November 17, 2024 • 9 mins
Meal planning doesn’t have to feel like a chore. With a few simple tricks, you can turn it into a tool that saves you time, money, and energy. And who knows? You might even start to enjoy it. Well… maybe. 😉
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Or listen via Patreon 📱 If you don't need the cleaning app and just want the guided sessions then head to Patreon and search for The Organised Mum (please note that you are not able to save your faves or play your own music with this option)
Here is the link to everything that you need. https://theorganisedmum.com/quick-links/ If you have a question that you would like answered on the show please email contact@theorganisedmum.com
Listen to the TOM Rocks Guided sessions via The Organised Mum app. We’ll start you off with a 7 day free trial 🎉
TOM Rocks guided sessions are available via an in app subscription on The Organised Mum cleaning app.
Or listen via Patreon 📱 If you don't need the cleaning app and just want the guided sessions then head to Patreon and search for The Organised Mum (please note that you are not able to save your faves or play your own music with this option)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're one of those people that absolutely hates meal planning
or even hates the idea of knowing what they're going
to have for tea on a Friday on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I'm going to share with you my top.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Tips today just to make it that little bit easier,
because meal planning doesn't have to mean spreadsheets, color coded labels.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It can be simple and it can be flexible. And
I think one of.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
The things that we need to keep in the back
of our mind all the time, especially when we're taking
in information online about organization and housekeeping and all of that,
is to take the stuff that is going to work
for you and just leave the other stuff behind, just
let it go.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So here's how to.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Tackle meal planning when it is the last thing that you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Want to be doing.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So first tip is to start with what you know.
There is absolutely no need to overcomplicate things. Sit down,
write down five or seven meals that you can cook
with your eyes closed, meals that your household already like
so you're not in one of those meal time battles.
Easy meals that you can whip up really quickly or
(01:06):
even better, get in the slow coocker. So that is
your base your basis of simple family crowd pleases. So
you know the obvious ones, spaghetti, bolonnaise, chili, con carne,
pasta bag, all of those simple staples. Don't over complicate
this bit. There's no need for you to be reinventing
the wheel here. Simple things done well. There is no
(01:28):
shame in opting for simplicity because at the end of
the day, those meals are often cheaper, take less time
and energy to produce, and you know that your family
will already eat them, so there's going to be less
food waste as well. And look at this like default,
your default menu that you can fall back on whenever
you need to. So, say you don't have much time
to put into your meal panning one week, you just
(01:48):
got that, I'm going to just go back to the
default settings and we're just going to get that sample
menu that I know I can churn out really, really easily.
And if you want to, you can theme your days.
You know that I love theming things. I like to
clean my social media. I definitely theme my cleaning, which
you'll know if you follow the Tom cleaning routine. And
you can also very loosely theme the days according to
(02:10):
food as well. So you might want to meet free Monday,
Taco Tuesday, fake away Friday, that sort of thing. And
also as an aside, as a bonus tip does to
take away the decision fatigue if you are doing things
like pack lunches and pack ups and that sort of thing.
It's also really good idea to have theme days for
your kids' school lunches as well, because this does two things.
(02:31):
Kids love routine, they know what they're going to get
and also you know what you have to prep as well.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So think about doing that.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It doesn't have to be let in stone, it doesn't
have to be the same every single week.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But this can really help for those moments when.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You're like, ah, I literally don't know, I don't know
what I'm doing, and it's just going to stop you
from doing that scramble. And I think this is this
is something that quite a lot of people fall into
as well.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Meal planning doesn't have to mean cooking everything from scratch.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Our freezer is here for a reason and I sometimes
will go down to cook if you don't know what
cook is in the UK a ready meal shop and
everything's in a freezer and it's they say more homemade
that don't actually supermarket or ever. I don't know, but
it's delicious tonight. I So, for example, state I am
going to go to cook and every other Friday we
(03:20):
have something from there, because at the end of the
week we either have a takeaway Friday or we have
something from the freezer freezer Friday. So again, beming our
days doesn't have to be cooked from scratch, freezer ready
meals either that you've gone and bought, or you might
want to batch cook and keep in your freezer for
those occasions. Can also batch cook and freeze sauces, pasta sauces,
(03:42):
that sort of thing for those days that you just
are really really pushed.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You just need to.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Boil out some pasta and you've got a sauce in
your freezer ready to get.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
For those people who don't like rigid, set in stone
meal plans, then think about having a mix and match list.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
And this is a really lovely idea, really nice in between.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
So it might be that you have proteins, you've got meat,
or you've got beans and pulses, you've got a carb
like pasta and rice, and then you've got your veggs roasted,
steamed or raw. So have a little thing. Can you
make up some components. Maybe you're utilizing your freezer. So
I'm going to make a batch of sauces, and then
some weeks I might throw in chicken as a protein.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Other weeks I might throw.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
In some pulses or beans and make a vege of chili.
