Intentional Meal Planning: the Vision

Do you meal plan? I didn't for a long time. It sounded too difficult, time consuming, and honestly a little boring.  My plan was this notebook above, completely blank.

Since our move to North Carolina last August, I've found meal planning to be really helpful. One of our family goals with our move was to eat dinner together as a family around our table, something we hadn't been doing very often before. If we were going to eat at home, that meant I was responsible for getting dinner on the table! After a few nights of staring at my fridge wondering what on earth to cook, I realized meal planning was the way to go. With a great deal of trial and error, I have found a system that generally works for our family.

I did a quick Instagram poll over the weekend, wondering if you all would be interested in this, and I got so many questions! In fact, what began as one post has now turned in to a whole series on intentional meal planning. I'm so excited to write about this and I hope sharing with you all will be helpful. I want to hear your questions: comment and tell me what you’d like to know about meal planning!

Casting a Vision

Before we jump into how I meal plan, I want to give you the why. It can be easy to run through our weeks, months, and years without really considering why we do what we do. One day we are parenting toddlers, and the next our children go off to college (or so I’m told! I’m still waiting for that one!). As my Grammy and Mom remind me, the days are long but the years are short. I know I don’t want to miss what is most important with my children, and I imagine you don’t either. Think about meal planning within the greater ideal of family mealtime. We all hope for meals around the table with the ones we love, and meal planning is one vehicle that drives us to that goal.

I sometimes hear anecdotal claims about the value of family mealtime, but does it actually carry significance?  It does in fact, carry a lot of significance, beginning with God's view on family mealtime. 

In Deuteronomy, Moses speaks the greatest commandment to love God to the whole tribe of Israel, and then follows it with this: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deuteronomy 6: 6-7). Moses very specifically instructs parents to pass down these ideals to their children, including when you “sit in your house.” In our home, we are most likely to be sitting around the dinner table (or the television-being honest here!). What does this mean for you and I? It means that God wants us to gather our children around the table and teach them about Him. Our primary objective as parents is to point our children to Jesus, and one of the best ways to do this is around our dinner table. When I meal plan, I am calmer at dinner and more ready to talk to my children, instead of feeling frazzled and rushed, throwing fast food into the backseat while we drive to soccer. As we work through this series on meal planning, always keep this ideal in mind. You aren’t meal planning to be super mom or to look good to others or even to save money. You are meal planning to point your children to Jesus.

Let’s jump forward a little now and look at scientific reasons for family mealtime. This issue has been frequently studied, and the research is quite illuminating. The familydinnerproject.org states “Over the past 15 years researchers have confirmed what parents have known for a long time: sharing a family meal is good for the spirit, the brain and the health of all family members.” Goodnet.org lists nine scientifically proven reasons to eat dinner as a family, including better family relationships, healthier food choices, and stress relief. PsychologyToday takes it a step further citing “a study done by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse revealed that teens who eat fewer than three family dinners per week compared to those who eat five to seven a week are twice as likely to use alcohol and tobacco and one and a half times more likely to use marijuana.” I don’t know about you, but I hope my children will grow to be happy, healthy, drug-free teenagers. If meal times together around the table can lower their risk, I am willing to do a little meal planning to make it happen.

Personally, for our family meal planning has given us time together, a less stressful week, and money saved. We rarely go out to eat and instead are really enjoying our nights at home together. Had you told me this six months ago, I would have been so surprised! Friends, this can be done and I’m excited to share my tips with you!

Before you go any further, think about your own why. Often the greater reason behind a task will change it from a chore to a privilege.

Up next: Part 2- Set Yourself Up for Success. I’ll walk you through our budget, pantry, and meal planning essentials.