Transcripts
1. Intro: Look, I get it. I've been there too. You're home at the
end of the day, or you've been on Zoom all day, or you wrestled with a toddler for six hours and he
prayed for a nap time, but it didn't happen. You get to 5PM are seven
or maybe even eight. And you're staring at
your own refrigerator wondering what the
algorithm is for dinner. There isn't one. I hear you. I want to help you out. This is meal plan lack a mother. Hi, I'm Shira. I'm a mother of a toddler
and wife of a foodie. And let me just tell you, I had to figure out real quick how to plan
dinners ahead of time if I wanted to meet any kind of health goal or
maintain my sanity. This Skillshare class
is for anyone who needs just a little bit of extra
help planning dinners. This class is going to teach you how to plan and it's
higher months of dinner. One month, two months worth, multiple first, plaid
dinners for a month. Where going to start off
with our class project, where I'm going to
walk you through. What I do. That helps me to plan at
least one week of dinners. Then all you have to do, rinse and repeat, and you'd
habitants how your month, if you are someone
who is looking for a way to get organized and get dinner on the table every
night without having to hurt your brain because we all know the loris and accounting
has been added again, or whoever that person is
who bothers you all say, at the end of the day, you need to already
have your plan and I am going to
help you get there. Welcome.
2. Consider Your Audience: So welcome again to meal plan like a mother
where I'm showing you how to plan dinners
for an entire month. Now, I did include a worksheet that you can follow along with in the resources. However, if you want a winging
it with your notebook or your journal or
whatever you usually use to write down
your meal plans. That is just fine by me. Just making it available in
case you'd like to use it. So the first thing
that I want to consider is your audience. Think about who
you're cooking for. Now. If it's just you, easy peasy, breezy, Covergirl. However, if you have
other people to consider, like a foodie or a
toddler, is that just me? Okay. Maybe there are other
tastes that you're trying to consider
in your household. I want you to just
kind of go along with the worksheet and write
down who's in the house, ages if that is appropriate, and what are their tastes? So I'm going to use
me as an example because I don't know you
to get some new use Zoom. So for me, I know my
husband is a foodie. He likes a lot of variety. He enjoys like it very
interesting meals. There's not a ton of room for repeating dinners like that. But that's okay because I
learned how to work with it. Now, I also have a toddler and know that
is a complete sentence, but I'm going to expound on it. So my tune, your, oh, we are. Because she eats what we eat. She is slowly expand
in her palette. So she enjoys strong
flavors like garlic, she likes human flavors,
she likes sauces. She likes all kinds
of, you know, she has a whole song
about broccoli. We're really lucky in a
lot of ways that she will still try new things
and eat what we eat. However, I am not going
to pretend that that's everybody or that it works perfectly for
us even every time. So when I'm making a meal plan, that's something that I'm
thinking about like, okay, there are things
that I know that she will be more likely to try, but I also have to consider
in the back of my head. She is the L2. I gotta have some kind
of backup going on. So step one is consider
your audience. So on your worksheet, Let's take a moment to do
less than wine together. So I'm filling it out for
myself considering my audience. I have neat. My age is ground. And I'm just going to
list my preferences here. I enjoy Southern favorites. I'm a Southern transplant
live and on the East Coast. So I love my home food
and I like Soul Food. Next, I'm going to fill in Hubs, who is also a foreground adults. So check. And his preferences or
a little bit different. He enjoys exotic flavors and what I would
call world cuisine. So mark that down. Now, we have baby cakes. So for baby, she is too. And she, her palette
is still developing, but she definitely
has some preferences. She likes Babbage,
she likes sauces, loves the flavor of
garlic, are awesome. And she enjoys broccoli. So that's what I'm going
to look for in a recipe. So that's me. I want you
guys to go ahead and take a moment and fill out
Lesson 1 on your worksheet.
