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Buying Ground Beef in Bulk

You don’t have to buy half a cow from a farmer in order to buy ground beef in bulk.

Many grocery stores have ground beef that’s been delivered to the store in 10-pound tubes, then they portion it out into different quantities to individually wrap and sell. Some grocery stores will actually sell those 10-pound tubes to you at a slight discount, since they aren’t using in-house labor to repackage it.

I have heard that Costco has these large tubes of ground beef if you ask at the meat counter. I always bought mine at Winco when we lived in Idaho; I didn’t even have to ask about it at the counter because they actually put them in the meat case for sale. You could ask in the meat department of your favorite grocery store to see if it’s a possibility.

Ground Beef Meal Prep Ideas

Buying ground beef in bulk can save money, but it can be overwhelming to deal with such a large amount of meat all at once! Here are some ways that you can prep your ground beef for future use to save some major time. Later in this post I’ll also share a video where you can see me in action as I meal prep some ground beef.

1. Taco Meat

One of my favorite things to prep and freeze is seasoned taco meat. It’s super easy to defrost and heat as-is for tacos on a busy night. You could also add it to dishes like taco soup, enchiladas, or even a taco salad. Just cook and season with your favorite taco seasoning, separate into bags with the quantities you’ll use for recipes, and freeze once the meat has had a chance to cool.

2. Cooked Ground Beef for Recipes

You can also prep ground beef for other recipes so it’s ready to use. I like to cook up a batch of ground beef with onion, salt, and pepper so it can easily be incorporated into any recipe. You can add it to pasta sauce, rice dishes, or soups and stews. 

3. Ground Beef Casseroles

Casseroles can take a little bit more prep time, but it’s so nice to have a fully cooked meal frozen and ready to reheat. Our family’s favorite make-ahead meal is the taco casserole from One Hundred Dollars a Month.

4. Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a great way to use up a bunch of your bulk ground beef! I prefer to mix the ingredients, add the mixture to a freezer-safe loaf pan, and then freeze it uncooked. Then, I just put it in the fridge to defrost the day before I need it and bake! 

There are a lot of great meatloaf recipes out there, but I just use my meatball recipe and form it into a loaf instead.

5. Meatballs

When I’m doing bulk ground beef meal prep, I mix up enough of the meatball mixture to create one meatloaf and a batch of meatballs. For me, the difference between meatloaf and meatballs is that I cook the meatballs before freezing. I am much more likely to use them out of the freezer when I can just heat them up in our sauce of choice. 

We love to use meatballs for pasta, Italian meatball subs, BBQ meatball subs, stew, and more! To make it easier to know if I have enough meatballs for a given recipe, I write the quantity of meatballs on each freezer bag.

6. Hamburger Patties

It’s also super easy to form your bulk ground beef into hamburger patties and freeze them. Due to food sensitivities, we like to add our own blend of seasoning to the meat before using a patty press to shape it into burgers. (Here’s an Amazon affiliate link to the hamburger press that we use and LOVE.)

Then, we put the patties onto parchment paper squares and flash-freeze them on a cookie sheet. Once they’re frozen, we stack them and put them into a freezer-safe container or plastic bag. Flash freezing them makes it so much easier to grab a patty or two from the freezer as you need them.

7. Flat-Frozen Ground Beef

At some point during a meal prep marathon, I run out of steam. If I have any ground beef remaining after prepping what I can, I just divide it up into freezer bags in the quantities I’ll need for recipes. (For our family, it’s usually one-pound and two-pound bags.)

Before placing the bags in the freezer, we press the meat flat in the bag. This makes it easier to store in the freezer, and it takes much less time for it to defrost when we’re ready to use it.

Watch Me Meal Prep Ground Beef

Check out this video where I take you along with me as I prep several meals for my family in one evening using 10 pounds of ground beef. (If you like the meal planning side of YouTube, be sure to subscribe to my channel!)

Save These Bulk Ground Beef Meal Prep Ideas

I hope that this post has given you some ideas for stocking up on ground beef. Not only will you save money on the meat itself, but it will also help you grocery shop less often to have protein ready to go in the freezer.

Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find these ideas when you have a large amount of ground beef to deal with.

The post Bulk Ground Beef Meal Prep Ideas and Tips appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.

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How to Grocery Shop for a Week: 5 Things to Try

I think it’s common for people to feel like they grocery shop once a week. After all, most of us who work during the week head to the store over the weekend for our main trip to the store. 

But how often are we still stopping into the grocery store on a Wednesday evening to pick up a loaf of bread and then walking back out with three bags of groceries? Keeping your grocery trips to ONLY one day a week can save you time AND money.

 If you’re finding it hard to grocery shop for a week at a time, here are some tips to help you avoid mid-week trips and ultimately grocery shop less often:

1. Keep a Running Grocery List

The first thing you can do to significantly reduce the chances of a mid-week grocery run is to keep a running list of things you need. That way, when you’re getting ready to sit down and write out your grocery list, you won’t forget those things that popped into your mind three days ago.

It’s so helpful to have a place for your kids to write things down as they’re running low on items. This could be as simple as a list on the fridge, or it could be a shared digital grocery list. No matter what you decide to do, just make sure that you’ll set up a running grocery list in a place that you’ll actually notice and use it!

