Making Meal Planning Easier

I have a sort of love / hate relationship with meal planning. When I actually do it, I love how much easier it makes my life. But really, I don't love the process of doing it. Instead, I usually do a vague meal plan in my head as I walk through the grocery store. Of course, inevitably I forget something and then stand in my kitchen later that week wondering what I'm going to make for dinner.

Sometimes part of my problem with planning is having inspiration for cooking. Sometimes it's not having time to plan and then needing to run to the store immediately because there is nothing to eat. I always hope to improve in this area. Just recently, I've come across a few resources for both recipe inspiration AND planning that I thought I'd mention in case you haven't seen them yet.

Printable Meal Plans from Life as MOM

• Freezer Cooking Plans - Once each month, Jessica at Life as MOM releases a freezer meal cooking plan. Based off of some recipes from her cookbook Not Your Mothers Make-Ahead and Freeze and some from her blogs (Life as MOM and Good Cheap Eats), these cooking plans include a list of recipes, a shopping list, and a step-by-step plan to create a number of meals for your freezer. She's offered THREE different ones thus far - Meals for Busy Holiday Nights, Cozy Winter Breakfasts, and Holiday Baking.

• Weekly Meal Plan - Last week, Jessica released a printable weekly meal plan that includes links to recipes (5 meals, 1 side, and 1 dessert) and a shopping list. Yeah, I'm totally going to use this plan at least one week this month. She'll be releasing more meal plans in the months to come. Yea!

Easy Meals Ebook Bundle from Bundle of the Week

Another great resource for meal inspiration is available this week! Bundle of the Week is offering an "Easy Meals" bundle of five ebooks to help make dinner time easier for busy families. These books are packed full of more than 125 easy recipes that are delicious and satisfying but don’t require a lot of prep time. Get everything from delicious slow cooker meals and main dish salads to crowd-pleasing comfort foods for only $7.40 (a savings of over 70%) for one week only. With your purchase, you'll get all five of the following ebooks:

• Crock On! by Stacy Myers
• 20-Minute Meals by Leigh Ann Dutton
• Feast in 15 by Tiffany King
• Got Dinner? by Susan Heid
• Eat This by Renee Tougas

If this bundle sounds interesting to you, don't wait. This deal is valid only until Monday, January 28th at 8:00am. You can purchase your Easy Meals Bundle here!

With all these great resources and talk of meal planning, I just might try to get back on the meal planning bandwagon. I think I need to be even more detailed in my meal planning and go beyond planning just dinner. My kids are easy to please for breakfast and lunch, so that isn't an issue for me. But, personally,  I have a difficult time making lunch for myself if leftovers aren't involved. And unlike the rest of my family, I'm not a huge fan of cereal for breakfast. So, in an effort to be kinder to my body, I just might start planning other meals for myself.

If you're looking for meal planning pages, check out Meal Planning Made Simple from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free. Amy's got some cool resources on her site too.

Do you meal plan? How do you make it easier?