3. Health Goals: Okay, great start on that
worksheet and less than one, Let's go on to less than Sue. And I made this separate from
less than one for a reason. I want you to think
about your health goals. This could be anything from if you have a vegetarian household, if you have anyone
who's counting points or carbs or calories, want you to list
this separately. So in less than one, we talked about, who is it? Who's our audience? Who are we cooking for? Lesson 2, let's dive into what is that person's are
people's health goals. Now, I'll give you an
example for myself again. My family, we eat pretty healthy about
80 percent at a time. But we also like variety. Now, let's build
out less than two. So, like I said,
for my household, our health goals or dietary goals are going to be to eat mainly, are
mostly healthy. So that's, you know, lean protein, some badge. But we do like indulgences. So a SaaS here they're
going to fit as phi. So you guys go ahead, take a moment and fill out
lesson two on your worksheet.
4. Time Commitment : Hi. Okay, so you've made
it to lesson 3. Here is what we're talking
about, the time commitment. Now, if you are
looking at this class, I'm going to guess that you
don't have a ton of time. So cooked dinner
every single night. And as the famous saying goes, in, nobody got time for that. How much time do you
realistically feel like you can commit to cooking dinner
and ADNI like which nights, in how much time
on those nights. Take a real look at this. Don't fall into the trap
of and I do it myself. I'm not trying to like say
that you are alone in this. But don't fall into
the optimistic trap. Don't do that. Because what you need to do
is have a for real these, the really real plan on what you're going to feel like
when you log off of Zoom, when you've driven home, when you're picked up the kids, how are you going to feel
at the end of the day? On which days are you? Is your schedule
like fluctuating? What days are you
most likely to have energy to really put
a meal together? Because this is going to determine how we do
the next lesson. So think about it. How much time, what days, and how many nights? That's kinda the same thing. How many nights in how much time on those nights can you truly, fully commit to
make an examiner? So let's fill out
Lesson 3 together. So this is where I'm going
to choose what days are more likely to cook and how many
minutes I can commit to. So on Sundays, it's
kinda relaxed. I can devote more time, so about an hour. I usually can click
on Tuesdays as well. And that's a little less time. That's going to be
about 45 minutes. My next cooking day
I'm going to choose. Thinking about, is it going
to be Thursday or Friday? It kinda depends on what our
choose to cook on to say that, let's say Thursday. And that's going
to be 60 minutes. And Saturdays. Sometimes I cook,
sometimes I don't, so I'm going to put a
little question mark, but the time is limited then. So just 30 minutes. So go ahead and fill out
less than three for you.
5. Recipe Research : I right now fam, Welcome to Lesson 4. So this is where we're gonna get into some things,
recipe, research. We are armed with our audience. We know who we're cooking for. We are armed with
our health goals. We know what we're going for. We are armed with
our time commitment. We know what days and how
much time we can commit. Now, let's get into the
nitty-gritty recipe research. I'm breaking this
down into two parts. The first is, how
many recipes do we need and what kind
of recipes are they? So if you think back to
the past three lessons, we know who we're dealing with. We know what we're going for. Are we looking for
a bunch of Quito recipes because someone's trying Quito in the way that that can work is your plan to Quito
meal for everybody else. You just throw in a grain, but only on a card, like you can totally
work with it? Or are we looking for
vegetarian recipes? If it's everybody cool? If it's not dependent upon
why you're vegetarian, might need a little
side plan for them. For me personally, in I can
only talk about myself. I'm looking for staff that
is healthy and quick. Quick and healthy. I have several
cookbooks that I pulled from that had it in the title. I use a cookbook caught
healthy in a hurry. I have books by I
love Joe Wicks. He does a 15 minute meals. Look them up on Instagram, but they're healthy
and they're fast, healthy and fast,
fast and healthy. Healthy and fast. I don't
know if you've gotten it, but that's my MO. So think about your cookbooks. Like I just said,
think about magazines. I use sometimes cooking
Light Magazine. They have some that are
for fast and easy recipes. However, you're searching
whatever you're looking for, whether it's Quito friendly, vegetarian friendly points,
friendly, calorie friendly. Start looking for those
recipes now, part of that. How many? Okay, So since we already named what our
time commitment is, let's just do a little math. If you're a time commitment
is I get off work. R0 log off of Zoom. I do this, I do that. Okay. This Tuesdays I had that wins things.
