Meal Planning is the only effective tool to help save you time in the kitchen and keep money in your wallet. Do you know what you’re having for dinner tonight? What do you have in the pantry to make a meal? Do you really want to order in again?

Below are my tips for how you can plan to eat healthy meals without all the craziness and hassle of the last minute; what should I make for dinner? Planning meals ahead can be one of the simplest things you can do reduce mealtime stress, use what is in your refrigerator and pantry, as well as eat healthy a few times a week. 

• Don’t plan 7 days. You will have leftovers and times when you won’t be home. Ordering in and eating out are not off limits, you just have to write them into the plan.
• Check the pantry and the refrigerator. What do you already have and what is almost going bad? Start keeping a list of the items you need at the store. Knowing what you have to work with will save you money and time. Or take a picture of what’s in the fridge and pantry before you run out the house. Whatever you will continue to do is what works.
• What do you want to eat? Start with the proteins and vegetable your family enjoys. How many nights are you cooking? Find new recipes at bluebarnkitchen.com. Search by food item and pick the recipes you like best. Pick 2-4 recipes you will make for the week and list out your ingredients by how much you need, 3 cloves of garlic, 4 eggs. This way you only buy what you need, no guess work.

• Don’t forget about lunch. Planning lunch at the same time will save you time and making lunch for the kids even easier. We always use leftovers for lunch the next day. Makes morning run smoother and no PB&J sandwiches go to waste.

• Make your list! There will always be food you need to buy, and the best way to keep to ONLY what you need is to make a shopping list.

• Be realistic! (I am so guilty of this.) If you want the family to eat lentils, buy them. But if they go bad every time you do, stop buying them. A hard lesson to learn. Pay attention to what goes bad in your house and cross those foods off your list too.

• Save time and prep your veggies. Taking an hour to cut up the vegetable and marinate the meat will save you time and reduce mealtime stress. Imagine coming home and all you have to do it cook it. No chopping, rinsing, looking for the oregano. Schedule time to prep and cook– and stick to it. When dinnertime rolls around, looking into the fridge and having everything ready to go, will keep you on track and make eating healthy so much easier.

• Plan your leftovers. Something easy for throwing leftovers together like a stir fries, burrito bowls, chili, wraps, and pasta. If you make a Roast Chicken one night, you can then make Chicken Tortilla Soup, or Chicken Enchiladas another night. Spicy Black Beans can become Black Bean Tacos or Huevos Rancheros. Nothing goes to waste and healthy meals are simple to make. 

Grocery shop in minutes (not hours).

Get all the ingredients you need for your weekly meal plan in one quick grocery store run per week.

Effortlessly eating healthy by eliminating junk food purchases and reducing food waste.

No more stressful “what do we eat for dinner?” decisions to make after work and kids activities.

It’s one less thing you have to think about when you’re tired and just want to relax. Try the “Blue Barn Kitchen Cookhouse”; meal planning done for you by a nutritionist – meal plans and shopping lists to make your life easier. Check meal planning off your to-do list! www.bluebarnkitchen.com/cookhouse 

If it all get to be too much, try the

Blue Barn Kitchen Cookhouse , monthly mean plans with recipes and shopping list. 

Blue Barn Kitchen Cookhouse

• Save time by cooking healthy meals in the same time it takes to pick up pizza.
• Eat healthier by adding home-cooked meals with fresh, whole ingredients to your diet.
• Reduce the stress of deciding what to eat after a long day’s work, when all you want to do is eat and relax.
• Save money by reducing expensive takeout and using the foods you buy at the farmers market or grocery store.

xo-BBK