If something is meant to make my work easier, then I’ll jump on it. I used to do meal planning to avoid that ‘what are we going to eat’ question but it eventually grew on me. I then added meal prepping for the days I just want to relax. With the arrival of Mandla into our lives though, I had no option but to stick it out and make it part of us.
Meal Planning ahead makes you budget your groceries shopping accordingly and saves you those coins. We are all about that frugal life and time management so this works all the time. The only downside is you get bored of eating the same things so be ready to switch it up anytime that happens.
With the introduction of milk, eggs and Weetabix now that he is a year old it gets interesting. Also more family meals less separate cooking. For the moms who have babies under a year, how far with the weaning groups? Ha. I read so many dos and don’ts when weaning & being a first-time mom with that added pressure to do right by your child, I got Lost. So I settled on one feeding guideline which I would say helped me get by.
It’s not the holy grail but it will make your work easier. The rest, just wing it.
On the family meal planning, Lunch is not included because no one partakes in it. In case they do it would be the previous night meal. Dinner 1&2 are substitutes of each other. So on the week I am meal prepping then Dinner 1 takes a back seat.
How do you guys manage to make dinner and prep food with the baby around? What works for me is I prep during his nap time. Or when he is watching cartoons. He gets fussy a lot of those times too. When he was younger I would put him in a moby/toto wrap but nowadays I just place him on his feeding chair or stroller, give him his toys which are basically spoons and some finger food.
New Recipe is for Sunday Cook Nights with The Bae. Trying out new recipes are for the days Ugali just doesn’t cut it and the palate wants to explore new flavors. To avoid that “did you find a recipe” question I delegated that job to take a guess… Trello.
Emenu is the board where I collect all the bookmarked blogs that have interesting local recipes. Trello Menu is directly downloaded from Trello. A life saver I tell You. Pinterest is also my source for such meals. I just copy them to Trello boards using IFTTT.
A Trello meal planner template.
I alternate the online recipes with curated cook files of my own.
Cheers to less stressful weeks and healthy eating!