I have that. Okay. I could do two nights a
week, boom, to recipes. I'm sorry. I said there will be math
involved and it's not really however many nights
a week you can cook. That's how many
recipes you need. So if that's too,
if that's three, I think that you
can count if you're watching this, go for it, however many nights that you've said that
you can commit to. And think about the timeframe. How much time is
it going to take you to make those recipes? Choose the number of
recipes for the number of nights that you decided
that you can cook. And look at the
time commitment of the recipes that you
are considering. So here, I'm putting
down the names of the recipe I've chosen from
my cookbooks for magazines. And what you want to do is
not just named the recipe, but go ahead and put
down the source. So which magazine? Which cookbook? And we're going to
talk about this a little bit more and
less than five. But you're going to see that I'm also going to put down the date, the exact date that I plan to cook that particular recipe. So I'm going to go ahead and
fill out the rest. Lesson 4. You can save the
date part until you have listened to or
watch less than five. But for now, fill out Lesson 4.
6. Meet Your Calendar : Hello and welcome to lesson
by meet your calendar. So you have your recipes, you have the number
of days you can cook. You have what kinds of meals you want to cook a full
you're cooking floor. We've done all of that work. And if you are looking
at the worksheet now, you'll see that
there's a place to actually mark on a calendar day, mark on what days
you're going to cook. And I know this seems like
it may be an extra step, but don't skip it. Don't don't skip this step. Listen. When you mark down on a
calendar that you can cook Sunday and
Wednesday, for example. A, it commits you to
doing so psychologically. And B, you already have a plan, a, you know what to
expect of that day. So it's not like you get
home and it's like, Oh, I have all the ingredients
for this recipe that I pigs, but I'm too tired. I haven't prepared. There's no prep for
it in an in and out. Now. Now boo, No, that's not
what we're doing here. What we're gonna do is
mark on the calendar the days that we are
cooking which recipes. So let me just use
myself as an example. As I had been. I like to cook on Sundays, tuesdays, sometimes viruses it. So that's a toss up. That's maybe. So what I do is I write down on my calendar and
I'm going to show you, I'm cooking this recipe, write it in the
name of the recipe. Sunday. Maybe it's
gotta repeat to Monday. This recipe, Tuesday to,
repeat to Wednesday. And the reason I do that, another reason I do
that is because you want to have a plan in mind, especially for when you're
going to grocery shop. If you know, you click in Sunday and Wednesday,
thank guess what? Saturday beforehand,
the previous Saturday, you need to have all your
grocery shopping done. I don't care if you are
ordering groceries. If you're sending someone
out for groceries, the groceries before
you need to cook, don't wait until
the last minute. Now in a few more lessons, we're going to talk
about prepping ahead, but just have in mind, these are days that I'm going
to cook, write it down. And this is what I'm going
to cook on those days. So go ahead, go back
to the worksheet and fill out the cooking date for the recipes that you listed.
7. Weekly Grocery List : Hey, new lesson,
who'd is lesson six. We're going to talk about
our weekly grocery lists. So far you have recipe, you have your cooked days. And now we need to
list all the things that we need from
the grocery store. Now, this could be you
ordering groceries. This could be you going
to the grocery store. However, you get your groceries. This is the time
to make the list. Here's also where I like to add up the number of
portions that I mean, each recipe, it's a cover. So for me, there's me, the hubs, the toddler, right? And the 2.5 servings
basically per night. So I look for recipes at
either already offers six servings or if they
offered two servings, I double it to be able to allow my toddler to have a taste
of either of our portions. I kinda cheat the
portions a little bit. In that case, however you do
it either straight up lists the ingredients from each recipe or multiply them by the number of portions
that you need to cover. Now, listen very carefully, and this is another step
you don't want to skip. Be very specific with how much the quantity of each ingredient that you are
putting down on your list. So if you need, but I wouldn't just say one can of coconut milk
or just coconut milk. Put 13.5 ounce can
of coconut milk, full-fat or 2.513 ounce
cans of coconut milk. Trust me, you're going
to want to do this step. You have to be specific so that you know exactly
what you're getting. You have to know what
you're getting so that you are sure that you can cover
the portions that unique. Another thing to
consider is whether or not you want to have leftovers. So like I said, if I'm looking for something
that has six portions, clearly if I only need 1.5, I am planning for at least
one night of leftovers. And that could even be if you're the type of person that
likes to take leftovers to work that could be leftovers for the night and lunch
for the next day. So I know some people are not
really leftover friendly. That's not where
their houses work. That's cool. But if you are someone who
likes to have leftovers, Our likes to give yourself a night off from clicking
without taking out, go ahead and plan
into your recipes and your grocery list quantities
to have leftovers available. So here's my own weekly
grocery lists that I use a note-taking
app in order to make, take the moment to write yours
out or put it in an act.
