me and Adam.  It’s actually kind of fun planning meals for my family and I figure I owe my mom about 18 years worth of dinners 🙂

So what’s my strategy right now?  I do three simple things:

• Check my recipes
• Find a few new ones
• Check the calendar

I look for recipes that can be prepped ahead of time for days that I’m busy or nights that I have clients.  I try a few new recipes on days that I have a little extra time so no one gets bored and keep a few that I know my family loves in the rotation.  And then I check the calendar to make sure there are no events or things scheduled that would get in the way of dinner. 

I’ve also been using Evernote to keep track of my meal plan/recipes/grocery lists.  I like that I can organize everything on my computer and then pull it up on my phone when I get to the store to grocery shop.  That way I have everything in front of me and I don’t miss any ingredients and have to run back to the store the next day.

This is my second week doing this and so far it’s worked out pretty well.  It feels nice to be back in the kitchen and making actual meals rather than throwing whatever is in the fridge into a big pile and calling it a meal.  And it’s getting my creative juices flowing again and I feel new recipes coming your way very soon…

What do you do to plan meals for your family?  Do you use a special app?  Or have you always been a fly by the seat of your pants kinda person?  Oh, and if you’re looking for a few new meals to try this week, here are some of my favorites from the blog: 

• Lazy Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls 
• Slow Cooker Fall Vegetable Cassoulet 
• Asian Broccoli Hash Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (good prep ahead meal)
• Instant Pot Butter Turkey 
• Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Casserole (on my menu this week!)
• Green Enchiladas (another good prep ahead meal)