On week 4 of my summer series on planning we are looking at meal planning, with Kimberly who blogs over at Kimberly A.Vogel.
Kimberly shares
God's love for children through her writing, and encourages moms
through her blog www.kimberlyavogel.com.
She lives in Texas with her husband, Kevin, and four daughters. The
whole family enjoys serving God as leaders in the children's ministry
at church. When she's not homeschooling her girls, or teaching
creative writing, you can find her spinning words into stories or
twisting yarn or wire into crafty creations.
In this Series:
Week 1: Who Plans Homeschool?
Week 2: Planning an Eclectic Homeschool School Year Type A Style
Week 3: Planned Unshooling . . . Why?
I
have two rules for grocery shopping:
1.
Make a list
2.
Don't go hungry
I
break these two rules all the time. When I do, it costs me time and
money.
Did
you know there are on-line resources to help you with grocery
shopping? Until I started using an on-line planner, my grocery list
took close to an hour to plan, I didn't try new recipes, and I ALWAYS
forgot an ingredient.
Top
on-line Meal planners:
Plan
to Eat
I must confess, this is the planner I use and LOVE. While it does not
yet have an app, I hear it’s in the works.
Pepperplate
Mobile app, not web-based
Ziplist
There is a section for coupons! (FREE!)
Emeals
They provide the meal selection and list complete with sales and to
save money.
Tips
for Meal Planning with On-line Planners
1.
Decide what features are most important for you. I find the menu and
import recipe feature most important, but that might not be what you
need.
2.
Save Recipes when you see them. There is a save recipe button I saved
to my bookmark bar. When I see a recipe I want to try, I import it
right then. If I think about doing it later... chances are I won't.
This creates variety in my cooking.
3.
Spend just one afternoon importing your go-to recipes. I also taught
my kids how to do this! If you don't feel like typing in your
own recipe of Grandma's meatloaf, find one on line with the basic
ingredients and import that one. This saves time! Don't get bogged
down in details, just make sure the ingredients are the same.
4.
What about snacks and lunches??? I made a few 'recipes' for lunches.
For Kid's lunches, I listed the ingredients as: bread, sandwich meat, chips, fruit, and granola bars.
Mom's lunches: salad, avocado, oil, seeds, green apples, and almond butter.
When I'm making the menu, I slide those to the calendar and when the shopping list is created, I don't have to add those ingredients separately.
For Kid's lunches, I listed the ingredients as: bread, sandwich meat, chips, fruit, and granola bars.
Mom's lunches: salad, avocado, oil, seeds, green apples, and almond butter.
When I'm making the menu, I slide those to the calendar and when the shopping list is created, I don't have to add those ingredients separately.
What
are some of YOUR meal planning tips?
Kimberly shares
God's love for children through her writing, and encourages moms
through her blog www.kimberlyavogel.com.
She lives in Texas with her husband, Kevin, and four daughters. The
whole family enjoys serving God as leaders in the children's ministry
at church. When she's not homeschooling her girls, or teaching
creative writing, you can find her spinning words into stories or
twisting yarn or wire into crafty creations. In this Series:
Week 1: Who Plans Homeschool?
Week 2: Planning an Eclectic Homeschool School Year Type A Style
Week 3: Planned Unshooling . . . Why?
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