When I was a young wife, I didn’t meal plan.  I didn’t WANT to meal plan.  I have a crazy talent of opening the fridge taking out a few bits of that and a smackerel of this and pulling it into a delicious meal.  Some people do cross-words to stretch their mind, I prefer to cook from little bits of nothing.   Doing this saved us THOUSANDS in food costs over the years.  I had little waste, tons of variety, and usually it was yummy.  I shopped for the things that were the best value and most nutritious and made stuff with what I could find.

Fast forward a few years (err 15….) throw in 6 kids, 4 schools, 3 jobs, and all the trappings — my mind is mush.  On more than one occasion I’ve opened my fridge, seen the little bits of nothing and crawled into bed with a bowl of cereal leaving the family to figure it out.

I’m not proud of it.  I’m just admitting it happened. 

When life is so busy that I can’t remember your middle name, it’s time to have a meal plan.  With a meal plan you I a shopping list that allows me to shop once for the whole week.  With a couple of prep hours on the weekend that the rest of the week is doable.

Today was the first day of school for 3 of my kids, plus I hosted a garage sale for 14 families and was running all day.   It was an ideal “hide in bed with cereal” day, but instead we had slow cooked stew and biscuits at 5.  The difference was a plan and ingredients on hand that I could just dump in the crock pot in a couple of minutes.

If you are struggling with getting dinner together or life is crazy busy, I’d like to give you some support.  Will you answer 6 questions for me?