SIC Meal Planning!
You can do EASY and QUICK "SIC" meal planning - and I'm going to show you how!
Do you want to save money? Do you have no time to cook during the week? By following these 3 simple steps I will show you how to maximize the time you DO have so you can have frugal, home cooked meals to eat at home or on the go.
This is how I take 30 minutes to plan our meals for the week. Once I've gone through this process I can shop to fill in the gaps and then spend a few hours (either on my day off or a weekend day) to meal prep (cook the food and package it up - video coming soon!). By following this process I can minimize dishes, reduce the amount of time I'm in the kitchen and give myself free time later in the week.
You ready to start? Let's get to it!
Number 1, S, SCHEDULE.
First thing I do is write out our work schedules on a calendar. I'm a pen and paper kinda girl so I physically write down the hours and days my husband and I are working (because it changes every week). If you have children with any special school activities you will want to write that down as well. I write an "L" for lunch and "D" for dinner and mark a star next to the meals that will need to be pre-packed for an On-The-Go meal. By doing this I can make sure I portion out those meals into single serve containers right after I make them before storing them in the fridge. (Breakfast is usually one of only a couple things that doesn't need much planning).
Next is I, INVENTORY.
This is the part of the process where I inventory all the food we have. This means I check the fridge, the freezer, the deep freezer, the pantry, and anywhere else I might stash food away. I check our meat supply first and write down on a piece of paper what we have so I can pull from that selection later. Next I inventory our fruit and vegetable supply. Finally I look at our carbs; we always have rice, noodles or bread on hand. I usually add one of these to my meals and omit them from Brandon's. Based on what we already have I will make a list of meals we could potentially have for the week (and any food items we would need from the store) and then move on to the last step...
C, CALENDAR!
This is where I start putting meals into the calendar puzzle. I start playing around with meals I've listed already and seeing which ones would be best on which days, depending on what is going on. It really is a puzzle to see which meals fit where! I put the foods that will spoil first in the beginning of the week and the fresher or longer lasting foods (or freezer items) later in the week. When I feel satisfied with the results it's time to grocery shop for my fill in food items and get to prepping.
I'll have a MEAL PREPPING video coming out SOON so hit the subscribe button and the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you don't miss it!
Leave a comment down below - how do YOU meal plan? Are there tips and tricks along the way that you've learned? Let's learn from each other so we can be better together!
See you next time - bye!
