Meal Plan Masters

Once you’ve gotten into the habit of planning your meals ahead, there are some things you can do to get better and better at the process.  Eventually, you may even find this enjoyable! 

If you’re ready to take meal planning to the next level, here are some things you can do.

Plan time to regularly try new dishes.

Look for recipes and meals that help you fulfil your root purpose for meal planning and when you find a winner, add it to your Easy Favorites.  Start a Pinterest board for recipes you want to try!

Look for dishes that can be transformed into something new for leftovers.

 This is a sneaky way to use leftovers.  A few examples: leftover shredded chicken for tacos can be transformed into chicken tortilla soup; leftover pot roast can be transformed into shepherd’s pie; leftover pulled pork can be transformed into bbq pork french bread pizza.

Feed your freezer.

When you make a freezable dinner, double the amount and freeze half.  It doesn’t take much more effort to make a double batch of most things and you’ll have a freezer meal on hand.  Soups and stews are usually great for this.

Experiment with adapting old favorites.

Change up your favorites by swapping out ingredients to create new flavors.  This is one of my favorite ways to add variety to our dinners without having to learn a whole new recipe.  Some of my favorite successes include Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes, Chicken Chili, and BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza.

Use more advanced planning tools.

You don’t need fancy tools to meal plan, but they can help you get better at it.  I love Plan To Eat, for example, because it keeps everything together in one place - my favorite recipes, recipes I want to try, my current meal plan, my past meal plans, my kitchen staples, and my shopping lists.  You can do the same with a printed Meal Planning binder.