This approach still keeps things really flexible, but you have
to bear in mind one of the key positives of
menu planning is it saves your money because you're not
going out there and panic buying food on the way
back from school all the way back from work. Saves
your time see point one. It can save your time
and save you energy, and it's also going to save
(04:46):
you food waste. So it's not necessarily all about I know.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
What I'm going to be eating on Friday.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
When you're planning on a Monday, it goes a little
bit deeper than that. So you might once have a
little bit more flexible approach by doing this mix and match.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And this one is so important.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Plan around your schedule when you're sitting down to meal plan,
have your calendar at already be realistic. If you've got
to go take the kids to football practice on a Monday,
and you've got to get home, you need a quick meal,
you need to get out again.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Don't be planning to cook alas Ania from scratch.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Maybe that is the day when you want to be
leaning on your freezer and maybe some prep that you've
done a few weeks before, if you've done some batch
cooking or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Don't forget the slow cookers.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
The slow cooker meals like slow cooker Sundays are amazing,
like a really nice.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Joint of meat, whether it's a beef brisket.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Or something like that, especially this time of year, for
a really nice long walk. It absolutely exhausted you works
up an amazing appetite. You come back and dinner is
done and ready. And a lovely thing to do as
well is just to have some emergency meals on hand
for those inevitable days that happen to everybody that don't
go to plan. And these can be simple things that
(05:52):
you keep in your pantry. Beans on toast, really good example,
jacket potato and tuna, one of my favorite meals. Literally
could eat that every single day. Jacket potato and beans,
tin soup, frozen pizza. Don't think of them as cop
out meals. Think of them as sanity savers, and a
lot of those meals as well are actually really budget friendly, so.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You might need to spring.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You might want to sprinkle a couple of those in
throughout the week or throughout the month, just to make
sure that you're keeping on track with your food budget,
especially as we're heading into a festive season.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Now and everything just seems more expensive and.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
All your money is going and you've got no idea
where it's disappearing to And if you are feeling the
mental load of this, get the family involved to sit down,
just say, look to everyone, give everyone a packet of
post it notes. It's a handful of post it notes each,
and say write down your favorite meals and put them
in the jar. So when you are meal planning, you're
picking stuff out again, if people are going to eat,
it's going to be a winner, and you're not landing
(06:45):
loads on bizarre ingredients and trying to make something that
you're not quite sure if they're going to be or not,
because that is going to be soul destroying, it's going
to make you resentful. To get the family involved as well, and.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
This also works for lunches too. I had a conversation
with Ben, my younger in the week, and I was like,
what do you want on your sandwiches? You need to
give me some inspiration, and he already could tell me was.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Jam, I can't send you in with jam sandwich every
single day.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
We need to be a little bit more adventurous than this.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And they go and speak to your friends and this
is a really I said, get inspiration from other people.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Go on the Facebook group you're not part of it,
search the organized one community.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And now that really good source of inspiration that I
love to go on is the school's menu plan, because
you know they'll have made them healthy and they'll put
some thought into it. So if you're really stuck for
ideas and inspiration, and maybe your family aren't coming up
with an ideas, they'll be like, oh, I don't know,
s be go too bollernase and they can't come up
with anything else. Go and have a little look on
menu plans, school menu plans, that sort of thing. They
are a treasure trove of ideas of inspiration. And it
(07:42):
isn't down to you to do all the cooking either.
It isn't down to you to do all the cooking.
If you live with a partner, maybe say, right, one
night a week, can you handle the cooking plas just
to help lighten the load.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And if you've got older kids as well.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I know some of you might roll in your eyes thinking,
then cook it, but the mess afterwards, They've got to
start somewhere, right, you've got older kids that maybe are
thinking about moving out of home soon, maybe gives that
you note why don't you cook dinner on Saturday night?
Maybe make it if they've never done it before. Maybe
hover in the background because nobody wants to get food
boys there. But just seriously consider about lightening the load.
(08:15):
And finally, just know that this doesn't have to be perfect.
