Mom Goals And Resolutions: Meal Planning
Being a mom is a rewarding job, but it's also a difficult one. Between all of the cleaning, homework help, laundry, and motherly advice, we have to find time to cook meals that are both nutritious and appealing to the kids. If we don't have a game plan, it's next to impossible.
That's one reason that meal planning is often overlooked in favor of convenience foods. While kids often like frozen pizzas and microwavable items, they are usually low on nutritional value. If we plan meals in advance, we can reduce the amount of convenience foods our families eat and increase the amounts of important vitamins and minerals they get. So why not make meal planning one of your New Year's resolutions?
How Do I Go About Planning Meals?
Meal planning does take a certain amount of time and thought, but it makes things much easier when it is time to cook. When you plan ahead you know that you'll have all of the ingredients you need, and you can plan simple meals for days when you know you won't have much time. Here's how to do it:
1. Start your meal plan the day after you plan to go to the grocery store. You don't have to go by calendar weeks, but planning for 7 days at a time makes it easier to keep up with.
2. Decide what you are going to fix for breakfast, lunch, and supper each day. Be sure to include at least one of everyone's favorite foods each week. You could make a separate list of favorites for easy reference.
3. Don't forget to add in some variety every now and then. Trying new things is good for us.
4. Make sure that each meal is nutritionally balanced. If you're not a nutritional expert, get a food pyramid chart to refer to for the proper number of servings per day of each food group. You may not be able to hit a perfect balance every day, but you should be able to come reasonably close.
5. Once you've planned the meals for the week, make a grocery list. Go through your menu plan and figure out what ingredients you need to buy for each meal.
6. When you go to the grocery store, don't forget to pick up some healthy snack options. Fresh fruits are a popular type of healthy snack among kids, and they are loaded with beneficial vitamins.
There are numerous benefits associated with planning meals. It allows us to feed our children healthy food with less fuss. It saves us time in the long run. And it lets us keep everyone happy by having their favorite foods on a regular basis. Planning meals is a great way to start off the New Year.
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