The Exhausted Mom's Guide to Menu Planning

1. My story + What you'll learn: Hi, I'm Pauline McKinney and I am an exhausted mom. I'm a working parents trying to juggle full time job, along with hobbies and working out and parenting, and it's exhausting. So this all started when I used to come home after picking my kids up from daycare, and I was so far as I didn't know what to cook and open the refrigerator. And I wouldn't even have all of the ingredients for an actual complete meal. And it was stressful, and I always felt like I was failing. It was really frustrating feeling because I feel like everyone else had it together and I didn't. After five years of crazy experimentation, I have finally found a system that works for me easy, and it's fast errand. I've stopped with it for the last, probably the last two years, and I want to share it with you today. So if you're frazzled and you're looking for a way to take the stress out of meal planning and you want to make dinner time easy again for a mule time in general, Easy again. Come with me and I will show you my menu planning system. It's fast, and I can't wait to share it with you and hopefully take some of the stress out of meal planning and meal time for you and give you back time for yourself and to be with your kids in your family. In this class, you'll get my super simple menu template. I'll show you how to fill it out. I'll give you time and sanity saving tips, and I'll help you make your own template in Google docks. 2. Menu Template Walkthrough: Hi. Welcome to the class. I'm so excited to have you here. The first video today. I'm gonna walk you through the menu planning template in this video. It's going to be the version that you can download directly from me. If you're interested in creating your own template, I do a bonus video where you can create your own from scratch using dogs. Is it however you like? But for now, let's walk through the template you can download. So this baby has saved me so much time and energy, and I'm so excited to share it with you today. So what you have here are that these days of the week going down the page, starting from Sunday, going down to Saturday and then you've got these columns here on and you've got, of course, your usual meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. But there's also two extra columns. One first schedule and one for schedule is really where I put what's happening for our family on that day. Anything that's important when it comes to food or meals. If there's birthday party, if there's a class, if we're gonna be getting home late, If somebody needs to leave early. I put it in schedule. That's always the first thing I still laugh. And then in prep, that's where I put anything, Any notes around anything. I need to buy anything that I need to defrost for. Prep ahead for reference to something that needs to be done beforehand. And that is the quick walk through of the template. In the next video, I'm gonna take you through filling out one of these puppies, and we'll do it together, and I will give you tips and tricks for filling one of these out, and I can't wait to see you. 3. Menu Planning Tips + Tricks: today, we're gonna be covering menu planning tips and walk through. Let's start with the best time to fill out a menu. Ideally, best time will be when you are able to write before you're able to take the shopping trip and at the start of the week or before the start of the week for me, I generally do you want to do my menus on Saturday or Sunday, and it's always before I'm going to go shopping. So after you're done filling out your menu, you're going to know exactly what you're making and you're going to know exactly what you need to buy, and you can then take that, create a shopping list and go and no elected by which is always so time saving for me. So you're going to start by filling out the schedule column, write down any calendar items for that particular day and anything important that may impact meals. I know for me if I know that I've got leading at or a day that I know is going to be crazy , I generally put that in there because I know that I'm gonna have to do something that's going to be easy for me to cope or execute if I know it's gonna be a crazy day. I loved tailor the meals to sort of what's going on with our family. It's a crazy day, the night. Take it easy on rest Neil Kips. My favorite tip is to use thieves for me. It's been so helpful to sort of have a framework off meals that I know that I want to go to and be able to still change it up. So for us, every Tuesday is nachos. All I dio is change out the proteins from week to week. I It's like something that just feels like a lot less efforts. I already know it's gonna be nachos, so I already know that I need nacho chips and cheese. And then I just know I need to buy a protein for that week. Every Friday is pizza Friday, and we also need between making our own and doing delivery. And every Thursday is a roast chicken from Whole Foods. But we just change up the sides. You know, one week it's pasta and veggies. In the next week, it's chips and veggies, and, you know, um, it's