Back to School Meal Planning

Yes! It’s September, the kids are back to school and I have my house back to myself (in the daytime at least). I know I did plan to have a massive clean when they were back with their teachers, but I have not yet done it, because, for the moment, I just want to enjoy my ‘me’ time. I do love my kids and I love when they are home but ……..you’ll know what I mean if you have kids.

I try to meal plan most of the times and I do find it easier when the kids are at school to plan, shop for and execute the meals for the week. I feel much more organised, fully in control and it cost me a lot less in terms of time, money and mental anguish.

I especially love the fact that I know exactly what ingredients are in the meals I prepare for my family. I don’t know about you, but I don’t care much for spending lots of time whilst shopping looking at labels and trying to decipher what is not beneficial for my family. That is just a waste of my valuable time so I do prefer to know that what I cook, I grow or I make from scratch with simple, nutritious natural ingredients. The meals are planned on Sunday and then I do the food shop.

Here’s what this week’s back to school meal planning looked like:

For Evening meals, we plan something for each day. Sometimes we do have leftovers which we package and freeze or refrigerate once it is cool enough.

Sunday: Beef Stew chock full of lovely veggies and dumplings

Monday: Chicken Pasta Bake

Tuesday: Beef Stew

Wednesday: Chicken Pasta Bake

Thursday: Lentil Curry with Rice

Friday: Oven Chips and Baked Chicken with Carrot and Cucumber sticks

Saturday: Home-made Pizza on flattened Panini bread with chicken dippers

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. In our household, we don’t mind having the same meal twice during the week as long as it is not on consecutive days. Also, we do like a takeaway meal every now and again and we do indulge at times, but mostly, we make our own takeaway style meals

 

For breakfast, a variety of boxed cereals, milk and dried fruits and nuts do as well.

School lunches are also prepared by the older teens and then packaged and refrigerated. Some weeks they do take money into school to purchase what they would like. We do encourage healthy eating to avoid childhood obesity.

Try it. It works for us and I am sure it can work for you too.

As usual, this week I am linking up with the awesome Katy of Katykicker to share my meal planning ideas and to steal some of hers too!

Look out because for the coming two weeks, we will be cooking foods we already have in from the fridge, freezer, and cupboards! We have checked already and the only thing we need to buy in are potatoes! 

For some meals, we make a large amount and then prepare the rest for storing in the fridge or freezer when we are ready for it.

This money-saving effort will ensure that we stay on top of our budget and can save up for bigger purchases. The debt-free life is more stress-free.

Have yourselves a great week and don’t forget you can share your meal planning ideas with us too. Just hit comment below.