My sister is a single mom of 2 and struggling to make ends meat every month so we started meal planning together (combing my family and hers) needs so we can maximize Costco shops. We’ve even turned my basement into a makeshift pantry to shop first with more staple items. It’s actually really fun and I love the community feeling!
It’s so nice to see someone my age living the traditional mama lifestyle. I just had my first baby and transitioned from full time work to full time mama (plus a little WFH). Seeing a model of how this can be done well is wonderful. I took a tip from a friend and started meal planning a month at a time. I only plan dinners, too, and with just two mouths to feed until little one weans, 2-3 meals a week keeps us well fed dinner and lunch. We also host often and have an active social life that finds us eating at other’s houses throughout the week. Costco at the beginning for all of the bulk, a drive up order for the smaller monthly items (home girl does not have room for Costco sized toilet paper), and then we have weekly trips to the discount grocery store for snacks, restocks, and produce. We’re able to stick near $450 a month, which is relatively low for our area. 😊
My kids are teenagers, they each have one day a week they have to plan and cook a meal for the entire family (family of 4). We always cook 8 portions so we can pack lunch during the work week. We always check what we have at home and plan our meals around that. The kids get free lunches in school of course, since we live in Sweden. When someone takes the last of something they are responsible to write it on our shopping list on the fridge. Fruit and vegetables stock often need to be looked at before heading to the grocery store.
I am living for these videos, it's so helpful as a young stay at home mama of 3, videos like these are just like ultimate guidelines for me. Obviously some variables vary but nonetheless.. Love this
On your point about meal planning because you don't have a garden: I actually find meal planning to be super important BECAUSE I have a huge veggie garden! Sometimes it's hard to translate the stuff I'm harvesting to meals right away. So when I'm making meal plans for the week I also look at what is ripening in my garden that week. It keeps me going out there every day to harvest my produce, and it also makes sure the produce gets used and appreciated. There were literally times before I did this when I would spend all day harvesting, weeding, watering the garden and then I'd bring all my lovely produce in, set it on the counter, and turn around and make a box of mac and cheese for dinner!! 😂 Now I can have a purpose for what I'm harvesting and the garden is ACTUALLY saving money now that I'm using it more effectively!
I am at the empty nest phase of life, living alone, but I still try to meal plan. Helps with weight loss, saves money, and time. I love coming home from work knowing there is something good for dinner. Thank you for the inspiration, and kudos to you for being so organized and serving your family such wonderful meals!
This was EXACTLY my method when I was well (and I still had 5 kids at home then, too). These days going all around my house, keeping my pantry and fridge organized is too much, and I've still got 6 people to feed here. Also, I don't always have the ability to make what I planned. So, nowadays I buy ingredients that store well and can be used in a variety of ways, plus plenty of convenience foods. When I'm relatively well, I plan for that day and maybe the next day or two with the healthy foods I have on hand. If I'm about to shop I will buy items for specific meals (which now feels like a fun and special treat, a bonus I never saw coming). Sometimes what works so well for one season of life, just cannot work at other times. We all must do our best, but give ourselves grace when our best isn't all that we long for.
This is one of the most overwhelming weekly task because I feel like I could be doing it in a more efficient way, Turns out there is no hack, you just have to do it and think through it all one step at a time and don’t overthink it. Thanks for sharing!
I meal plan in a very similar way. The only thing I do differently to relieve some mental load is I have 1 backup for any item that is used so regularly, we'd need to drop everything and go pick it up if it was out. For me these are things like laundry detergent, toothpaste, etc. My house rule is if you use up the item and have to grab the backup, it goes on the shopping list. That way, I only have to look through my kitchen when scoping out what essentials are needed. It may not fully align with being very minimalist in the number of items on my house, but the mental load it eliminates for me is worth making room for the backups. I also store all of my back ups with the item in use. Makes everything very streamlined for my household. You should write a cook book. I'd buy it. Simple yet well rounded meals that reuse a lot of the same ingredients. A practical life cookbook for people that still want to eat multifaceted yummy food. Lol
It's encouraging to me that we both very similar strategies when it comes to meal planning! Shop my pantry/fridge/freezer first, buy better bulk things that we eat almost every day, look in recipe books when I'm not feeling inspired. I also take some time most weeks to compare prices before I shop so I can save time in the store. I've been enjoying meal planning more and more, and you're right, it makes us confident as we cook throughout the week!
