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(CNN) -
Even if you haven't made resolutions this year, you might want to make an exception in meal planning.
Do you think it is impossible?
The key is to find the planning style that best fits your regular routines and your family's favorite meals.
It doesn't matter if you're one of those picky eaters, trying a semi-vegan or plant-based diet for 2021, or just hoping to be more organized overall - there's a way to make a meal plan that works for you. you.
Here's how to set up your personal meal plan to suit your family's style and get in the habit of sticking with, and even budgeting for the night when you can't wash.
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Plate.
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Find the meal plan that best suits you
"The first question to ask yourself is: How much do you like to cook?" Said Debbie Koenig of Queens, New York, creator of The Family Plan, a weekly meal planning subscription aimed at families.
Your eating plan, while ambitious in some respects, will be more successful if it accurately reflects the reality of your regular schedule and family lifestyle.
And for most families, even those with professional cooks in the house, having a freshly prepared meal on the table every night is not feasible.
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Koenig plans week by week, with a "cook once, eat twice" strategy that takes the week to meal prep.
"I always plan to have bigger cooking episodes on Mondays and Tuesdays and intentionally double the amount of certain foods, so I have leftover food to play with," he explained.
For example, she roasts two whole chickens or heads of cauliflower at once, knowing that some will be eaten that night and the rest will go to tacos and soup later in the week.
"If you spend some time up front, the rest of the week is much easier," he said.
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Tackle dinner first and select favorite topics
If the idea of mapping out multiple ways to consume chicken seems like a big step, don't worry.
Start with a dinner plan and work your way up.
"There is no magic formula that makes someone disciplined," said Emily Peterson, a chef and culinary instructor in Parsippany, NJ, who has been developing her meal planning strategy for five years.
Peterson began planning her family's meals, then added lunches and then breakfasts as she became more comfortable with the process.
Dinners are still the lynchpin of your meal planning template.
Each day of the week has a theme: Sunday is a great roast or casserole that can make week's leftovers, Monday is Asian food, Tuesday is fish, and so on.
Having a category for each day gives Peterson a structure so that he can theoretically map out dinners for an entire month, but allows him to "create opportunities for spontaneity," like buying fresh clams for dinner instead of thawing shrimp. frozen without ruining the meal plan.
Once you have the basics of your eating plan style, you can scale up what's working for you and plan for two weeks at a time, or even a whole month ahead.
My personal monthly meal plan template follows the same basic ideas:
Assign categories to days of the week
Start from a base of favorite recipes that can be repeated monthly (more on that below)
Make dishes that can work for more than one meal and can reheat leftovers
Leave room for experimentation.
How you choose to organize your meal plan is also a matter of personal preference.
If you need to see everything spelled out as a visual reminder, hang a chalkboard on the refrigerator.
If Excel spreadsheets help you feel more organized, put your information there.
(You can also print the Excel sheets and put them on the fridge.)
You can download a printable version here.
Get in the habit of eating plan to stick with it
Create a repertoire of fail-safe recipes
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This won't happen right away, but you can start by listing some of your family's favorites as the basis for a rotating list of recipes to incorporate into your meal plan.
Koenig saves all of The Family Plan's weekly menus and notes the recipes that got the best responses from both her subscribers and her husband and son.
"If my family loved something, I'll include it more often," he said.
"If you end up with 48 to 50 solid recipes, you'll be fine for a couple of months."
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Give yourself nights off.
The easiest way to avoid meal plan burnout is to include cooking breaks in the plan itself.
"Our meal plan includes one night a week buying dinner, I don't cook seven nights," Koenig said.
Make a budget to order food delivery a couple of nights.
It doesn't have to be a fancy dinner every week, but be sure to create a reward system for your work.
Or if you love using a meal kit service like Hello Fresh, add it to your plan a few nights a week.
Make the meal plan a real family affair.
You don't have to do it alone unless you really want to.
Have a partner or older child cook at least one meal a week.
With the meal plan in place and the recipes in one convenient place, "if my husband finishes work before I do, he can get started," Koenig said.
You don't need me to tell you what to do.
A quieter life and a better budget
Quite simply, once you've established an eating plan routine, you'll be saving money and sanity.
Before planning meals, "you could spend $ 3,000 a month on groceries and not be aware of it," Peterson said.
Even though I am a chef and a mother and I work hard, I couldn't justify the amount of money that was leaking.
Since then, he has cut his monthly grocery budget to $ 800 for a family of three, including budget for vacations and splurge meals.
After years of fighting with his son, now 14, over his demanding eating habits, Koenig credits meal planning with bringing peace to his family's meals.
"I guaranteed him that he would have three nights a week where [dinner] is an absolutely easy victory for him," he said.
Instead of complaining or trying to change the plan, “don't make a fuss because it's written and makes it official.
He has eliminated those battles completely.
Koenig's son even makes his own chicken cutlets as part of the meal plan.
A few last tips
Meal planning is a constant work in progress and scheduling each week will not always be a success.
Even I go wrong and schedule overly similar meals too close to each other or raise my hands one day and say 'I don't care!
I really want to go get a hamburger!
Think of your meal planning skill as a muscle group that you are trying to strengthen, and don't be discouraged after the first week or month.
It takes some time to get into the rhythm, but the initial work pays off in future convenience.
- Casey Barber is a food writer, photographer and illustrator. Author of "Pierogi Love: New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food" and "Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats"; and editor of the Good website. Food. Stories.
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