plan b meal planning

I think we all know what plan A meal planning is. Make a plan, go to the store, cook your meals. 

My plan A: I plan our meals from Wednesday to Wednesday. I look over my calendar to see if we have any evening events or activities. Then, if I'm good, I will take inventory of my fridge, freezer, and pantry and see what ingredients need to be used. I plan my meals around those ingredients. 

It's a great plan...if I work my plan. But of course it doesn't always happen like that.

So this is my main advice about meal planning: Plan B meal planning. 

Plan B meal planning is my standing plan for when plan A fails. And it most definitely will. 

There's 3 components to a successful plan B. 

1. Keep a stocked pantry.  Instead of focusing on a plan that requires so much discipline, strategic shopping, and cooking, I have shifted my focus to building a stocked pantry and freezer, my own little in house store. This way I have options. I can change as the day changes. I have several "meals" in ingredient form on standby. 

2.  Stock fast foods. Frozen pizzas, Ramen noodles, chicken nuggets. While I know the pitfalls of keeping junk food around, I have found it is preferable to being forced to order take out. 

My logic is if I don't have some super fast, easy button options, I'm going to be forced to go to Little Caesars. Do you know how much it cost my family to eat one meal at the cheapest place to get pizza? Conservatively, $50. Say we do that 3x a month...that's $150. I can buy 5 or 6 large salmon filets at Aldi for that amount. 

So from a standpoint of managing resources, I'm better to stock up on groceries, whether that's salmon or Raman, and own the fact that I am not going to feel like cooking every meal. Also, I need a few meals that the kids can make for themselves.

Having the junk allows for no excuses to go out to eat. Nothing wrong with going out. I love to go out on purpose, just not as a default. Also, meals out are not typically fast or cheap! 

3. Cook efficiently. As much as I can, when I cook, I double or triple recipes. I harness the energy I'm already spending to maximize my efforts. I only do this with the foods we absolutely love. I'm not going to experiment and make a giant West African peanut soup (even though that recipe turned out amazing). Chili, taco meat, spaghetti sauce - all our favorites, I'm going bulk. 

Having leftovers and meals for the freezer is absolutely necessary to managing my time and energy well.

Plan B meal planning is simply making a reliable back up plan because plan A requires more discipline than life allows (at least for me in this season of life). If it's a good week, great! I ride that wave. But if I resort to Plan B, I count that as a win, too.