Love it! I use an almost identical system 😁 the one additional thing I often do, is have a “schedule” of like, Mondays: a dish with rice, Tuesdays: tacos, Wednesday: soup, etc. Otherwise, I often end up with a lot of similarities between my meals without realizing it. For example, last week I didn’t use that method, and I ended up with 4 out of 5 meals with chicken, and 3 of those with rice. Very different types of cuisines, mind you, but I like to have some variety of proteins throughout the week, and that system helps me. It also makes it easier to come up with ideas, if I already have it narrowed down.
I like to rotate between chicken, pork, and beef with a leftovers day every two days so our schedule is like this: Monday: Chicken Tuesday: Pork Wednesday: Leftovers Thursday: Beef Friday: Chicken Saturday: Leftovers…. I also make sure to space out the potatoes, rice, and pasta so they’re not two days in a row.
I love that you have a list of your recipes. Wow! I meal plan for every few days. I pick some recipes and ask my family if there is a meal they would like in particular as well, since I have teenagers. I write down the needed ingredients that I am missing at home. I write down what I'll be making and make my shopping list. Then I buy for those 4-5 days only. It has saved me money and I like to not buy in bulk, as I live in a very small home with little storage space.
I can totally understand that filming "live" (not wth a voiceover) can be tricky to juggle with life- and your other videos are so aesthetic and bring me peace! But this one was really REALLY useful
Sarah, I truly cherish your videos! I love this videos you are doing so much! I would love to see how you use/store food to avoid waste. I have started cutting up peppers, onions, spinach, etc. and putting them in my freezer before they are bad because of you!! Also, I would love to see any of your food prepping in a food video. Sarah, kitchen videos have me in heaven!! 🥰
It was fun watching and comparing notes with your method of meal planning! I actually do it very similarly! About 5 years ago I decided to try out a meal planning app, Paprika, and that has actually really helped me organize and keep up our favorite recipes. I needed something to quickly download/import and store my recipes digitally since we were moving overseas, and it creates a shopping list from the meals I select, which then syncs to my husband's phone. So I can meal plan and have the shopping list ready and he can shop on his way home from work. He started doing that for me when our babies were small and it saved me so much! I love how you shopped your pantry first and also use the notes app for your recipe list and to create your shopping list. Like you, we save so much money and time and frustration by planning the week out. Keep up the great work!
Love learning from your channel! I told my husband that I feel like your channel is spiritually impactful😊 Cause most channels are fun to watch, but I feel like your channel shows me how to practically be better in my kitchen. Which in turn is helping and inspiring me to love my husband and family more;) thanks for being a guilt free binge channel! Also love the paprika app- it's a one time $5 buy, will store ANY recipe online, and with just a few clicks creates a grocery list! So amazing. Thanks Sarah!!
This is an interesting method of meal planning! We base all of our meals around the main protein and fill in from there. We do one Costco shop per month (to try and stay within budget) and try to get EVERYTHING we would need for that month, which usually results in two weeks of produce heavy meals and two weeks of creative freezer based meals. Every week is an assessment similar to your of 'what do I have and what can I make from it?' Great video :)
We don’t do “meal planning” for the week, but instead we always have a variety of things on hand and we make meals depending on what we have. I always have a list of meals I can make with what we have on hand, but I very rarely go out of my way to buy specific things for specific meals. If I don’t have something I need to make a certain thing, I either improvise or scratch it all together 😅 We are so similar with how we shop for groceries, it really does save quite a bit of money!
I think the egg bake you were referring to is Shakshouka. Great reminder for me to make it as it has been a while! Thanks so much for this video, I have been needing to fine tune my meal planning and this was really helpful!
With how busy my partner and I are as two working grad students, when we dont have our family meeting and meal plan for the week we feel totally off kilter. With our schedules we have to switch off cooking if we want to eat 😅 so its helpful to be able to have a guide or what the plan is
This is pretty much what I’ve been doing for the last 3-4 years. It works so well. When I don’t have/make time to meal plan things generally go sideways fast.
I did find it helpful to see how you carefully inventory and curate your grocery list at one time. I usually throw stuff on my list as I run out but, inevitably, I forget a thing or two and then I don’t account for it when I’m grocery shopping.
Thanks for the good info. I meal prep every week and I gained a couple of tidbits! We do grow our own veg and have chickens, but the reality is, sometimes things don't go as planned and there are crop failures or other curveballs. When I didn't prep, I had no plan and it leads to food waste.
