There are some tricky things about meal planning with an empty nest. There are fewer people to cook for. Some people have a hard time adjusting. This can lead to wasted food, money and effort. As a home exec, you have likely been cooking and planning meals for a long time – you may be tired of the chore! Sometimes this manifests as just not doing it. Or it may show up as resentment and a feeling of drudgery. Maybe you have a routine that worked really well, but needs refining now. Or, maybe you never got into the routine of meal planning. I want to share some things that work for different people and see if any of them help get you out of your rut, refine your process or start something new to serve your family better.
One of the best things about mid-life is you have lots of experience with what works for you. I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t change things, but also be aware of things that you know won’t work for you. I have a friend who doesn’t eat leftovers. If leftovers gross you out, then you might work hard to keep your meals to 2-3 servings as you prep them so you don’t waste a lot of food. On the other hand, if you love eating leftovers and getting a night off from cooking/planning then cook a little more! Do you like to try new recipes or are you more comfortable with a routine? Does technology help or frustrate you? Here are some ideas. Mix and match with what works for you!
Batch Cook:
Some people like to cook in large batches and then freeze leftovers. Be sure you have a good system for labeling and rotating. Some recipes freeze better than others. This can be a great way to save time – especially if you haven’t mastered scaling down your food prep from when you were cooking for all those teenagers and their friends!!
Meal plan:
Electronically: There are many free and paid apps that aid meal planning. I have tried Prepear – but in the end I went back to what I was doing before. The Premium option of Prepear integrates with many popular food bloggers. They create menus that Prepear will automatically plug into the calendar for you. Most meal planning apps will generate a shopping list from your meal plan and Prepear is no exception. eMeals is another app that friends of mine have tried and enjoyed. In the end a meal for every day is too much for me. We eat out or eat leftovers probably half the time. I made it work while I was using Prepare, but in the end, I went back to what I was doing before.
CNN did an article recently about the best meal planning apps in 2024 and they tested 5 different apps. Eat This Much Premium came out on top in their analysis – but you’ll pay $60/year or $15/month to use it. I may try another app again soon. I really like the functionality that takes the recipes and creates a shopping list – and many of them are integrated with the online shopping apps for major grocery chains.
Paper or Note App: What has worked for me for years is to create my menus in my note taking app and save them along with the shopping list that goes with them. I have used OneNote, Evernote and Apple Notes at different times. Saving menus allows me to recycle a menu from the past or create a new one as the mood strikes when it’s time to go shopping.
If you are more the paper and pencil type – try keeping a notebook with your menus in it. This allows reuse. I categorize my menus by season, since I tend to eat different things in the summer and winter.
Menu Structure: My menus are titled things like:
- “Kim broke her leg menu” (translation – super easy meals)
- “May Menu – Allie Influenced” (spring menu, but one of my daughters was going to be home, so foods she likes)
- “Easy and Healthy Fall”
Each menu has a list of 4-5 meals (with links if the recipe is from the internet), followed by a grocery list. The grocery list is divided by areas of the grocery store. Finally, there is a section I title, “check pantry for:”. These are things I generally have on hand, but I want to make sure since they are used in the recipes in the menu. It can be a bit of work to prepare a menu, but once it’s prepared, I can refine and reuse it!! I like choosing a cluster of meals and working my way through them. This allows flexibility. I can choose a quick meal on a busy day, leftovers when we have them and maybe a more involved meal when I have time.If you’re not a habitual experimenter like me, you could probably just have 3-4 menus for each season and rotate through them.
Calendar: Finally, some people plan with a calendar – picking meals for each day.
Have you tried a meal planning app? What do you like? What works for you? We can send you a menu template and a couple of our tried and true menus if you sign up for our mailing list (we promise not to spam you or sell your info!!) here.
The most important thing is to find something that works for YOU. This allows meal time to be less stressful and usually more healthy. It saves you time and money and makes meal time easier. Worth it!!
Leave a Reply