Meal planning isn't about creating a Michelin star menu for
you and your family. It's about ticking the box making
sure that everybody is fed and healthy in the easiest
way possible. That isn't going to tax your brain and leave.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You feeling completely depleted.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's about making life a little bit easier, reducing the
overwhelm so that when you're driving back from school on
the school and off from.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Work and your kid says what's for tea? You're not
left with it. You've been your future friends, You've planned it,
you've prepped it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I'd love to know what your meal planning tips are
or what are your favorite meals that you have on rotation, because,
like I said earlier, it's going to help to inspire
other people. So if you're watching this episode on YouTube,
then be sure to comments, and until we speak again,
don't forget that there's more.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Life's bye.
You're one of those people that absolutely hates meal planning
or even hates the idea of knowing what they're going
to have for tea on a Friday on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I'm going to share with you my top.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Tips today just to make it that little bit easier,
because meal planning doesn't have to mean spreadsheets, color coded labels.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It can be simple and it can be flexible. And
I think one of.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
The things that we need to keep in the back
of our mind all the time, especially when we're taking
in information online about organization and housekeeping and all of that,
is to take the stuff that is going to work
for you and just leave the other stuff behind, just
let it go.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So here's how to.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Tackle meal planning when it is the last thing that you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Want to be doing.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So first tip is to start with what you know.
There is absolutely no need to overcomplicate things. Sit down,
write down five or seven meals that you can cook
with your eyes closed, meals that your household already like
so you're not in one of those meal time battles.
Easy meals that you can whip up really quickly or
(01:06):
even better, get in the slow coocker. So that is
your base your basis of simple family crowd pleases. So
you know the obvious ones, spaghetti, bolonnaise, chili, con carne,
pasta bag, all of those simple staples. Don't over complicate
this bit. There's no need for you to be reinventing
the wheel here. Simple things done well. There is no
(01:28):
shame in opting for simplicity because at the end of
the day, those meals are often cheaper, take less time
and energy to produce, and you know that your family
will already eat them, so there's going to be less
food waste as well. And look at this like default,
your default menu that you can fall back on whenever
you need to. So, say you don't have much time
to put into your meal panning one week, you just
(01:48):
got that, I'm going to just go back to the
default settings and we're just going to get that sample
menu that I know I can churn out really, really easily.
And if you want to, you can theme your days.
You know that I love theming things. I like to
clean my social media. I definitely theme my cleaning, which
you'll know if you follow the Tom cleaning routine. And
you can also very loosely theme the days according to
(02:10):
food as well. So you might want to meet free Monday,
Taco Tuesday, fake away Friday, that sort of thing. And
also as an aside, as a bonus tip does to
take away the decision fatigue if you are doing things
like pack lunches and pack ups and that sort of thing.
It's also really good idea to have theme days for
your kids' school lunches as well, because this does two things.
(02:31):
Kids love routine, they know what they're going to get
and also you know what you have to prep as well.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So think about doing that.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It doesn't have to be let in stone, it doesn't
have to be the same every single week.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But this can really help for those moments when.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You're like, ah, I literally don't know, I don't know
what I'm doing, and it's just going to stop you
from doing that scramble. And I think this is this
is something that quite a lot of people fall into
as well.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Meal planning doesn't have to mean cooking everything from scratch.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Our freezer is here for a reason and I sometimes
will go down to cook if you don't know what
cook is in the UK a ready meal shop and
everything's in a freezer and it's they say more homemade
that don't actually supermarket or ever. I don't know, but
it's delicious tonight. I So, for example, state I am
going to go to cook and every other Friday we
(03:20):
have something from there, because at the end of the
week we either have a takeaway Friday or we have
something from the freezer freezer Friday. So again, beming our
days doesn't have to be cooked from scratch, freezer ready
meals either that you've gone and bought, or you might
want to batch cook and keep in your freezer for
those occasions. Can also batch cook and freeze sauces, pasta sauces,
(03:42):
that sort of thing for those days that you just
are really really pushed.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You just need to.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Boil out some pasta and you've got a sauce in
your freezer ready to get.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
For those people who don't like rigid, set in stone
meal plans, then think about having a mix and match list.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
And this is a really lovely idea, really nice in between.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
So it might be that you have proteins, you've got meat,
or you've got beans and pulses, you've got a carb
like pasta and rice, and then you've got your veggs roasted,
steamed or raw. So have a little thing. Can you
make up some components. Maybe you're utilizing your freezer. So
I'm going to make a batch of sauces, and then
some weeks I might throw in chicken as a protein.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Other weeks I might throw.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
In some pulses or beans and make a vege of chili.