I really liked that type of video, because I am not very organized and I never plan my meals one day ahead, but this was very inspiring to give more thoughts into that as a mama of two. Thank you so much for sharing this with us Sarah! 😊
I appreciate that you don’t homestead and rely heavily on a grocery store! I feel like as a stay-at-home/homeschooling Mom it’s almost expected that we grow our own food and have our own chickens. While that is realistic for some, it’s not for me in this season! So thank you ❤
We meal plan almost the exact way. Organize, shop from what I already have ❤ when all my kids were home(we are family of 7) we also homeschooled, I would let each person choose a meal. We rotated on easy or expensive , allowing so many each week. I would shop on Mondays and have meals for each day , allowing for a leftover day if needed. Enjoyed your video ❤
Meal prepping really works! I remember following you when you would eat more plant based recipes… still love your cashew cream recipe! Use it every week!
This is like, exactly how I have meal planned and shopped for years. There was a whole where I mentally tracked the meals for the week but I’m back to writing it out.
Yes, I love seeing how others plan! My method is similar to yours. Often what I have in the pantry or freezer will spark an idea that I add to my list.
Love this video, thank you for sharing your fab tips! I really struggle to mealplan and tend to go day by day. Writing meal ideas down is such a great idea, simple but genius! 😘
Something I really love doing in a pinch, on a busy end of the day. We have a full breakfast for dinner. So pancakes, eggs, bacon etc. our kids call it Opposite Day 😅😂
Thanks so much for this video and others like it. I skipped Home Economics in high school and realizing I’ve missed out on such important skills. You’re my home economics course now. Thank you!
I enjoyed this video 🙂 I do similar to you. But I use a Pinterest board for my meals list. With one section for things I’ve made, one section for this week, and then lots of others for different types of cuisine - chicken, potatoes, snacks, breakfast ideas. I also like looking through my cupboard for things I haven’t used and incorporate that into my meal planning.
When I was at home with my children, I had everything planned out: healthy, balanced meals, shopping, to-do lists of household errands, daily tasks, gardening and vegetable gardening, children's activities, etc. Since I went back to work full-time (due to skyrocketing living costs) I really miss this order and scheme. Now it's full improvisation and frantic running from task to task. It is exhausting me and my family. But the bills don't want to pay themselves 🤷🏼♀️
Daycare is expensive and you can always work part time at home. Meal planning also saves a lot of money on food and less going out (which is not cheap).
@@yanak7159 Here where I live, children have free daycare. And it's at a very high level. But also a part-time job here is not enough to support a family
This is how I do as well! Which is interesting because my mom does it completely differently. She looks at all the grocery stores flyer and buys what's on sale and then every day or every few days she'll improvise her meals based on what she got.. she always says it's cheaper to do it this way (but obviously you have to be a pretty good home cook to be able to improvise) but I can't do it that way because I buy organic meat and produce and they're almost never on sale lol (Canadian too!)
Nice, I just started my own mealprep list and see how it goes. Thanks for the inspiration. Before I just did it on the go and became creative whenever there was some leftover vegetables, but I think this will make it even easier.
That's how i meal plan - we have a list of abbot 30 meals which we rotate though. I always have meats in the freezer like you I buy a lot on markdown and so I only ever need to find the odd ingredient or two to finish a meal so my shops are small too we do have shopping offers and rewards here in Australia so I make sure I shop little stock piles for pantry stable goods to make sure we never ru out of anything and if we do then it just goes on the list and like you if it's not on sale I just wait. Then I'm not paying full price for anything
I really love that video. It takes me back to your old videos that I really enjoyed, and still enjoy :)! I would love for more of those Typ of Videos in the future when your busy live can allow them. God bless you and your family! Thank you for the joy and inspiration that you bring people with your videos. ❤
I never really thought of what “method” I want to use to meal plan, but I just happened to do it the exact same way as you do it! Other than cookbooks, I use Pinterest for meal inspiration too ☺️
I love your choice of cookbooks! Oh She Glows is one of my favs! Would you ever consider doing video on making gluten free sourdough ? Love your videos!
Wondering what you think about Middle Eastern diets in the sense that they have their big meal for lunch, and the smaller/easier meals are for breakfast and dinner. I think they do this because if you have your biggest meal for lunch, then you're fueling your body for the rest of the day and you're body is working off that big meal for the rest of the day. Whereas if you have your biggest meal for dinner, you have this heavy food sitting in your stomach as your less mobile at night and maybe you even go to bed feeling uncomfortably full. Maybe this doesn't apply to families with young kids if you're eating at 5/5:30 PM and then going to bed at 11/11:30 PM (because that's more than enough time for the food to dissolve), but was just wondering your thoughts.
I meal plan the same way. You save a lot of money “shopping” ur pantry/fridge. Do you use a certain apps for ur notes or is the notes that come with ur phone? Mine doesn’t have the check marks that I can uncheck and they go to the bottom of the list. That would b so nice to have.