just a really easy framework and using themes will allow you to get creative. But in a way that doesn't feel like you're searching for a new recipe every single week. Save your menus every week you're saving menus will be a lifesaver. When you're struggling to come up with ideas or you don't remember any good recipes, you'll look back on your old menus and oh, yeah, I remember that. That was awesome. I'm gonna go use that again. One thing I like to do is I like to date my menu is at the top, so I kind of know around what time frame and season that was, well, breakfast tips. You can have oatmeal days again. You can use fames and have oatmeal days and just change up the toppings from week to week. That's what I dio. I love waffles there fast, warm and versatile Breakfast. I am not a make ahead person, but if you are, you could totally make ahead and freeze. Same with sausage. My kids love waffles and sausage, so you just fry ups. And since sausage and you make some waffles and you've got breakfast in about 20 minutes, don't be afraid to have a day where the kids get to pick. Um, so for us, we do have kids choice, and it's usually on Fridays. But I also like to use this for when I know we need to be early for something, and I just don't want to argue. I want the day to go smoothly. So don't be afraid. A leverage kids Choice day for a day when you just I need everything to go smoothly that day, I will. I will start by saying I'm not the best lunch resource because our kids mostly by lunch. But if you do have to pack lunch, you can try planning, you know, sandwich days. We just changed it. The fillings. So what dates? Grilled cheese. And next day it's almond butter and jelly. Or it could be cam in the next day, it's turkey if your kids like sandwiches. All of this is really dependent on whether your kids will need it or not. But the worst worst case, My kids are not lunch kids, they just don't really eat lunch is that we packed for them. But I like to think of it like this. I plan Teoh incredibly nutritious meals a day if lunch isn't eaten all the way, I'm OK with that. It's not a huge deal to me because I know that dinner's going to be big and nutritious. And breakfast was bacon nutritious dinner tips I like to aim for done in 30 minutes, mostly because I work and my husband works and our kids have a relatively busy schedule. So there's not a time to time to prepare dinner. So I aim for done in 30. I like to find and keep using recipes that are fast and popular with the family. If I have a winner, I like to make sure that I remember that so that I can put that into rotation. Um, like I said, using themes has been so game changing for me. I love themes and don't feel pressure to make something every night. If you know a crazy days coming, it's okay to order delivery. Don't feel bad. I save a day. Sometimes I come home and it's been a day, and I don't follow the menu when I just order out or I forgot perhaps something or I just left that day open because I couldn't come up with anything that will happen from time to time. But I do feel, um, less guilty, cause it's not like I'm doing it every night and some of my fast favorites. If you need something fast, I love to make, like cheese and charcuterie plates with crackers or a bag Cats smoked salmon with bagel. Is my favorite kids really like it? Roasted chicken from the grocery store is such a life saver. On busy nights and spaghetti and meatballs, I love buying meatballs pre made from the butcher section of the grocery store. And, of course, my favorites nachos. So the prep section is gonna be where you fill out anything you need to buy your prep for that particular meal you needed to frost something or buy something. This is where you would put back for me. I'm pretty forgetful, so I like to set up reminders in my phone as I go. Once I'm done with the menu by their like the frost steps. I like to set up reminders in my phone, so I remember to do it on. Then, once you fell out your crab, you have your shopping list. So then you can just write down all the items that you need to buy and easy peasy shopping list for going to the store. 4. Class Project: class project. Your class project today is very simple. One. You can download a menu template and fill it out to you could make your own template with me and fill it out and then share your work. I'd love to see a filled out version of your template and any tips and tricks that you have to share or go to recipes. Thank you so much. 5. Bonus: Make Your Own Menu Template in Google Docs: I'm gonna show you how to make a menu planning template from a Google doc. So here I am in Google Drive, and I'm gonna click on the new button, and then I'm gonna go to Doc's, and I'm gonna select blank document. Just gonna title this menu, you way, and the first thing I'm gonna do is set up the page, So I'm gonna go to file age set up. I'm gonna make sure that it's a letter size portrait and I'm going to set all of the margins 2.5 just to give myself more usable space Hit. Okay. And then I'm gonna go over to this menu, hover over, insert, and then I'm gonna select table, and then