Meal Planning Success for Working Moms

Meal Planning as a working mom is on a WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL.  

When you work AND parent you’re juggling two full-time jobs.  You have no room left for sleep, much less cooking and grocery shopping.  

This was a fact that initially devastated me.  I LOVED cooking and trying new recipes.  Scouring Pinterest for hours finding fun twists on old classics.  Buying exotic ingredients to try new cuisines.  

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Once my first baby came all my positive associations with cooking went away.  I didn’t have time to do it all anymore!  I was so tired from waking up all night and every time I reached for a pot to cook something he would start screaming.  

Fortunately, I’d read about this.  I was prepared (or so I thought).  I had a freezer full of “easy” meals for when I went back to work.  But the problem I found? Maybe I’m an idiot, but I didn’t find most of the freezer meals easy at all.  

I guess I had this vision I could just get home from work and throw the meal into the oven.  Turns out that was not true.  At first, I tried thawing them in the fridge the morning of, but it often still wasn’t ready for cooking in the evening.  Then I tried putting it in the night before, which worked slightly better.  The problem then was that most of the dishes I had (enchiladas, lasagnas, etc.) had to bake for an hour.  This put dinner to 7:30 pm on some nights – which was bedtime for the kid.  Even after cooking that long, there were always spots that were overdone and parts that were left cold.  To top it all off, so many of the meals had small pieces of plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or ice patches stuck to them when they came out of the freezer.  This was particularly bad when a freezer meal fell between the cracks and I forgot to use it in a timely manner.

After we used up the freezer meals I tried to use my crockpot but had equal “meh” success.  Even on my “keep warm” setting I found that many of my crockpot meals were dry and burnt by the end of the day.  I also struggled with finding recipes that had enough flavor.  Everything that came out of the crockpot tasted kind of the same… and bland.  

Are you having the same issues?  I’m here to help!  Let me tell you my successful meal planning strategy.

First and foremost, this means you have to set aside some time each week to (1) PLAN and (2) SHOP

The shopping is the easy part (once you find the time for it).  The planning is the tricky part and should be done in careful steps.  

Step #1 – Get Your Your Calendar Out

This may seem like a no-brainer, but the very first thing you should do is figure out how many days you need to meal plan for.  

Do you usually have dinner at your mom’s house on Friday nights?  Are you meeting up with friends for dinner on Tuesday?  Do you have the restaurant Groupon you were planning on using this week?  

Also, I usually only plan for meals on weeknights because on Saturday and Sunday we’re usually out or eat leftovers.  Or if for some reason our weekday plans changed, we can make that meal on the weekend instead.  

Go one step further by figuring out what prep time you have to work with on the days you need meals for.  For instance, I have afternoons off on Wednesdays and Tuesdays, so meals that need longer prep or baking times can be done on those days.  Thursdays and Fridays are my late days where I get home around 6:00 pm, so dinner has to be on the table in 15 minutes or less.  

Figuring out how many meals you actually have to plan is a great first step, as sometimes when you’re scouring Pinterest you can get carried away looking at all the yumminess on there.  

Step #2 – Open Your Fridge

To minimize waste, a great next step is to check your fridge for items that need to be used. 

Maybe you have half a rotisserie chicken or carrots that aren’t getting any younger.  Find recipes that strive to use as many of these ingredients as possible.  Then figure out if this is a meal you need lots of day-of prep time or if you can turn it out quick.  

Step #3 – Check Out The Freezer (and list)

Every week I try to use at least one item from my freezer, from chicken thighs I bought in bulk to recipes I doubled in the past and froze.

This is important because it reduces prep you’ll have to do for at least a night.  Plus, it rotates that food in the freezer and prevents it from sitting there for years.  

I like to keep track of meals I put in my freezer (admittedly I don’t keep track of individual ingredients, just pre-made meals).  I use a magnetic list on my fridge like this. (Pssss. I also use this to write out meals for the week, more on that later).  

Step #4 – Consider the Starches

This step is really personal preference on my part.  I HATE ending up with all rice dishes or all pasta dishes in a week.  When I’m on step #4 I see what starches  I have planned with the other meals.  In a week we’ll usually serve one meal with rice, one with bread (like a sandwich, roll, etc.), one with potato, one with pasta, and one with another grain (like quinoa).  

At least for me, chicken 3 nights in a row can taste pretty different depending on how it’s cooked up…. But they’ll taste pretty similar if they’re all over rice.  

Step #5 – Put It All Together

Put all of the results and notes from the previous steps together – and fill in the gaps.  Make sure you have a protein, starch, and veggie for each meal.  You know you have tons of saved recipes on Pinterest.  Maybe you have a few family favorites you like to squeeze in there regularly.  Or sometimes I just ask my kids what they would like for dinner in the upcoming week (spoiler alert: they’ll say mac n’ cheese).

I’ll give you an example of planning my week goes:

Step #1 – Get Your Your Calendar Out
Monday – Dinner at Nana’s House
Tuesday –
Wednesday –
Thursday – needs to be quick meal
Friday – needs to be quick meal

Step #2 – Open Your Fridge
Monday – Dinner at Nana’s House
Tuesday – Some sort of sandwich using leftover buns
Wednesday –
Thursday – needs to be quick meal Chili with quinoa and cheese (to use up leftover peppers and carrots)
Friday – needs to be quick meal

Step #3 – Check Out The Freezer (and list)
Monday – Dinner at Nana’s House
Tuesday – Some sort of sandwich using leftover buns Chicken thigh sandwiches with carrot sticks (Chicken from the freezer)
Wednesday –
Thursday – Chili with quinoa and cheese
Friday – needs to be quick meal Korean bulgogi  (from freezer) with rice and bok choy

Step #4 – Consider Starches
Monday – Dinner at Nana’s House
Tuesday – Chicken thigh sandwiches with carrot sticks
Wednesday – potatoes
Thursday – Chili with quinoa and cheese
Friday – Korean bulgogi with rice and bok choy

Step #5 – Put It All Together
Monday – Dinner at Nana’s House
Tuesday – Chicken thigh sandwiches with carrot sticks
Wednesday – Maple-dijon wild salmon, roasted potatoes, and peas
Thursday – Chili with quinoa and cheese (make double to freeze)
Friday – Korean bulgogi with rice and bok choy

A few notes on this…

• Make sure every detail is planned out, including the veggies you’re going to be serving (this way you avoid buying too much for the week and wasting). 
• Plan to make double on recipes that freeze well (just always keep track after you’ve put a meal in the freezer)
• We have fruit for dessert every night, but I rarely plan that out (since fruit rarely lasts long in my house anyway, I have a low-risk for over-buying fruit)

Step #6 – Write It Up and Shop!

Then I write out my plan for everyone to see and add any ingredients I need to the shopping list for the week.  

So from the example above, here’s what my fridge planner looks like now:

Note that I keep a running list of what meals I have in the freezer currently.  As you can see, I made a few notes around some of my meals for the week (usually a “snowflake” around things I’m using from the freezer, “zzz” for things I need to prep the night before when the kids are sleeping, x2 for things I’m doubling).  I also like to make a note of how long some of my meals take to prep so I know when to start.  

So there you have it!  These are specific yet simple tips that I use for meal planning as a working mom – but I think ALL moms can definitely benefit from meal planning.  I’ll be #TeamMealPlanning forever because it makes dinner time easy and delicious.   

The wonderfulness of meal planning is that there are NO RULES.  You can tailor it to your family’s specific diet and preferences.  There are so many approaches you can take – try it for a week or two and you’ll find a system that works for you.  Plan on!  

Have you read about WHY I love being a working mom??