Our family uses a shared list in the Reminders iPhone app. I created a new list, labeled it as our family grocery list, and then added each of my family members as collaborators. That way, they can easily add things to the list throughout the week. If they try to verbally add to the grocery list by saying “Mom, I’m running out of hair gel,” as I’m packing lunches in the morning, I just remind them to add it to the list.

2. Create a Meal Plan

The next step is to create a meal plan that you will use for the week. I have written a post that goes into more detail about how to meal plan or you can also watch this video with my meal planning method. 

But to summarize, a meal plan is just outlining the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that you’re going to be making on the days between grocery store trips. I use what I call the A-B-C-D-E method to do this:

A – Start by looking at what you Already Have in your pantry and fridge. Are there things that need to be used up soon? Do you have ingredients that you can use instead of buying more? 

B – Then you’ll look at the Bargains in the store circulars. By centering your meal plan on sales, you can save a significant amount of money each week!

C – The next step is to look at your Calendar. Do you need to bring snacks to the soccer game on Saturday? Is there a day that would benefit from a slow cooker meal or no-prep dinner?

D – Once you have all of that figured out, it’s time to decide on your Dinners for the week. I start with dinners first because that is usually the most ingredient-intensive meal of the day. Often, we can use our dinner leftovers for lunch and breakfasts are usually pretty predictable.

E – Finally, you’ll plan Everything Else and get the ingredients for your breakfasts and lunches on your grocery list.

3. Consolidate Ingredients for Grocery List

Once you have your meals figured out, it’s time to consolidate the ingredients that you’ll need for each of those meals. For example, if two of your recipes call for tomato sauce, you’ll want to total the amount of tomato sauce you’ll need. It sounds simple, but I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve written “tomato sauce” on my list, purchased one can, and then remembered I actually needed two (or three!) for the week.

Now that I use Plan to Eat (referral link), the consolidation happens automatically and it saves me so much time on this step of the grocery planning process.

4. Be Strategic

One of the biggest hurdles to meal planning is the actual execution of the plan. There are so many things that can impact the plans you’ve made and trigger a mid-week grocery store run. So it’s important to be strategic with things like:

• Your Schedule: Don’t plan a huge, involved meal for a day that you have a stressful meeting planned at work. Unless cooking is how you decompress, that’s just a trip to the grocery store (or drive-thru) waiting to happen.
• Your Ingredients: Certain ingredients just last longer in the fridge than others. For example, make sure you use recipes using berries earlier in the week. Otherwise, when you go to make your meal with fresh strawberries, you’ll discover that they’re already moldy and you’ll need to run to the store for more.
• Your Leftovers: I am a huge fan of using leftovers to prevent meal planning mishaps!  If I know we’re going to have a busy evening, I’ll plan a meal with a lot of leftovers for the night before. (For our family, that’s red beans and rice.) That way, I don’t have to cook at all on that busy evening…we can just reheat our meal from the night before.

5. Grab Some Shelf-Stable Extras

Finally, we all know that plans can change at the drop of a hat over the course of seven days. That’s why I always suggest grabbing some shelf-stable and freezeable extras that you can use for a meal when you’re in a pinch. That way, you don’t have to rely on a last-minute run to the store for fresh produce, meat, or dairy in order to get dinner on the table. If you don’t like the planned meal for the day, you can just use your shelf-stable extras instead of running to the store for something else.

Here are some things that I love to have on hand in my pantry at all times:

• Canned Beans: As much as I love how cheap it is to use dry beans, I always have every variety of our family’s favorite canned beans in the cupboard. That way, I can quickly make a taco soup or chili with pantry items if I’m ever in a time crunch.
• Pasta and Sauce: This is a go-to fallback dinner that keeps us out of the grocery store mid-week.
• Brownie or Cake Mix: I love to keep some mixes on hand for the inevitable 5:00pm realization that we need to bring a treat to youth group that night. It also helps with the mid-week grocery store or drive-thru runs when I’m craving a “little treat.”
• Canned Fruit and Vegetables: For a quick and easy side dish. (I also keep bags of frozen veggies on hand for the same reason.)
• Cooked and Frozen Chicken and Ground Beef: I love to grab some pre-cooked meat from the freezer. It saves so much time when the motivation to cook is low! My Copycat Chicken Rice-a-Roni is a go-to shelf-stable meal that I use with frozen chicken and shelf-stable ingredients.

By coming up with your own list of pantry must-haves, you’ll be able to have a bank of last-minute dinner options when your meal plan falls through for one reason or another.

The Best Tool for Your Weekly Grocery List

One of my favorite tools for saving time on grocery shopping each week is the Plan to Eat app. This amazing app makes it so simple to make a meal plan and an organized grocery list. That way, I can make sure we have everything we need for the week.

 I also love the feature that adds our planned meals directly to my iPhone calendar, so I don’t even need to open the app to remind myself of the plan! This keeps the meal plan at the top of mind and avoids the “what’s for dinner” panic trips to the store.

If this sounds like something that can help you keep your grocery trips to once a week, you can sign up for a free trial! It’s a no-strings-attached free trial, meaning they don’t even ask for your credit card information. Thanks for using my affiliate link to tell them I sent you! (Plus, you’ll get 20% off your first annual subscription if you decide to upgrade.)