This approach still keeps things really flexible, but you have
to bear in mind one of the key positives of
menu planning is it saves your money because you're not
going out there and panic buying food on the way
back from school all the way back from work. Saves
your time see point one. It can save your time
and save you energy, and it's also going to save
(04:46):
you food waste. So it's not necessarily all about I know.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
What I'm going to be eating on Friday.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
When you're planning on a Monday, it goes a little
bit deeper than that. So you might once have a
little bit more flexible approach by doing this mix and match.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And this one is so important.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Plan around your schedule when you're sitting down to meal plan,
have your calendar at already be realistic. If you've got
to go take the kids to football practice on a Monday,
and you've got to get home, you need a quick meal,
you need to get out again.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Don't be planning to cook alas Ania from scratch.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Maybe that is the day when you want to be
leaning on your freezer and maybe some prep that you've
done a few weeks before, if you've done some batch
cooking or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Don't forget the slow cookers.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
The slow cooker meals like slow cooker Sundays are amazing,
like a really nice.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Joint of meat, whether it's a beef brisket.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Or something like that, especially this time of year, for
a really nice long walk. It absolutely exhausted you works
up an amazing appetite. You come back and dinner is
done and ready. And a lovely thing to do as
well is just to have some emergency meals on hand
for those inevitable days that happen to everybody that don't
go to plan. And these can be simple things that
(05:52):
you keep in your pantry. Beans on toast, really good example,
jacket potato and tuna, one of my favorite meals. Literally
could eat that every single day. Jacket potato and beans,
tin soup, frozen pizza. Don't think of them as cop
out meals. Think of them as sanity savers, and a
lot of those meals as well are actually really budget friendly, so.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You might need to spring.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You might want to sprinkle a couple of those in
throughout the week or throughout the month, just to make
sure that you're keeping on track with your food budget,
especially as we're heading into a festive season.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Now and everything just seems more expensive and.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
All your money is going and you've got no idea
where it's disappearing to And if you are feeling the
mental load of this, get the family involved to sit down,
just say, look to everyone, give everyone a packet of
post it notes. It's a handful of post it notes each,
and say write down your favorite meals and put them
in the jar. So when you are meal planning, you're
picking stuff out again, if people are going to eat,
it's going to be a winner, and you're not landing
(06:45):
loads on bizarre ingredients and trying to make something that
you're not quite sure if they're going to be or not,
because that is going to be soul destroying, it's going
to make you resentful. To get the family involved as well, and.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
This also works for lunches too. I had a conversation
with Ben, my younger in the week, and I was like,
what do you want on your sandwiches? You need to
give me some inspiration, and he already could tell me was.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Jam, I can't send you in with jam sandwich every
single day.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
We need to be a little bit more adventurous than this.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And they go and speak to your friends and this
is a really I said, get inspiration from other people.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Go on the Facebook group you're not part of it,
search the organized one community.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And now that really good source of inspiration that I
love to go on is the school's menu plan, because
you know they'll have made them healthy and they'll put
some thought into it. So if you're really stuck for
ideas and inspiration, and maybe your family aren't coming up
with an ideas, they'll be like, oh, I don't know,
s be go too bollernase and they can't come up
with anything else. Go and have a little look on
menu plans, school menu plans, that sort of thing. They
are a treasure trove of ideas of inspiration. And it
(07:42):
isn't down to you to do all the cooking either.
It isn't down to you to do all the cooking.
If you live with a partner, maybe say, right, one
night a week, can you handle the cooking plas just
to help lighten the load.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And if you've got older kids as well.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I know some of you might roll in your eyes thinking,
then cook it, but the mess afterwards, They've got to
start somewhere, right, you've got older kids that maybe are
thinking about moving out of home soon, maybe gives that
you note why don't you cook dinner on Saturday night?
Maybe make it if they've never done it before. Maybe
hover in the background because nobody wants to get food
boys there. But just seriously consider about lightening the load.
(08:15):
And finally, just know that this doesn't have to be perfect.
Meal planning isn't about creating a Michelin star menu for
you and your family. It's about ticking the box making
sure that everybody is fed and healthy in the easiest
way possible. That isn't going to tax your brain and leave.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You feeling completely depleted.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's about making life a little bit easier, reducing the
overwhelm so that when you're driving back from school on
the school and off from.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Work and your kid says what's for tea? You're not
left with it. You've been your future friends, You've planned it,
you've prepped it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I'd love to know what your meal planning tips are
or what are your favorite meals that you have on rotation, because,
like I said earlier, it's going to help to inspire
other people. So if you're watching this episode on YouTube,
then be sure to comments, and until we speak again,
don't forget that there's more.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Life's bye.
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