Meal planning made easy for busy moms who lean a bit Chaotic Good.
I hate meal planning. I am a very spontaneous, creative person. I do not like schedules or structure unless we are talking finance reports. Meal planning is a very creative thing to me. What do I want for dinner? Something I’m in the mood for. I have no idea what I’m going to be in the mood for on any particular day later in the week. However, meal planning is also a very finance reporty thing because I need to budget to some extent. And with the rising cost of food, the need to budget is increasing.
There seemingly is a billion and one ways to meal plan. Nothing is right or wrong. Nothing is really better. It’s just a matter of personal preference. What works for you. And so I’m going to save you the pain of Printables anything. I may supply printables later but I’m not a printables kind of gal due to the fact that I’m so fed up with what I pay for printer ink that I have boycotted it like a Chic Fil A Hobby Lobby Internet movement.
Instead what I wanted to do with this blog is be useful.
This blog is meant to be my recipe box. This is where I am storing recipes for the kids to find later. This is where I can find my info, do my planning, and get my own ideas. I actually use my own site.
So, the ONLY method I’m finding that works for me as of now for meal planning is to utilize the Walmart App.
This way you can… I can…
- See how much the shit is actually going to cost
- Less Guesswork
- Build my list on my desktop, access it from my phone
- Bulk plan food better with varying recipes
- Save for later so on payday, I’m not asking myself, “What was it that I meant to buy when I get paid?”
Easy Meal Planning & Budgeting
with Food My Kids Will Eat and Walmart
Easily plan meals, grocery lists, budget and nutrition with Food My Kids Will Eat recipes and Walmart’s app.
4 Easy Steps for Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping
Check out my recipes and find what you like. Use my categories to find ideas. Scroll beyond the recipe card to find Net Carb Counts, Carb options, and Average Cost. A link to my Walmart grocery list is usually in the recipe card notes as well as within the post.
Use my Net Carb Counts to plan your Keto Carbs. Also this can be helpful for planning diabetic menus. In each post, I generally have a Keto and or Diabetic Considerations heading. In that heading, I count out the net carbs based on the ingredients I recommend. At times, I show other ingredient options and substitutions to reduce carbs.
Use my lists on Walmart’s app or site to plan or calculate grocery spend. Add list to cart and tweak. Remove ingredients you have on hand. Switch up ingredients for your diet preferences. See how much you are spending before getting to the store. Read nutrition labels ahead of time. I try to list the average cost to make each recipe to help give you a quick yay or nay on the subject.
Why Walmart?
Before you judge me, please understand that my Podunk town does not have a Costco or Trader’s Joe.
- Walmart is where I shop.
- Walmart is the closest grocery store to my home that sells fresh produce.
- It IS super convenient.
- Transparency of showing actual food I used to cook.
- Easy reference point.
NOT ALL MY INGREDIENTS come from Walmart. I try to specify when that occurs.
The lists I send you to are on my actual Walmart profile as a mom.
I am NOT an Affiliate to Walmart
I really wanted to have an affiliate thing going with this website, but I did not want to mess with Amazon. I felt the user experience was better with Walmart…
- Walmart lists
- Walmart’s App
- Walmart’s Online Shopping + Delivery
- Walmarts are everywhere like McDonalds
It took me a while to find Walmart’s Affiliate Program, but they pay like 1% for the most part, and I am not sure that food purchases count toward that, so I decided it wasn’t worth my time to pursue.
So all my Walmart recommendations have zero affiliation, and I make zero money from them if you buy through my site.
Quick Meal Planning for beginners
The words meal planning could encompass so many things…
- Planning tonight’s dinner
- Planning this week’s meals
- Planning meals AND nutrition
- Planning grocery budget
- Planning Menus for Events and Holidays
- Meal Prep
I’m naturally a fly by the seat woman, so I prefer to plan meals as in, “What are we going to eat tonight? And tomorrow for lunch?” and I shop daily.
But I’m sick of shopping daily. I also want to provide healthier meals for the kids. Are my kids getting enough calcium? I don’t know.
How many of you can honestly answer if your kids are getting enough of calcium? Potassium? Vitamin D?
Which is why I am in the works of creating this blog’s “freebie” around Healthier Eating. I’m kind of a lost cause on the subject because I demand my food be delicious, especially if the world demands I cook it and wash the dishes. I’m not going to do all that for some raw vegetable penicillin tasting diet food. I also get analysis paralysis fairly quickly on nutrition. Add nutrition for 3 kids, of varying needs, and I’m already dizzy.
