Housewife Wednesday: Meal Planning During Winter and Spring
I love taking care of my house. As a modern woman, I feel a little bit of shame typing that but all the things that go into keeping my house running bring my joy. While I like my job, I find a lot more joy in cooking, cleaning, and running errands. I know, it's weird but I do genuinely enjoy running errands. Along the way, I've picked up some tricks that make basic household maintenance and upkeep easier for me. My top recommendations are meal planning, Trello, and scheduled cleaning.
We've been meal planning since we moved in together nearly 4 years ago (oh my gosh where does the time go?) But, I've gotten it down to a science by this point. Our meal planning in the winter and spring is completely dependent on shopping. In spring and fall, we have our garden (pictures and plans for 2019 coming soon!) and our CSA that we plan around so it looks significantly different. Today I thought I'd share how I meal plan and grocery shop during the winter and spring.
The first thing is that my husband and I both love to cook and try new things so we're usually sending recipes and ideas back and forth to each other throughout the week. We try to cook seasonally, which is a feat here in Minnesota. We don't always succeed, but we do try. On Wednesdays, I look at what all we have coming up for the week and plan meals for certain days based on how long it takes to cook, if we have parent-teacher conferences, etc. From there I add all the meals plus a link to the recipe (or a reminder of what cookbook the recipe is in) to our shared google calendar. This is what that system looks like.
I prefer to do our grocery shopping on Thursdays. My husband doesn't like grocery shopping and I love it. I find it very soothing. After we've picked out our meals, I build our grocery list in Trello based on where items are around the store. It makes it easy to check everything off. In Trello I have a checklist for each store we frequent (I gave up online shopping this year as a New Year's Resolution).
I plan our most intensive recipes for Saturdays and Sundays. I enjoy spending Sunday baking and cooking and preparing for the week ahead. One of our recent Sundays was St. Patrick's Day and I made this Vegan Irish Stew with Herb Dumplings, Rosemary Irish Soda Bread, Hasselbeck Potatoes, and C made Black and Tans. They all turned out great!
We've been meal planning since we moved in together nearly 4 years ago (oh my gosh where does the time go?) But, I've gotten it down to a science by this point. Our meal planning in the winter and spring is completely dependent on shopping. In spring and fall, we have our garden (pictures and plans for 2019 coming soon!) and our CSA that we plan around so it looks significantly different. Today I thought I'd share how I meal plan and grocery shop during the winter and spring.
The first thing is that my husband and I both love to cook and try new things so we're usually sending recipes and ideas back and forth to each other throughout the week. We try to cook seasonally, which is a feat here in Minnesota. We don't always succeed, but we do try. On Wednesdays, I look at what all we have coming up for the week and plan meals for certain days based on how long it takes to cook, if we have parent-teacher conferences, etc. From there I add all the meals plus a link to the recipe (or a reminder of what cookbook the recipe is in) to our shared google calendar. This is what that system looks like.
I plan our most intensive recipes for Saturdays and Sundays. I enjoy spending Sunday baking and cooking and preparing for the week ahead. One of our recent Sundays was St. Patrick's Day and I made this Vegan Irish Stew with Herb Dumplings, Rosemary Irish Soda Bread, Hasselbeck Potatoes, and C made Black and Tans. They all turned out great!
This meal planning has made our weeks much easier and less stressful. We get a healthy, filling meal each evening, and we aren't scrambling to go to the store multiple times a week. I get to be creative and de-stress after work. If you don't already meal plan, I really recommend finding a system that works for you.
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