Prioritizing Meal Prep

Alice Seuffert, creator of Dining with Alice, is here helping families with tools to do summer meal planning and save some money!

Alice has lots of favorite family-friendly recipes and her best tips for helping families tackle the difficult task of meal planning in her eBook, Family Meal Planning. Alice’s eBook, Family Meal Planning is available for purchase for $5.

Alice’s Tips for Summer Meal Planning that Saves Money:

• Inventory your pantry, fridge, and freezer.
• Alice’s POP Strategy:
  • Planning: You need to plan to have a meal plan.
  • Options: You need a variety of meal options.
  • Partnership: You don’t need to do all the meal planning work.
• Planning: Write down your meal plan for the week. I like to post it on my kitchen wall on a dry erase board. If you don’t plan, you won’t have a plan. Without a plan you end up making last minute grocery trips, buying ingredients you already have, or opting for expensive take out or eating at restaurants.
• Options: Sometimes we get bored with the same summer meals (hello, Tacos!). Need some inspiration? Try new variations of your favorites. For example, instead of Tacos, make a Dorito Taco Salad. Chicken fingers or nuggets totally boring? Try Baked Chicken Sandwiches. Sick of steak? Try my Thai Steak Salad.
• Partnership: Get your family involved in meal planning, especially your kids or partner! Go to the library to get inspired and check out cookbooks or cooking magazines. Let your kids look up popular internet recipes and try them out (encourage them to explore cooking life skills and not just baking). Don’t be afraid to use meal kits to supplement your meal planning. Grocery stores have easy kits and middle-school-aged kids can easily use them to make dinner!
• Everyone needs meal planning tools. In Alice’s Family Meal Planning ebook, she includes:

○ Weekly meal planning sheets

○ Inventory Sheets

○ Family Favorites List

○ Grocery List

○ 30+ Easy Recipe ideas

○ 5 Kid-Friendly Recipes