Meal Planning Rhythm

I think our family has finally found an approach to meal planning that works for us! My previous attempts at meal planning always seemed to fall short for one reason or another and I frequently felt at a loss as to what to prepare on which days.  I hated planning the meals for out week in part because it was just such a tedious task for me.  Earlier this summer I was listening to Sharifa Oppenheimer on the Waldorf Connection and she mentioned a system of having a rhythm for meals with each day's breakfast and dinner assigned a general category.

This has made such a huge difference for me with meal planning.  I created a chart with the days of the week and assigned each day a breakfast food that our family enjoys.  I then put in fairly broad categories for dinner.  In another row under each category, I listed different foods that fall under that category.  Here is what my chart looks like.  As I come up with new meal ideas, I file them under the correct day.  Then before we go shopping, I highlight the items we will be eating that week and make my list from there.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	French Toast	Waffles	French Toast	Pancakes	Waffles	Pancakes	Sticky buns
Dinner	Pasta	Mexican	Rice	Grill	Pie	Crockpot	Roast
	Ravioli Spaghetti Mac and Cheese Lasagna Park Slope Penne Penne with sausage and broccoli	Tacos Enchiladas Nachos Taco salad	Stir-fry Casserole African Peanut Stew Risotto	Hotdogs Sausages Hamburgers Chicken London Broil	Pot Pie Shepherd’s pie Pizza	Stew Fig Chicken White Chili	Pork Roast Baked Chicken Pot Roast Pork chops

I love that this gives a rhythm and a predictability to our meals without becoming too restrictive!  It meets the need of my very phlegmatic husband to know a general idea of what his meals are going to be each day, and  and gives my sanguine side the ability to try new things and change it up.  Also, because we all have pretty different tastes, it allows me to make sure that everyone is getting at least a few meals a week that they really like.

I have also found that when I have an idea that for instance "Tuesday is Mexican night", I manage to get dinner started earlier in the day and have it ready for dinner time at 6:00 PM which otherwise seems to be a goal that only sometimes happens as we get busy with other things throughout the day.