Meal Planning Monday

 Hey there, so meal planning Monday is late this week due to illness at our house, Sorry! Fortunately we prepare for this kind of situation, you know, where the main meal maker is out of commission. I try to keep easy, shelf stable meals available so that anyone can get something going. Over the weekend and yesterday, my kids became the main meal makers, and they pulled it off pretty well! Some easy meals that they made included box mix mac and cheese with hotdogs from the freezer; Chicken Parmesean made with frozen chicken patties, spaghetti, sauce and sprinkle parmesean cheese; refried bean quesadillas and of course a couple meals of canned soup with crackers. They served fruit with each meal and everyone was fed and happy (well as happy as you can be when you are sick).

While researching for another blog post, I ran across this meal planning idea at Southern Plate.  She has a neat way to organize her meal planning called Bags to Dishes, where she gathers all of the shelf stable ingredients she needs to make a meal and puts them in one bag with the recipe. What a neat idea! So for example, if I was planning our cheapie version of chicken parmesean for a meal, I would put a box of spaghetti noodles, a can of sauce, the carton of parmesean cheese and a can of green beans in a bag (she uses 2 gallon zip lock bags) along with the directions. In the freezer I would label a bag filled with the appropriate number of chicken patties for a bag meal so someone wouldn't accidentally use it. Then you can just get whoever is home when dinner prep needs to start to grab the appropriate bag for the day and get it started! Conversely, when you are brain dead tired after work, all you have to do is grab a bag and follow the directions, taking all of the thinking out of the process. What a cool idea! Please check the link out and see if this style of meal planning works for you. Remember, the idea behind meal planning is to help you use your food dollars or SNAP benefits wisely and to take some of the stress out of your day.

Meal Planning is a tricky business. What works for one family doesn't necessarily work for another, and what works during one period of your life, doesn't necessarily work during others. That's ok. Keep trying and tweaking your ideas. You have got this.

 

Here are some ideas to get you started Meal planning bags