Thanks Sara! This is awesome and so helpful. I also meal planning weekly. I’m from the US. Do you also get personal items while grocery shopping or do you order laundry soap, toothbrushes, toilet paper, etc online? Just curious how you plan that stuff out. I personally get all that at the grocery store as I grocery shop. Always looking for new ideas. ❤😊
Love meal planning. I don't go to the store until I at least have the week's meals conceptualized (leaving room for shopping the bargains of course ;-)
I love this video bc my husband and I will spend so much at the store weekly and that makes no sense😅. I will start by organizing our freezer and fridge by food items bc things definitely get lost and you end up with too much extra
I just changed my SETTINGS ON MY PHONE as I didn't know it could do that. FYI - General - Notes - (Viewing) Sort Ticked Items - choose Automatically - that is it! I hope it helps someone.
I love meal planning! I haven’t since becoming pregnant because nothing sounds good hahaha so we plan on a whim. Hoping it ends soon! I can eat what others make me but I can’t eat what I make 🥴
I love to meal plan but I'm only feeding two, me and my partner. He is a big eater but im sure a lot easier than feeding 6 other mouths. I don't plan for the weekends I leave those free because sometimes we eat out and most of the time I have leftovers. I don't really plan breakfast or dinner. I don't always eat dinner and if I do its usually lentil soup. Lunch is my biggest meal and what ever I eat for lunch is his dinner, he always has a sandwich for lunch. I def shop what I have first and I usually just think of 3 or 4 meals and they tend to serve about 4 so I always have leftovers to cover the gaps. I look to the internet for ideas but ideas usually just hit me from the ingredients that I have on hand. PS. Im not sure if it was this video but I think shakshuka was the name of the tomato egg dish that you were thinking of.
Hi Sarah. This has been a question for me for a decay. Why American & Canadian don't mind lunch so much? I mean, they consider dinner, as a main portion or course in a day. Actually, in other countries, people consider lunch over dinner, honestly, we prefer to eat lightly for dinner.
Us Americans like to starve ourselves until dinner and then gorge out. Jk lol But after a hard day of work it’s nice to sit down to a nice meal. We don’t do siesta and take a nap, so a light lunch is better.
How long are lunch breaks in your country? In America, we don’t get long lunch breaks in the workforce. Even children get a short lunchtime at school. I think it may be a cultural thing, because having a nice dinner is something that we just do.
Unfortunately, in America people don’t typically have a long lunch break, and children in school have a short lunch break as well. Dinner is when people can sit and enjoy their meal.
@@G7FarmsUs, too. I'm from UAE, Dubai. In our country we don't have long lunch break at work and at school,too.Therefore, when we get home, we have our late lunch at around 5pm. We don't consider it as dinner😅 Then again around 3 hours later, we will have our light dinner.
Awesome vid. Just wanted to tell you that almonds are high in oxylates therefore not good for us girlies who have low iron. Maybe you already knew that and maybe u just use a very less amoint of it so it isnt a biggie. But yea thts the reason i havent made my own either.
My sister is a single mom of 2 and struggling to make ends meat every month so we started meal planning together (combing my family and hers) needs so we can maximize Costco shops. We’ve even turned my basement into a makeshift pantry to shop first with more staple items. It’s actually really fun and I love the community feeling!
It’s so nice to see someone my age living the traditional mama lifestyle. I just had my first baby and transitioned from full time work to full time mama (plus a little WFH). Seeing a model of how this can be done well is wonderful.
I took a tip from a friend and started meal planning a month at a time. I only plan dinners, too, and with just two mouths to feed until little one weans, 2-3 meals a week keeps us well fed dinner and lunch. We also host often and have an active social life that finds us eating at other’s houses throughout the week. Costco at the beginning for all of the bulk, a drive up order for the smaller monthly items (home girl does not have room for Costco sized toilet paper), and then we have weekly trips to the discount grocery store for snacks, restocks, and produce. We’re able to stick near $450 a month, which is relatively low for our area. 😊
My kids are teenagers, they each have one day a week they have to plan and cook a meal for the entire family (family of 4). We always cook 8 portions so we can pack lunch during the work week. We always check what we have at home and plan our meals around that. The kids get free lunches in school of course, since we live in Sweden.
When someone takes the last of something they are responsible to write it on our shopping list on the fridge. Fruit and vegetables stock often need to be looked at before heading to the grocery store.