Save These Tips for Weekly Grocery Shopping

Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find these meal planning tips whenever you feel like you’re spending too much time at the grocery store!

The post How to Grocery Shop for a Week appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.

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Monday Meal Planning

Monday is always an interesting day for family meal planning. Depending on how you feel about the start of the work week, you’re either energized to get your weekly meal plan started or you’re feeling too wiped out to cook. (That’s quite the range!)

If grocery shopping on the weekends is your preference, that means your fridge is likely stocked with fresh produce and the makings for plenty of meals…as long as you have the energy.

If you had a large Sunday dinner, you might have some leftovers that you can repurpose into an easy Monday meal.

Mondays are also big days for meetings, sports practices, dance classes, and so on. It’s likely that you’ve hit the ground running and you need an easy dinner idea to match your momentum at the beginning of the week.

Monday Dinner Ideas

Let’s dive into some Monday dinner ideas so you can find some inspiration no matter what kind of week you’re having already.

If You Have Leftovers

Did you have a big meal over the weekend and your fridge has leftovers, but not quite enough for a full meal? Leverage those leftovers into a fresh meal for Monday! Here are a few examples:

• Fajitas: If you have a few leftover steaks or chicken breasts from your barbeque, slice them up for fajitas! You likely have some fresh veggies at the top of the crisper from grocery shopping over the weekend.

• Salad Night: Put your leftover protein on top of a salad! Everyone can customize their dinner salad to their tastes with whatever options are left from the weekend.

• Potato Pancakes: We always seem to have more potatoes left over than anything else. Leftover mashed potatoes make great potato pancakes! Just add an egg, some flour, and seasonings to your bowl of leftover potatoes and fry them up like pancakes. You’ll have a delicious vessel for a quick gravy!

If You Had a Tough Day at Work

Are Mondays your toughest day of the week? Take it easy in the kitchen! This is a great day to leverage your slow cooker so you don’t even have to think about dinner when you get home.

If Your Kids Are Heading to Practice

It can feel like Mondays are the 0-to-60 acceleration of the school week. As soon as the kids are back from school, you’re headed somewhere else with little time for dinner. This is when “instant dinners” can come in handy. These are the meals that take zero prep work and minimal thought, but are usually the kid favorites:

• Sandwiches
• Quesadillas
• Breakfast
• Hot Dogs
• Nachos
• Bagged salad kit

You get the idea. Mondays are a great time to add these easy meal ideas to your weekly meal plan. Be sure to check out my blog post with over 25 no-prep dinner ideas!

If You Had Time to Meal Prep on Sunday

One of my favorite things to prep on Sunday for the rest of the week is chicken. I either barbeque and dice it up or slow cook it for shredded chicken. It’s so easy to add the cooked chicken to a dish for an easy Monday night dinner.

This copycat rice-a-roni is one of my favorite ways to use prepped chicken. I just add the cooked chicken near the end so it doesn’t get too rubbery.

Dinner Theme Nights for Monday

Do you love to meal plan with theme nights? So do I! Here are some alliterative theme ideas that you can use to kickstart your meal planning inspiration:

• Meatless Monday: Put the makings of vegetable stew in the crockpot for a busy night of sports practice!

• Made-From-Scratch Monday: If you start the week with both energy and time, this would be a great option!

• Make-It-Up Monday: This is a fun day for ditching the recipe cards and creating something from the weekend leftovers in the fridge.

• Meatball Monday: Keep some frozen meatballs on hand for a quick dinner of pasta or meatball subs. Check out my favorite recipe for gluten-free meatballs!

• Macaroni Monday: You could prep a pasta casserole on Sunday and pop it in the oven on Monday. 

• Marinara Monday: If you have the time on Sunday, you could simmer a big batch of sauce to use on Monday.

• Muffin Tin Monday: Corn dog muffins are an easy meal for a Monday night! Just mix up a box of Jiffy cornbread mix and spoon it into mini muffin tins. Then add about one-fifth of a hot dog to the center before baking.

• Make-It-Yourself Monday: Does your household seem to go in five different directions on Mondays? Keep some easy-to-airfry meal components on hand for everyone to whip up for themselves whenever they get home.

How to Organize Your Monday Meals

Once you’ve figured out your go-to favorite meals for Monday, be sure to keep them organized so you can save loads of time on meal planning! Here are some of my favorite ways to keep my Monday dinner ideas organized:

• Pinterest Board – You can create a Pinterest board with your favorite dinner ideas for Monday, or you could add sections to your “Dinner Ideas” board to organize your recipes by day of the week.

• Recipe Storage – If you’re putting together your a recipe binder or another storage method, you could have a section or list where you keep your favorite recipes organized by day.

• Digital Meal Planner – I like to tag my go-to recipes with the days of the week that they’re perfect for. That way, I can quickly search my recipe collection for Monday meals when I’m putting together my monthly meal plan. My go-to digital meal planner is Plan to Eat (referral link). If you haven’t heard of this awesome meal planning app before, check out my blog post with a full Plan to Eat review.

Save These Monday Dinner Ideas

Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board so you can quickly and easy find these dinner ideas for Monday.

The post Monday Dinner Ideas appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.