I'm gonna go ahead and do a six squares across and eight squares down eight sized table, and then I am going Teoh Teik hover my mouse towards the bottom Here. And do you see how the icon changes to this little up and down arrow with a little side plank coming off of it? You. Once that shows up, click your mouse button and drag the table down. What you want to do is try and drag it down as close as possible to the bottom of the page without starting a new age. Think that's as close as I can get. So from here, I'm going. Teoh, if you've noticed that one of the grows extra super long, I'm gonna click on the second row all the way down to the bottom in the highlight them, Select them, right click and then choose Distribute Rose that distributes all of the rows evenly across that space that I'm going to take this first column. I'm going, Teoh, make it skinny. I slept all the other columns here, here, and I'm going to right click and select Distribute columns. Now, what we've got is skinny Collins up here. Could be the placeholders for the labels. So you can create as many columns do you think you'll need I'm just gonna create columns for schedule. Now you only need you only need breakfast and dinner or you only dinner. Then feel free to have a lot less columns. If you need an extra column for, like, snack, then you know, feel free to add an extra column to your table and distribute your rose accordingly in your columns accordingly The one thing I will say is that I highly recommend that you have a column in here for schedule notes and a column in here for apartment notes. Those air really lifesavers. And then here in these in this skinny column over here just gonna put your days of week. I'm sure you can figure out how toe rotate a label if you want them to face the other way. But I'm just gonna do this for simplicity. All right, then. I've got all the days of the week trying to believe this age. Okay, so you've got your one page or here, and then you can print it out or fill it out. Here is you as you like. And maybe just save this as the date and save all of your all of your menus in your cool drive if you want. Personally, I like to print it out. So that instinct to the refrigerator. But if you want a printed, you just go over here to file print, and then you can set it to just be page one. If you've got a two pager like me, and then just make sure that it scales to 100% that it's not printing any of the margins and got a nice, very neat easy to create a menu planning tablet right here. And you could save it and just printed every time you need one. Thanks for watching. 6. Bonus: Fill out a menu with me: Okay, let's fill up this menu template. What? I sit down to fill this out. The first thing I fill out is the schedule for the week. Depending on what's happening, I'll I'll plan my meals accordingly, so I'll walk you through and explain as I go Sunday. I know that we have swim at 11 30 and it usually goes until about 1 30 Monday. I know that the boys have excuse my handwriting. Boys have martial arts, so and they usually go about 52 6.5 Tuesday. I have class Wednesday that class. Thursday's free Friday straight and Saturday wave birthday party for 30 for one of my kids . So one of the things I really love about this trample it is this schedule part because the schedule for me really determines what I'm cooking, How long I have, how much energy I'm going. So in Sunday, because we have swimming 11 30 I know that lunch is going to be somewhere out. We're just not gonna have time to complement lunch, so I'm gonna put out on Monday. The boys have martial arts from 5 to 6 45 there's a sitter that picks them up. So I know that I'm gonna have a little bit more time to work in the office, Which means I'm gonna be a pretty tired, mentally drained when I come home. And I'm not gonna have a lot of time to pull anything together because the kids are going to be getting home plate. So generally I want to work on something that's I would cook something that's fast. So here, I'm gonna put waffles and sausage because waffles and sausage cook very fast and they're they're nice filling meal for them. Tuesday, I know that I'm gonna have class. So I want to do something that's easy for me and fast. So I know that we have some pulled pork in the freezer. So we're going to do pulled pork nachos. It's something that I can defrost quickly and cursed up in the oven. And the nachos will come together very quickly once the hole is ready. And it's something that Dad can easily dio on Wednesday. Dad has class, so it's really going to be picking up the boys and bring them home and pulling dinner together. So I know I'm not gonna have a ton of time and I won't be ableto you spend a lot of effort on something. So I'm going to stay here that we're gonna have hot dogs, veggies, chips. Thursday I know is open and we don't have anything planned that day. Fridays for our family are always pizza. Friday. Saturday is a birthday party for 30. So we're gonna plan have sandwiches. Good. Because one kid will be gone and one parent will become sandwiches will be a pretty easy, uh, beautiful together Says