8. Plan for Takeout : Okay, welcome to lesson 7. Here we're going to talk
about planning for takeout. Now, I know that you've
already committed to cooking a few nights a week, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guessed
that drew you and, or your family probably wants
to have dinner every night. So this is where the planning comes in
for those off days. Whether you're leftover
friendly or not, you may have days when
there's no leftovers. You don't plan to cook, you don't have time, or
you just play it all. Don't want to. Instead of leaving those decisions
to the last minute, Let's just plan for it. Have Wednesday night
off or Saturday night. You know, there are seven
to choose from, Go for it, but you want to plan
your takeout and where you are getting take-out
from in this section. So this is also
where you would put any kind of meal
delivery or delivery kits if you subscribe to one of the delivery
kits or meal plans, this is where you
going to put this into your calendar so
you know exactly what's happening each
night of the week. So on your worksheet, go ahead and note what day you're planar for take
out for a meal delivery. And where's it coming from? Like go ahead and
put it into blank. This is the place where you
want to use specifics and put it down on a calendar so
you know what your plan is. So going back to our worksheet, this is the final fill in. I am choosing the exact date
that I want to take out, as well as where I'm
getting take-out from. Now that you've worked
all the way through, from preferences to
menu of recipes, to the grocery list, to even planning for takeout. That's that is one week
of thinners. You exit it. All you need to do is
steps four through 74. It's a cover three more
weeks and that's a month. How you got to this place. I'm so proud of you, but continue on to the next lesson so that we
can discuss some extras.
9. Make Ahead Tricks : So thanks for staying
tuned for Lesson 8. This lesson is all about
make ahead tricks. So for me, when I
look at my recipes, I'm also looking at
when can I get some of this stuff done
ahead of time and Matt in the moment
because again, nobody got to Africa. So if you have anything that
requires a lot of chopping, a lot of edge, map that out in one go. You don't have to
necessarily do it after you grocery shop
like immediately. And I know some people do that and some people teach that. I'm not that person, not even the one I
do grocery shopping. And I'm not that person, but I'm an early bird. So when I wake up some mornings, the toddler's not up yet. Nobody is bothering
me and I'm going to take 30 minutes or 15 minutes, whatever to get the WIC chopped, ready for recipes that week. So this can be ionized, this can be peppers, this could be carrots, anything that won't
go to lyse on use other vegetables
that are more robust if you could
chop it up ahead and it survives in their
freezer, get that done. I even go so far as the
separate it out by recipes. That way when I'm ready to cook, I'm just jumping it in
straight to the pain. Other things that you can make
ahead of time is our rice. I also by the rice pouches
that you just heat up for 90 seconds in a microwave in
order to cut down some time. The freezer section,
grocery store, sometimes we'll have
onions, peppers, and celery chopped up
a little mirror qua, another thing that I like to do is the day that I am cooking, I go ahead and pull all of my spices from the shelf
that I'm going to use. So I go through the recipe list and I've pulled out
everything that any if there's anything
can for my pantry, I get that altogether and
all oh, my countertop. Also pull out any measuring
cups and I've got an e. So if I beat my one-quarter
wet measuring cup versus my half cup
dry measuring cup. Anything that I've got a
knee might see schools, my tablespoons, Get that
out on the counter. As much stuff as I could do
ahead of time is already there and waiting for me to
just put it all together. You want to make your cookie
nights as easy as possible. So I hope that these
tricks help you out.