25+ No Prep Dinner Ideas

To make it easier to browse these dinner ideas, I’ve grouped them into categories. These ideas are great to keep as a list in your favorite recipe storage spot so you can quickly browse them when time is short! I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for my brain to come up with ideas when I’m feeling rushed. Even the most simple ideas!

Sandwiches

Never underestimate the power of two pieces of bread! Here are some of our family’s favorite sandwiches for easy weeknight dinners:

• Peanut butter and jelly
• Deli meat sandwiches (Use sub sandwich bread and your kids will think it’s better than Subway!)
• Chicken Salad

• Tuna (have it cold or turn it into a tuna melt)
• BLT
• Grilled cheese (put some lunch meat on there for some extra protein)
• Meatball subs (reheating frozen meatballs in your favorite sauce doesn’t take that long, especially if you give them a quick defrost in the microwave first)

Wraps

I’m not kidding, my kids will grumble about having cold sandwiches for dinner but I can put those same ingredients on a tortilla and they’ll be thrilled. Pretty much any sandwich I’ve listed above will taste great as a wrap!

• Lunch Meat Pinwheels – I love to spread cream cheese onto an entire tortilla, then cover 2/3 of it with my sandwich fillings (lunch meat, lettuce, tomato, etc.). Then I roll it up tight and, if I’m feeling super ambitious, I’ll slice it into “sandwich sushi” for the kids. They love these little pinwheels!
• Turkey Basil Wraps – The wrap is basically the same as the pinwheel, but instead of spreading cream cheese on the tortilla, use a half-and-half blend of pesto and mayonnaise. Delicious!!

Finger Foods

Finger foods can be a great option for a no-prep dinner. You can graze at the counter as you get ready to go or pack up a “snackle box” full of finger food dinner options.

• Homemade “Lunchables” – Charcuterie for the win! Slice up whatever deli meat you have on hand, along with some cheese and Ritz crackers, and you’re golden! Cherry tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, and grapes are easy to add to the mix to help with fruit and vegetable intake on a busy day.
• Air Fryer Quick Eats – The air fryer is a game changer for no-prep dinner! Either cook and prep your own convenience foods to keep in the freezer or buy your family’s favorite air fryer finger foods. Chicken nuggets are always a win at our house! By the time I’ve cut up a few veggies, we have a batch of nuggets ready to go.

Breakfast

Breakfast is always a great option for quick weeknight dinners. I’m sure your family has their go-to meals, but here are some other ideas if you’re looking for some inspiration:

• French Toast
• Pancakes – I keep Krusteaz on hand for nights when I don’t have time to make pancakes from scratch
• Waffles – If you’re cooking for a crowd, then this is not the quickest option. Definitely opt for pancakes if you’re cooking for several people.)
• Breakfast Burritos – Use whatever fillings you have time for. Eggs, air-fried sausage, pre-cooked bacon are all quick options
• Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits – These are an easy to-go option on a busy night!
• Breakfast sandwiches – Put frozen sausage patties in the air fryer and, while those cook, toast English muffins and scramble or fry some eggs. Everything will be ready within ten minutes!
• Oatmeal – Load it up with whatever fresh fruit you have on hand (we prefer baked oatmeal if we have 30 minutes)

Rotisserie Chicken

Rotisserie chicken is the hero of no-prep dinners! Just grab one on your way home from work or school pick-up and you’ll have the foundation for a variety of instant dinners.

• Quesadillas – Our family loves quesadillas with cheese, refried beans, salsa verde and shredded rotisserie chicken. We love to use our panini press or waffle maker to melt the cheese even faster!

• Salad – Add shredded rotisserie chicken to your family’s favorite bagged salad kit and you’ll have dinner on the table in no time!
• Chicken Roll-Ups – While your oven preheats to bake crescent rolls, mix the shredded rotisserie chicken with your favorite BBQ sauce or savory-flavored cream cheese (we like garden vegetable). Add a spoonful of the chicken to each of the crescent rolls before rolling and baking.

Sheet Pan Dinner Ideas

Depending on how much time you have, there are many ways that you can use a sheet pan to get dinner on the table in a hurry.

• Sheet Pan Nachos – Cover a rimmed baking sheet with tortilla chips, cover with cheese and whatever goodies you can find in your pantry or freezer (black beans, diced chiles, leftover taco meat, etc.). If you’re in a huge rush you can melt the cheese under the broiler, but it tastes better if you can bake it a little longer at a slightly lower temperature (around 400 degrees). Don’t forget the sour cream, salsa, and guacamole!
• Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner – Add your family’s favorite fresh vegetables (thinly sliced so they cook quickly) to a large baking sheet. Coat with oil and seasonings, then add sliced, fully-cooked chicken sausage to the top. Bake at 425 degrees until the vegetables are cooked to your desired tenderness.

• English Muffin Pizzas – Add English muffins to a sheet pan and top with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and your favorite toppings. All it takes is a few minutes under the broiler and your pizzas will be ready to go!
• Bean and Cheese Tostadas – Add tostada shells to a baking sheet and spread refried beans over the top of each one. Add cheese and green salsa before placing under the broiler. Once the beans are warm and the cheese is melted, remove from oven and top with lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.

Quick-Boil Foods

Just like the sheet pan dinner, you might find yourself with enough time to do a little actual cooking…like boiling water! We like to use the electric kettle to speed up the boiling process and get some food on the table quickly.

