With kids, planning is the key to smooth sailing. Grocery shopping is one of the things that when done in bulk will save you a lot of time and headache because you won’t have to lug your kids along that often. If you have younger kids, then you will relate to the pain of trying to get a chore done more.
Meal prep or batch cooking helps you have a plan to follow for the week, saving you the headache of thinking what to make before every meal. When you make a meal plan for the week, you get to take into account what all you already have and what all you will need.
This makes shopping more efficient because you already know what you want, which in turn saves extra momentary spending. It also helps you use up everything you have, instead of forgetting about them and letting things go to waste.
Make a Weekly Meal Plan
Start out by planning meals for the entire week, including snacks and all three meals. This will give you an idea of what dishes you can prepare for each day. You can repeat the dishes with a gap of a few days to give a variety each day. You can also take into account the days when you are busy and you won’t have much time, this lets you plan easy and quick dishes for those particular days.
Make a Grocery Shopping List
Now that you have a plan of what meals you will be cooking, it becomes easier to make a list of things you might need. Take stock of your pantry and refrigerator. Check all the things that you already have and in what quantity.
Tick it off on your list of ingredients you need to prepare the week’s meal. Use the remaining ingredients as your shopping guide and stock up on them.
Time to Prep
Once you are done gathering the ingredients, start segregating into things that you can prepare now, things that have to be prepared in the moment, and things that don’t need any preparation at all.
Now start prepping. If you are not planning on batch cooking, even then you can prep ingredients to be used for cooking. You can wash, chop, cook, boil, bake – whatever your dish entails.
If you are batch-cooking, then make sure to work on recipes that can be reheated (soups, veggies, lentils, beans) or can be eaten cold (salads).
Final Thoughts
When you have a lot of responsibilities, then finding ways to make your life easier is important to maintain sanity. If you have a job and children, then doing everything can become emotionally and physically tolling. Food is one of the main concerns, so if you can have that under control, you will save yourself a lot of stress.