10. Helpful Gear : So now I want to talk
about helpful gear. I waited to the end
because I'm not sure if everyone has one. But if you have a slow cooker, if you have Instapoll or any of the other pressure cookers
that are available these days. If you have an air fryer, if you have an oven, any gear like that, that's going to make
your life a little bit easier and go a little bit more quickly as far as
dinner preparation. This is when you want
to utilize those days. Low cooker is
fantastic for getting your dredge that
you already chopped up your protein if
you're using one, your rice getting thrown
in in the morning, and then you just set
it and walk away, look for recipes that
help you with that. The Instant Pot, same thing you have already prep
your pre-charge, you have your things out
to measure real quick. You know, the Instant
Pot is gonna cook faster so you don't have to get that
done early in the morning, but you can have it so that it's soon as you walk
in both bone bone, you throw your stuff into
there and you are enzyme. Air fryer goes fairly
quickly as well. The oven. I would definitely recommend looking for sheet pan recipes. So whatever your dietary
preferences are, Quito budgets, herring in low carb or
just generally healthy, whatever you're trying to do
with your anxiety it find sheet pan recipes that you
can just have everything. You've already have
intelligent now you already got it ready in the
fridge and the freezer. You put your stuff
out on the sheet pans Haas in a
little bit of oil. You 20 to 30 minutes
away from dinner, and you haven't even spent
that much time in the kitchen. All of these gears, these tricks help you
to be able to commit to having dinner done other nights that you've already
said you're going to do it. All of these things
will help you to stick to your plan
and give it time.
11. Thanks: So finally, I want
to say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for
taking this Skillshare class. I hope that you've
enjoyed it at hope that you learn enough that you are able to meal plan like a mother so that you
can get generous done. I can't wait to see
your class projects. Show me your worksheet
just uploaded. Now, I want to see what you have and maybe you'll
give me some ideas. Maybe we'll give
each other ideas. Let me see what you've
been working on it. Hey, if you've got one week
done just a few moments ago, print that worksheet out
as many times as you need to or switch to a meal planner. I'm going to show
you mine as well, but I've Thank you. Thank you so much for taking this Skillshare class and
go forth and meal-plan. So guys, this is my little
food journal, my meal planner. It's basically a book with the calendar in it and
a place to take notes. I list the name of the cookbook or magazine and put a little
key on decide for myself. And then when I'm
writing now for recipes, I also put the page number next to it and whether
an app, a meal repeats. So I hope this helps. Thank you so much for
taking this course.
12. Bonus: Recipe Research Example: Hello everyone. I just wanted to take
a couple of minutes to show you literally
what I do every month. I get my magazines that I
wanted to pick recipes from. I get my calendar out my
little journal that I use that has just the right in the days on them
for the month. And I literally what I do to
pick recipes every month. I just opened the magazine. This is one that
we've used before. It's a few years old. But my husband went
through and marked ones that he particularly
wanted to try. I think we've actually had a chance to go
through all of those. But now I'm just choosing a recipe that looks good
and noting the name of it, as well as the little
arrows for me is that it means that I'm going to repeat that recipe the next day. Rural have leftovers
and I'm just putting some initials for the magazine it came from and the in number. And I just turned
through page by page. I switch to my other
magazine or even a cookbook. But I usually choose maybe
two or three magazines or cookbooks to just
turn the page through. Right now, recipes on the
days that I prefer to cook. So I just wanted to
show you my process. I know that recipe research is something that you
can get caught up on. But if you pull a few things, a few resources that if you know that you
like recipes from like, I know I like cooking, like I know I like this test
America's Test Kitchen. A couple of magazines, a couple of websites even. And just go through Markham. If you need to, if you're
doing this electronically, save the link on a particular day
that you want to create that recipe and
you're good to go.
Shera Morris, Crafter and Curator of Creative Living