• Ramen – Once the ramen is cooked, we like to add frozen peas or edamame to each bowl. This cools down the ramen so we can eat it more quickly and adds plant-based protein.
• Pasta – Refrigerated tortellini cooks SUPER quickly and is perfect for a no-prep dinner. Just add your favorite sauce and even some shredded rotisserie chicken.

More Meal Planning Tips and Ideas

I hope these ideas have given you some inspiration to create a list of your own dinner-in-a-pinch ideas. Be sure to check out my meal planning guide with even more tips and meal planning inspiration. Creating a meal plan for a family, even on the busiest of weeknights, doesn’t have to be a hassle!

Save These No Prep Dinner Ideas

If you want to find this post later, just add the pin below to your favorite meal planning board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these no prep dinner ideas when you’re in a rush to get dinner on the table!

The post 25+ No Prep Dinner Ideas appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.

The Importance of Meal Planning

My guess is that you already have an idea of the meal planning perks, but I wanted to do a quick outline of the benefits of meal planning, just in case.

Save Time

First and foremost, I talk about meal planning so much on this blog because I know that it saves SO much time in the long run. Taking a few minutes each week to map out your meals can save time by reducing mid-week trips to the grocery store, time spent cruising Pinterest for last-minute meal ideas, or waiting for carryout orders.

Save Money

Speaking of carryout orders, meal planning will reduce those costly trips to restaurants on nights when you didn’t plan dinner. When you meal plan, you will also save money on wasted food, because you’ll be grocery shopping with a plan in mind; you’ll buy less food that you DON’T need because you’ll know exactly what you DO need.

Eat Better

When there is very little time to get dinner on the table, the quick and easy foods we turn to are often lacking in nutrition or abundant in preservatives. By planning and shopping ahead of time, you will ensure that you have everything on hand to cook healthy meals at home.

Eat Together

This is, by far, my favorite benefit of meal planning. In the many years that I have been meal planning for my family, I have noticed that the weeks when I create a meal plan (and stick to it) are the weeks that we consistently sit down together as a family to eat our meals. This can be more difficult to do when running through the drive-thru or eating in shifts as the Hot Pockets come out of the microwave. (This is not a snarky or judgmental statement…I’m genuinely speaking from experience.)

Now that you know WHY meal planning is important, let’s discuss the HOW.

Meal Planning for Beginners

Whether you are meal planning for yourself or for a family, you’ll follow the same basic steps for creating a simple meal plan. However, there are a few more tips that I want to share when you’re meal planning for your family. Before we get to those ideas, I wanted to share a simple meal planning process with you.

How Do I Create a Simple Meal Plan?

By following the same easy pattern each week, you can have meal planning down to a science! It won’t take you much time at all to create a meal plan and grocery list for the week. In fact, it’s as easy as: A-B-C-D-E!

(If you prefer video, I’ve done a YouTube video all about my ABCDE meal planning method. You can click below to watch!)

– A –

The first step in meal planning is to look at what you ALREADY HAVE in your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. Not only will this help to avoid food waste, but it will also give you a few meal ideas without ever having to open your cookbooks!

– B –

The next step in meal planning is to look for BARGAINS. What’s on sale at your local grocery store this week? If chicken breasts are a great price, you might want to add a few chicken-based meals to your menu for the week. Shopping the sales will not only save money, but it should also spark a few meal ideas for your plan.

– C –

Did you think that C stands for “cookbooks” because it’s finally time to peruse recipes? Nope! In my world, C stands for CALENDAR. When meal planning, it’s important to take into consideration the activities going on that week. Will you have a late night at work? You might want a slow cooker recipe for that day. Will a particular family member be gone one night? Use that opportunity to cook a meal that they don’t love, since they won’t be there to complain.

Another way that I use the calendar when meal planning is to look at food-centered holidays when I’m stumped for ideas. Check out my blog post with 365 days of food holidays to help you meal plan! There’s even a cheat sheet that you can print off for easy reference when you’re meal planning.

– D –

Now it’s time to actually fill in your meal plan. D stands for DINNER because you’ll want to plan your dinners first. I think you’ll find that you already have ideas for most of your week’s dinners just by completing the first three steps. This is also when you’ll want to start jotting down the items you need from the grocery store in order to make each dinner (if you’re meal planning with a paper-pencil method).

Why plan all of the dinners first?

Dinners are typically the most ingredient-heavy meal. You can often create lunches (or even breakfasts) with leftover ingredients from your dinner prep. Also, you don’t really need to plan lunch on a day after a meal with a large amount of leftovers.

– E –

The final step to quickly create a simple meal plan is to write down EVERYTHING ELSE. After you’ve planned the dinners for the week, fill in breakfast and lunch if you’d like! (Note: I don’t “plan” lunches or breakfasts. We have our usual go-to items that I just keep on hand.)

“Everything Else” also stands for anything else you need from the grocery store. Are you running low on pantry staples? Are there snacks you always like to have on hand? Get those items written on your list!

As you get more comfortable with meal planning, this process will take just a few minutes each week. But it wouldn’t be Mommy Standard Time if I didn’t have some additional time-saving tips for you! Keep reading for how you can save even more time when meal planning for your family.