But outside of healthier eating, meal planning entails a lot, and it’s different for everyone.
So I’m going to kind of go over some basic steps that help guide the process…
Make some goals
So I already kind of went over some goal possibilities in regards to intent behind meal planning, but for run of the mill Everyday Meal Plans, I think it helps if you…
- Define your narrative
- Create new goals
So first define your narrative. The things you absolutely have to do, decide how you want it done.
- Decide when you want to grocery shop and how often
- List out food allergies and non-negotiables
- Decide about meal prepping (where you bulk cook one day and freeze for later)
- What method of cooking do you prefer?
- What time frame are you looking at for preparing meals?
- What is your budget?
Then you also want to create some goals to keep things interesting.
- Ask your kids what they want and their kid goals
- Create some kind of healthier eating goal like, “increase fiber.”
- Create a budgetary goal such as, “Cook more and eat out less.”
For me, my goals were like…
- Cook dinner almost every night.
- Eat healthier fast food like Subway, Wendy’s Salads and Chili instead of burgers and chicken nuggies…
But as time is progressing, I’m doing more goals like…
- Eat less carbs
- Try a new recipe once a week
- Eat healthier fats
- Replace white bread and pasta with whole grain
- Try to serve at least 3 veggies with dinner
Create a Recipe Box and Find Recipes
I realized my biggest problem with meal planning and answering that age ole question, “What’s for dinner?” was that I didn’t have a recipe box. Like every time the kids asked “What’s for Dinner?” my stupid brain would draw a blank. I forgot every meal I ever cooked except 3 meals we have eaten 3 times in the last 2 weeks. What did we used to eat all the time for dinner?
My recipes were scattered all over the place (binders, books, word documents) and I needed a centralized location for the best of them, not just to keep track of things, but also to have a Go To Place. So that when you don’t know what to make for dinner, your answer is, “Go to My Recipe Place” and pick something.
Decide your Recipe Box or Recipe Place
Decide where you are keeping the bulk of your recipes. Something you can skim through for ideas. Something you can save ideas to for later.
Be reasonable with your ideas and method because you love yourself enough to not add unnecessary work to your plate.
- Notion
- Trello
- Paprika App ($5)
- Kitchen Stories App
- Big Oven
- Binder with Page Protectors or Clear Pockets
Find Recipes
There’s a gazillion places to look. Cookbooks. Old cookbooks. Your mom’s recipe box. Pinterest. All Recipes. GOOGLE!
Apps that work with Walmart’s App
For a list of great recipe apps to help meal planning with recipe ideas…
Roughly plan out Meals
I generally like to plan out 1 to 3 meals at a time with lunch and snacks in the mix. I hate hitting up the grocery store daily, but sometimes, with money and schedules, that’s when it happens.
Tip: Plan a number of meals on your given budget at hand, but make sure in that budget to keep some cash for that I-don’t-want-to-cook or I-can’t-cook surprise that might occur. It might be Ramen Noodles.
A goal down the road might be to use a calendar system to plan out meals such as Google Calendar, one in a Recipe App, or Notion. Maybe you’re already there.
But for most of us, we need some baby steps.
- Start off with the habit of planning tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch
- As time goes, incorporate back-up meals into the plan
- When you’re ready, try to introduce a new habit of planning tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s dinner and 2 lunches.
- And then if you feel it’s time to up the game, start thinking about a weekly concept.
- Then anywhere in this game, if you feel the vibe for it, get into meal prepping habits and storing leftovers.
Meal Templates
I think it really helps to define what a meal is to you and your family. For the longest time, I relied on a recipe to count as dinner in of itself. Many times, with that, there wasn’t enough food for everyone. When a recipe says it serves 4, sometimes that means two.
So when I’m meal planning, I like to think of “meal templates” so to speak where I can fill in the spots.
MyPlate
MyPlate is the USDA version of a healthy dish concept. It’s an easy template to follow to supply adequate nutrition in each meal.
What I end up doing
I generally find a recipe I like. Then from that, I make sure that it has
- 3 veggies for dinner (2 for lunch)
- Whole Wheat or Beans for most dinners
Usually just making sure I have enough vegetables, many often posing as a side dish, I inevitably make enough “dinner.” Meals that often left a kid wanting more now have leftovers. Plus healthier eating.
Helpful Meal Planning Categories
Some of these categories may be helpful to find specific meals…
Hopefully this helps you along your meal planning journey. I do find the Walmart app to be more useful than a spreadsheet as I tend to plan dinners from the car in the parking lot before going in to the store.