Thank you Dixie for sponsoring this post.
At the beginning of the year, we all make these crazy plans to control our spending habits and after last year we all learned how important it is to always be prepared.
That said, planning a week or two worth of meals is kind of hard for many of us, especially done in one day. From past experience, I would get so overly stressed about planning the meals and doing the shopping, and making the lists of ingredients adding meal planning was just not my thing!
After shuffling things around and working on a schedule I was able to do the shopping and prep the meals as much as possible to make the week easier for all of us! Honestly, the most attractive part of the whole thing is to not worry during the weekdays! I’m right?!
Not feeding our kids and husband is not an option no matter how busy our days get and we can all save some money for a rainy day!
So if you are ready, let’s do this!
1.First things first, make a list of the items you already have at home! This will not only save you money but it saves you the extra step of having to find room to put new items. With a small pantry like mine, this is a huge issue!
Look around your fridge, pantry, and everywhere where you store your food, take note and leave it out!
2.Look online for your favorite recipes. I have a board on Pinterest where I save all my favorite recipes and look back on them whenever I want to try something new!
3. Try your best to shop online! No matter your favorite store most stores now have delivery or pick up! This helps as you don’t lose your list and you definitely save a lot by not getting things you don’t need!
Lastly, make your prep easy!
This is key for me! As a busy mom prepping the food and making this process as easy as possible is what makes this all possible. Honestly, I have been the one that does all the above, and yet by Wednesday, we are looking for take-out as nothing was prepped. So let’s make things easy!
I’ve teamed up with Dixie to share their newest product, Dixie Ultra™ Cutting Boards found exclusively at your local Walmart store in the foil aisle! They make the work so much easier, simple, prep, cut, and toss. No having to worry about washing the boards between cutting meats and veggies and everything else in between, and one less thing to wash at the end!
Now to the actual planning!
I’m not a fan of cooking everything ahead of time, but I do cook as much as I can except the meats. That includes cutting veggies, fruits, and meats and packing them up. I set my sides close by and always keep a menu for the week, or at least I try!
Some days my hubby or the girls want something different and I just switch the meals around!
Another few tips:
I use all of our produce to the max. I buy tons of cilantro and make it sauce, or buy a lot of tomatoes and make pico.
I freeze my spinach to make smoothies and if anything is going bad I make sure to use it before it gets rotten. That’s not to say that some bananas have not gone trash but we are a work in progress.
Just last week I had a ton of strawberries that were going bad and I cut them all up and attempted a strawberry preserve but some of them were already bad and it tasted horrible!
The whole idea is that if we make things easier on us we can achieve more! Things like cutting your fruit and storing them cut and using Dixie Ultra™ Cutting Boards to skip steps and help ourselves get things done faster and easier. The best part when I’m done with what I have to wash and put away is minimal!
Remember being a mom is living one hack at a time and finding things that work for you. Our Dixie and meal planning work for us!
I agree, making things easier is a total game changer! Thanks so much for sharing these! I’ve gotta check them out!
Yes! It’s amazing and extremely easy to meal plan