Family Meal Planning Ideas

For the rest of this meal planning guide, I’m going to be assuming that you are meal planning for a family. However, that doesn’t mean that these ideas can’t be used when meal planning for one!

Dinner Theme Nights

One of my FAVORITE ways to save time when meal planning is to have different themes for each night of the week. Think “Taco Tuesday” but MORE!

One of the biggest ways that I waste time when meal planning is when I fall into the recipe rabbit hole, trying to narrow down an overwhelming number of dinner ideas to one week’s worth! By having themes for each night of the week, the options are drastically reduced, making it easier to quickly decide.

Kids also love getting in on the fun of dinner theme nights! You could rotate the theme nights every few months and let the kids help to decide the meal themes. Check out my post where I outline over 50 dinner theme ideas to choose from!

Family Menu Board

This might seem like just an extra step, but writing down your meal plan on a family menu board will actually save time in the long run.

But how?

For just a second, think about how often during the week you answer the question: “What’s for dinner?”

Then, think about how much time you spend trying to avoid negotiations centering around your answer to that question.

There is something magical about the family menu board. Yes, there might be a few complaints when you initially write down the meals for the week. But I think you’ll find that the negotiation attempts are FAR fewer. The menu board becomes this sort of neutral third party that doesn’t field complaints or negotiations.

Having the meals written down where everyone can see them can also keep the meal plan on track. I’m much more likely to scrap my dinner plans when I haven’t mentioned them to the kids. However, when they’re looking forward to a particular meal after seeing it on the menu board, they hold me to it.

Would you like to start using a menu chalkboard but you don’t love your handwriting? Check out how I was able to dress up my meal planning chalkboard (with no artistic talent).

Digital Meal Planning Apps

One of my favorite ways to save time on meal planning for my family is to leverage a digital meal planning tool. I have been using the same all-in-one meal planning app – Plan to Eat – for years because it saves me so much time!

You can quickly clip and store recipes that you find online so you don’t have to scroll through saved social media posts or cluttered Pinterest boards.

You can drag and drop your saved recipes onto your calendar to create a meal plan for the week, the month, or longer!

The best part is that the app compiles the ingredients for all of your planned meals into one organized shopping list. You can even quickly type in any additional items you need to buy from the store.

Digital meal planners really are a game changer when it comes to meal planning for a family! If you’d like to take a closer look at my favorite meal planning app, check out my review of Plan to Eat.

Save These Tips for How to Mean Plan for a Family

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite meal planning board on Pinterest.

The post How to Meal Plan for a Family: An Ultimate Guide appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.

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Why You Need Recipe Storage

There are many reasons why you might want to find a new favorite way to keep your recipes organized:

• Keep Family Favorites Handy: Even though you might have those tried-and-true recipes memorized by now, it’s a great idea to have them all in one place.
• Consolidate Loose Recipes: It’s always worth it to cut down on the paper clutter!
• Organize New Recipes: Keep track of recipes that you want to try, so you don’t forget to add them to the meal plan.
• Save Storage Space: Whether your cookbook collection is creating a jam-packed kitchen cabinet or you just want your open shelving to look a bit more tidy, a recipe organization system can help you save precious kitchen space.
• Share with Family Members: If you seem to be the go-to contact for family recipes, it’s always helpful to have them organized and ready to share.

Everyone is different, so there’s no one “right” answer when it comes to the best way to keep recipes organized. However, I’m going to share ten recipe storage ideas to help you keep the recipes for your favorite meals at your fingertips.

10 Recipe Storage Ideas

1. Recipe Binder

Is your cookbook shelf overwhelmed by a stack of recipes that you’ve printed off or photocopied over the years? A DIY recipe binder is a great way to organize this paper clutter! Just slip each recipe into a sheet protector to create an organized binder system for your recipes.

All you need is a big binder, plastic sleeves, tab dividers, and a little time! You can even purchase special page protectors to hold recipe cards or half-sheet recipes. If you’d prefer to skip the sheet protectors, you could just hole-punch the recipes and slip them into the binder. 

2. Recipe Box

A traditional recipe box is a classic for a reason! There’s nothing like sifting through your old family recipes in a wood recipe box.

Once you’ve transferred your favorite family recipes to index cards, you can file them away and have them at your fingertips. Recipe cards can be propped up anywhere for easy access while cooking. It also makes it easy to delegate recipes to any kitchen helpers you might have. This cuts down on the cookbook-sharing chaos when you’re working on a big holiday meal!

3. Recipe Book

If you’d rather not have loose cards, a recipe book is another great option. Similar to a recipe box, you will need to write out your favorite recipes on blank book pages.

Then, you can file the pages into the appropriate divided sections. This type of recipe keeper is easy to grab and go, plus it sits up nicely in a cookbook holder so you can cook hands-free. 

4. Recipe Journal

If you like to adjust recipes and make notes as you go, a recipe journal is a great option! Whether it’s a hard-copy journal that’s designed for that purpose or a blank notebook that you customize yourself, having a recipe journal is the perfect place to document your culinary creations and modifications. You can also set up a table of contents for your recipe pages so they’re easier to find. 