you can see I don't feel everything out by day all at once. I just kind of really go by this full schedule part. So breakfast on Sundays is always pancakes. It's really nice to have a few anchor meals that you know will always be the same just because it requires less thinking and it becomes a tradition for us. Sunday morning, it's pancake breakfast with bacon. You couldn't tell their, uh, carnivores. So first swim on Sunday. I think I want to pull together something that doesn't that I could spend a little bit more time cooking and that because I I've got I've got the time. And, you know, my husband will be here to help. So I'm going to do something like butter salmon, who's Who's Salad and for me when I'm just kind of freewheeling it. I like to pick one protein. So because we have a lot of heavy meets down here on the weekend, I kind of tried to lighten it up with some something like a salmon or smoked salmon or some kind of cooked salmon or tilapia, something that's a little bit later or, you know, chicken. Um And then, you know, since I've got this whole day filled out, I will sometimes start with the proper and sometimes we'll just keep going with the dinners and I'll finish them out first. But since I'm here, I'm gonna think about what I need for, Um, I need to buy salmon way Have Costcos, and I need to buy salad my day generally for breakfast. I run out of ideas pretty quickly. So want, if I have for you, is to save your menus. And when you don't have any ideas, you can look back at your menus and what you've done. Generally we have this same thing for breakfast, so I'm gonna talk you through that and normally in my days we have governing craves One of the things that can feel monotonous is a few of the same thing every week, but we change it up by adding toppings with the yogurt changing off the younger flavors and things like that. But it really helps to already kind of know how long something is going to take to make. And, you know, kids already know what to expect for lunch. You know they're in schools are gonna say hot lunch, and I need to make sure I have enough sausage, some generated by sausage for Tuesday way. Always have oatmeal. You can vary this up by introducing different oatmeal flavors, different toppings and things like that. Lunch, hot lunch on and for here in the crap. This is a really handy timesaver, as long as you can remember to look the night before, so defrost it won't work. One tip I have is, if you aren't, if you don't think you're gonna remember toe, look the night before as you're creating the menu, set a reminder in your iPhone. I am notorious for creating reminders, but they really help me make sure that I get everything done that I need you. So you could just simply set a reminder for Monday night or Tuesday morning to pull the pulled pork out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator so that it's ready when you on Wednesday see, we usually have breakfast sandwiches that are frozen and for lunch we're going to have sandwiches and then some snacks from the tree and fruit. Now for prep, I need to buy funds for veggies. I normally just prepare whatever. We've got a refrigerator. If you know you don't have anything in the refrigerator, obviously put it on your list Thursday. Thursday is completely open, so I think for here I'm feeling like a cheese plate she's on and salami late. That would be fun. One just gonna be hot lunch, hot lunch and that for breakfast we will dio way dio and let's dio I'm stuck on this one. Someone I'm gonna come back to this Thursday for Friday Breakfasts are always kids Choice kids choice. So they had to pick and for lunch, we're just gonna say coverage again and Saturday breakfast going to be French toast. E think for Thursday breakfast do eggs and Saturday lunch is going to be. Maybe I'll treat us and we'll just lunch says. You can see this is a really flexible template. And if you don't have everything, fills out like, let's say I didn't know what to do for Thursday breakfast. You just leave it open and circle it and just come back to it. Look up some recipes and come back to it. Let me finish filling out my prop part. So for Thursday, I need to buy cheese and salami and then Friday I need to figure out, uh, make it, buy it or have it delivered. And Sunday I just need to buy eyes to make sure I have enough eggs left over from everything. So that is in a nutshell, how I do it. Many planning. And, um, it's pretty sure it doesn't take a ton of thinking, especially once you've got a system. Yet once you've got a system down and you've got some recipes that are kind of your go to one thing I do is I keep a binder for recipes and all included video that's got some tips for helping to make this whole process easier. Generally, what I do after this is all. Then take all of these things that I need to buy. I'll pull out a post it note, and I'll make a list of the things that I'm gonna be bite and get them all during the shopping trip. So then I thought everything I need for the peak and I really minimize my name to go to the store. Human being possible. Thank you. And I hope this is helped.