Good Afternoon friends, I hope this finds you all happy and healthy and not under too much stress with what is happening around the World with COVID-19. We are all well here, doing what we can not to freak out or get caught up in the panic shopping. All my kids sports have been cancelled / postponed and I have a feeling it won’t be long until schools are closed here. One day at a time. 

A few weeks back we chatted about Meal Planning and the past two blogs I have given you some tips. I am here today to share some of the tips that YOU shared on social media. I hope you find this helpful! 

• When I remember to meal plan I first get the kids ideas and let them look through some recipes books to see if there’s anything new they want to try. Otherwise I buy them same boring ingredients!
• Ask the kids to choose 7 dinners for the week! We eat the same 7 meals every week but the kids always eat it, no problem.
• I do a little stocktake of fridge and freezer before planning for the following week and try to add meals that use ingredients that I have!
• Have a 6 week planning whiteboard and jot kids activities at top first so I know which nights we need quick or freezer meals. On the ones that don’t I often do a double batch to freeze or slow cooker which makes heaps.
  We always do a roast on Sunday and make it a larger one for leftover meat for lunches.
• I check fridge, freezer, cupboard and also our calendar for social outings before we do a shop.
  I usually work out a menu to use as much as we have already and then top it up with the extras.
• Cook all the onions(chop in processor and fry off) for the week, portion and freeze
  It saves a few minutes but it’s a few minutes!
• Every school holidays I prep 30 meals (fully or partly) and put them in the freezer. I meal plan fortnightly and add these into the plan. Always have something quick and easy for times when I’m exhausted
• Once a week I cook a double batch of something and freeze it and then every 7 weeks we have a ‘no cooking’ week and ‘cheaper’ week where we eat the freezer meals and it gives me a break plus saves us so much money that week on groceries
• Get your family in the kitchen one afternoon a week to help cook and chop. I have been doing this for years with my kids and it is helpful plus nice time together.