5. Personal Cookbook

Do you find yourself reaching for the same recipes over and over? Do you have friends and family who ask for your tried-and-true holiday recipes every year without fail? Maybe it’s time to put together a personal cookbook that you can keep for yourself and gift to others! There are many different options online for creating your own cookbook.

6. Pinterest Boards

If you frequently turn to Pinterest for meal inspiration, you might consider creating a storage solution right on Pinterest! You can organize your Pinterest boards to make your favorite meal ideas easier to find. 

The first way to stay organized is to keep your boards organized by title. If your boards are organized by name, just put the same symbol or letter at the beginning of all of your recipe boards so they stay together. (Title them all with “Recipes” as the first word or start each board title with an asterisk.) You could also do a custom sort and manually group all of your recipe boards together.

The other way to keep your recipes more organized on Pinterest is by adding sections to your boards. Open up your board, then click on the “organize” button above the pins. You can select related pins (like all of your chicken recipes) and then click on the folder button to create a separate “Chicken” section for those pins. The next time you open your board for main dishes, you’ll have the pins organized by protein. This can drastically cut down on your scrolling time!

7. Social Media

You don’t need to share new recipes to your own timeline or stories to keep recipes saved on social media anymore. Many of your favorite social networks now have a “Collections” feature for saved posts. You can even collaborate with friends!

​8. Your Photos

Did you know that your phone’s camera can be a great recipe storage resource? You probably already have a whole bunch of screenshots from recipe websites in your camera roll already!

The iPhone’s search feature in the Photos app can actually search the text on your photos. This makes it easy to find the picture of Grandma’s chocolate chip cookie recipe card that you snapped at Christmas last year without having to waste time scrolling. Talk about a game changer! If you want to take this feature even further, you can create albums on your phone to organize the recipe images. 

9. Digital Recipe Storage

Many digital organization tools can help you keep your recipe collection organized. For example, you could use Google Keep’s web clipper to save recipes that you come across online. You can also type in your own recipes to have digital copies saved to Google Keep. A great perk to using Google Keep is that you can set up a meal-planning calendar using the reminder feature! In addition to Google keep, there are many other digital recipe keepers available online to help you keep your favorite recipes organized. Many popular recipe websites even allow you to sign in to save and organize the recipes you like.

10. Meal Planning Apps

My personal favorite method of recipe storage is to use a meal-planning app. You’re able to have all of your recipes organized and available to you whenever you need them. If you’re at the grocery store and decide to change your meal plan based on a sale, you can quickly look up the recipe from the meal planning app on your phone. The best meal planning apps let you add your own recipes as well as import recipes that you find online. 

The best part about using a meal-planning app for your recipe storage is that you can also create your shopping list as you map out your recipes for the week! My favorite meal planner is Plan to Eat, which will consolidate all of the ingredients from the recipes I want to cook that week. The result is a streamlined shopping list and a whole lot of saved time! I’ve written an entire review of Plan to Eat, if you want to check it out.

One of the best things about Plan to Eat is that it’s inexpensive and they give you a completely no-obligation free trial. You don’t even have to input your credit card information! Just click here or below if you’d like to check it out for free today. (Thanks for using my referral link to tell them I sent you! I may receive compensation for referring you to their app.)

Save These Recipe Storage Ideas

Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these recipe storage ideas when you’re ready to get your recipe collection organized once and for all!

The post 10 Time-Saving Recipe Storage Ideas appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.

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The Benefits of Meal Planning with Theme Nights

Several years ago, when I was in a meal-planning rut, I decided to give each night of the week a theme (like Taco Tuesday) to see if it would save time on meal planning. It worked…and it stuck! I have been shocked by the amount of time I have been able to shave from the meal planning process by assigning a theme to each night of the week.  

Having an outline of what type of meal goes on which night of the week can jump-start the meal planning process; it narrows your focus so you don’t get overwhelmed sifting through your recipe collection. Want to give it a try? I have some theme night ideas for you.

Meal Plan Theme Night Ideas

Below are the current theme nights that we use at our house, plus a few other ideas for each night of the week. (The possibilities really are endless, especially if you don’t insist on alliteration like I do.  I’m weird like that…)

MONDAY

Our family starts the week with Meatless Monday.  There are a lot of reasons why people love Meatless Monday.  Our main motivator is to trim our grocery budget.  Here are some other alternatives to Meatless Monday:

• Meaty Monday (steak, chicken breasts, pork chops, etc.)

• Made-From-Scratch Monday (you know the meals – the ones that use every dish in the kitchen…)

• Make-It-Up Monday (take a detour from the recipe cards. This would really scare my family!)

• Meatball Monday (yes, I have so many uses for meatballs that I could devote one night a week to them…)

• Macaroni Monday (this could be a pasta or oven-baked casserole night)

• Marinara Monday (any dish that uses sauce!)

• Muffin Tin Monday (muffin tins aren’t just for breakfast!)

TUESDAY

There would be mutiny around here if we didn’t have Taco Tuesday.  This has turned out to be pretty much any meal in the taco realm (enchiladas, taco soup, etc.).  Other options for a Tuesday theme night that we will incorporate when we get tired of Taco Tuesday probably never are:

• “Try It” Tuesday (try a new recipe)

•  Take-Out Tuesday (either order from a favorite restaurant, or whip up your favorite copycat recipe)

• Traeger Tuesday (we are currently using our Traeger on Thursdays…more on that below)

• Turkey Tuesday

• Tourist Tuesday (cook a meal inspired by past, upcoming, or bucket list travel)

• TikTok Tuesday (get those social media recipes out of your saves and onto your dinner table!)

