Meal Planning Tips for Families

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of On-Cor. The opinions and text are all mine.

One of our goals for 2018 is to spend LESS and our biggest issue with spending stems from wasted food, eating out, and splurging a little too often on coffee. So we started 2018 with a mission to try to plan a little bit more so that we weren’t always scrambling after a busy day at work deciding on what we were having for dinner! I got a cute planner (cute planners are always extra motivating, right?!), I pulled out all my favorite saved Pinterest recipes and Facebook videos, and I started planning our menu for January. I now have a devoted planner for meal planning and each week I use that calendar to order my groceries online so that I don’t forget anything AND I actually spend less because I’m not impulse buying at the store! Here’s some Meal Planning Tips for Families to help make your 2018 a little easier and more organized!

1. Plan ahead.

Grab  your favorite planner and plan out at least a week in advance. A good rule of thumb is to make your meal plan on Saturday or Sunday, make your grocery list, and be prepared come Monday morning. If you’re feeling motivated, try planning for the whole month so that you can shop sales and know what you need and buy in bulk. Consider what items you might be using for one meal that may be leftover or in excess and how you can use them for another meal. For example, if you bought green beans and carrots for a pot roast on Sunday, consider using the other half of what you bought for meatloaf sandwiches a few days later. This way you’re making use of the items you’re buying each week and cutting down on wasteful spending.

2. Create a recipe notebook.

While we ALL know that Pinterest can definitely get your wheels turning in the right direction for recipes, a good way to keep track of recipes is to create two notebooks. In one notebook you can add all your family favorite meal ideas to pull from and in the second notebook you can print off recipes you’ve been wanting to try for inspiration. If your family doesn’t like the new recipe, pitch it and pull a new one from your inspiration notebook next time! It’s SO easy to get lost in a sea of pinning, so this is a great way to realistically inspire new menu ideas without getting so distracted on Pinterest that you forget what you originally started working on!

3. Choose wisely.

It should go without saying, but choose your recipes wisely. Search for a few dinner recipes each week that yield a lot of leftovers, those can be things that you use for lunch the next day or that you can freeze and eat the next week. Stick with what you like, but try to at least make ONE new recipe each week and venture outside the box. Also, try to find some recipes with common ingredients! Nothing is worse than having to spend $5 on a spice that you need 1/4 teaspoon of each month, so try to find recipes that use similar ingredients so that seasonings and spices don’t go to waste.

4. Take one day a week to do your shopping.

All too often I get lazy with my shopping and then I find myself running to and from the store all week grabbing forgotten items. This is real time killer and I ultimately find myself spending more money on non-essential items every time i have to go back. Instead, make your list, check it twice, get in and get out OR consider a service where you can either do a curbside pick up for your groceries or even better have them delivered to you. This helps cut down on time and impulse buying!

And finally…

5. Give yourself a BREAK!

It’s impossible to cook from scratch every.single.night. We generally save Fridays for frozen pizzas and a movie and once a week I like to try to give myself something easy to make, so I try things like On-Cor’s Frozen entrées.

For example, I used their Home Style Gravy & Meatloaf Slices to create meatloaf sandwiches using leftover mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans from my pot roast yesterday. I made it into a sandwich for some variety and added On-Cor’s delicious gravy over top to spice things up. It’s got lots of homemade touches, but it saves me a few hours in the kitchen slaving over a meal on a busy weeknight! On-Cor has recently enhanced their products to satisfy the needs of moms looking for convenient, quality dinner solutions for their families.

The multi-serve entrées, like this one, feature popular flavors and varieties, giving people a reason to come to the dinner table. The frozen, fully-cooked entrées are conveniently packaged and ready to heat and serve. I feel like life is demanding enough….so dinner shouldn’t be. On-Cor does the prep work, so you can take care of other to-do’s that need to-doing. You can keep your On-Cor entrée as is, or put a personalized spin on your favorite meal, such as turning the Gravy & Salisbury Steaks into sliders, or adding chicken to the flavorful Macaroni & Cheese.

For your next family meal, head to the freezer aisle of Kroger or check out the store locator at www.on-cor.com to pick up one of On-Cor’s entrées. For additional information about the entrée’s, visit www.On-Cor.com and www.facebook.com/oncorfrozenfoods.

The best part about all these tips? You’ll end up saving money, eating better, and having more time with your family!

Get FREE MEAL PLANNING Printables HERE

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of On-Cor. The opinions and text are all mine.