• Tomato Tuesday (this theme works for any tomato-based recipes, but this could also be a placeholder for any ingredient that’s overtaking your garden during the growing season)

WEDNESDAY

If you ever visit us on hump day, you can look forward to One Pot Wednesday.  I have also decided to include Crockpot meals in my meal planning for this theme, even if they might not end up being true “one pot” recipes.  Other ideas for Wednesday include:

• Wacky Wednesday (clean out the fridge/leftover night)

•  “What’s New” Wednesday (try a new recipe)

•  Wrap Wednesday (put your favorite salad in a tortilla and call it a night)

•  World Cuisine Wednesday 

• Wake Up Wednesday (breakfast for dinner)

• Waffle Wednesday (play a little bit of “Will it Waffle?” with your family)

• Wishlist Wednesday (rotate through your family members’ dinner wishlists)

THURSDAY

In our time zone, we have Traeger Thursday.  Yes, we have devoted one night a week, 52 weeks a year, to our wonderful Traeger wood pellet smoker.  When our propane grill became an unpredictable flamethrower, Mr. Blue Eyes really wanted to replace it with a smoker.  I was skeptical, but have been pleasantly surprised by how much I love it.

In my world of naming theme nights, Tuesday and Thursday theme night ideas are pretty much interchangeable. So you can read those ideas above, but here are a few Thursday-specific ideas:

• Thrifty Thursday (plan a meal based around what’s on sale)

• Thaw-It Thursday (use at least one ingredient from the freezer)

• Thirsty Thursday (choose your main course based on the beverage you’ll be drinking with it)

FRIDAY

We end the work week with Favorites Friday at our house.  This catch-all title helped me incorporate some of our favorite recipes that didn’t really fit into any of the other theme nights.  If we eat out, it is usually on Friday nights, so “Favorites Friday” can also include our favorite restaurants.  Other ideas for Friday include:

• Fire Up the Grill Friday

•  Fish Friday

• Fancy Friday (try those pretty recipes you find on Pinterest)

• Freezer Meal Friday (use a homemade or store-bought freezer meal)

• Finger Food Friday (charcuterie board, wings, potato skins, etc.)

• Flip-Flop Friday (kids plan and/or cook)

• Flapjack Friday (breakfast for dinner)

• Flatbread Friday (gyros, flatbread pizzas, meals that go with naan, etc.)

• French Fry Friday (any meal that would pair well with french fries/tots/roasted potatoes)

• Fend For Yourself Friday (there are nights when Mr. Blue Eyes and I are so busy that we each whip up our own quick dinner of choice and make enough to share with the kids)

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

Weekends call for simplicity around here. We have Soup Saturday which is perfect for our busy weekends.  I normally do a bit of grocery shopping on Saturdays, so I am rarely in the mood to cook a big dinner afterwards.  Here are some other ideas for Saturdays/Sundays.

• Sausage Saturday/Sunday

• Salad Saturday/Sunday

• Sandwich Saturday/Sunday

• Save It Saturday/Sunday (use up dribs and drabs of ingredients/leftovers so they don’t go to waste)

• Seafood Saturday/Sunday

• Storage Saturday/Sunday (try some creative recipes to help rotate your food storage items)

• Stir Fry Saturday/Sunday

• Slow Cooker Saturday/Sunday (break out the Crockpot!)

• Spaghetti Saturday/Sunday (pasta night is always a weekend favorite)

• Speedy Saturday/Sunday (use the Instant Pot or some of your other no-prep dinner ideas)

• Spud Saturday/Sunday (potatoes could either be the star or the side dish)

• Sunday Supper (pot roast, etc.)

• Celebration Saturday/Sunday (End your week with a celebration! Celebrate whatever food holiday falls on that day. Check out my free printable cheat sheet of food holidays for inspiration!)

As I mentioned earlier, the possibilities really are endless.  I hope that this has given you some ideas for your own dinner theme nights!

Deciding on Your Meal Plan Theme Nights

When you are brainstorming your own ideas, the main thing to keep in mind is whether you have enough recipes to warrant an entire night’s theme on that idea.  

At our house, Meatball Monday is a totally legitimate possibility, while it might not be for others who don’t have as many “go-to” meatball recipes.  On the other hand, casseroles are not a favorite for our family, so we wouldn’t devote one night a week to them.  The few casseroles that we do enjoy are included in our catch-all “Favorites Friday” theme.

You could even create a monthly meal planning calendar template that rotates through different themes each week or every other week. This will add some variety while still providing you with a starting point for meal planning.

Once you have your meal plan figured out, save even more time by posting it for the whole family to see.

How does THAT save time?

I’ve found that there is less “What’s for dinner?” questioning and negotiating with a posted menu. This saves time AND sanity!

Save These Dinner Theme Night Ideas

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite meal planning board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these dinner theme night ideas whenever you get suck in a meal planning rut!

The post Meal Plan with Theme Nights: Over 50 Ideas! appeared first on Mommy Standard Time.