I am living for these videos, it's so helpful as a young stay at home mama of 3, videos like these are just like ultimate guidelines for me. Obviously some variables vary but nonetheless.. Love this
On your point about meal planning because you don't have a garden: I actually find meal planning to be super important BECAUSE I have a huge veggie garden! Sometimes it's hard to translate the stuff I'm harvesting to meals right away. So when I'm making meal plans for the week I also look at what is ripening in my garden that week. It keeps me going out there every day to harvest my produce, and it also makes sure the produce gets used and appreciated. There were literally times before I did this when I would spend all day harvesting, weeding, watering the garden and then I'd bring all my lovely produce in, set it on the counter, and turn around and make a box of mac and cheese for dinner!! 😂 Now I can have a purpose for what I'm harvesting and the garden is ACTUALLY saving money now that I'm using it more effectively!
Same! half my garden harvest would spoil because I didn’t have a plan for it
I am at the empty nest phase of life, living alone, but I still try to meal plan. Helps with weight loss, saves money, and time. I love coming home from work knowing there is something good for dinner. Thank you for the inspiration, and kudos to you for being so organized and serving your family such wonderful meals!
This was EXACTLY my method when I was well (and I still had 5 kids at home then, too). These days going all around my house, keeping my pantry and fridge organized is too much, and I've still got 6 people to feed here. Also, I don't always have the ability to make what I planned. So, nowadays I buy ingredients that store well and can be used in a variety of ways, plus plenty of convenience foods. When I'm relatively well, I plan for that day and maybe the next day or two with the healthy foods I have on hand. If I'm about to shop I will buy items for specific meals (which now feels like a fun and special treat, a bonus I never saw coming).
Sometimes what works so well for one season of life, just cannot work at other times. We all must do our best, but give ourselves grace when our best isn't all that we long for.
This is one of the most overwhelming weekly task because I feel like I could be doing it in a more efficient way, Turns out there is no hack, you just have to do it and think through it all one step at a time and don’t overthink it. Thanks for sharing!
Why is this THE most comforting video to have on while working around the house?
I meal plan in a very similar way. The only thing I do differently to relieve some mental load is I have 1 backup for any item that is used so regularly, we'd need to drop everything and go pick it up if it was out. For me these are things like laundry detergent, toothpaste, etc. My house rule is if you use up the item and have to grab the backup, it goes on the shopping list. That way, I only have to look through my kitchen when scoping out what essentials are needed. It may not fully align with being very minimalist in the number of items on my house, but the mental load it eliminates for me is worth making room for the backups. I also store all of my back ups with the item in use. Makes everything very streamlined for my household.
You should write a cook book. I'd buy it. Simple yet well rounded meals that reuse a lot of the same ingredients. A practical life cookbook for people that still want to eat multifaceted yummy food. Lol
It's encouraging to me that we both very similar strategies when it comes to meal planning! Shop my pantry/fridge/freezer first, buy better bulk things that we eat almost every day, look in recipe books when I'm not feeling inspired. I also take some time most weeks to compare prices before I shop so I can save time in the store. I've been enjoying meal planning more and more, and you're right, it makes us confident as we cook throughout the week!
Love it! I use an almost identical system 😁 the one additional thing I often do, is have a “schedule” of like, Mondays: a dish with rice, Tuesdays: tacos, Wednesday: soup, etc. Otherwise, I often end up with a lot of similarities between my meals without realizing it. For example, last week I didn’t use that method, and I ended up with 4 out of 5 meals with chicken, and 3 of those with rice. Very different types of cuisines, mind you, but I like to have some variety of proteins throughout the week, and that system helps me. It also makes it easier to come up with ideas, if I already have it narrowed down.
Like this👍
I like to rotate between chicken, pork, and beef with a leftovers day every two days so our schedule is like this:
Monday: Chicken
Tuesday: Pork
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Beef
Friday: Chicken
Saturday: Leftovers….
I also make sure to space out the potatoes, rice, and pasta so they’re not two days in a row.
Hehe our Tuesdays are taco Tuesday too! (But I make anything Mexican) But I use a similar system too
I love that you have a list of your recipes. Wow!
I meal plan for every few days. I pick some recipes and ask my family if there is a meal they would like in particular as well, since I have teenagers. I write down the needed ingredients that I am missing at home. I write down what I'll be making and make my shopping list. Then I buy for those 4-5 days only. It has saved me money and I like to not buy in bulk, as I live in a very small home with little storage space.
I can totally understand that filming "live" (not wth a voiceover) can be tricky to juggle with life- and your other videos are so aesthetic and bring me peace! But this one was really REALLY useful
Sarah, I truly cherish your videos! I love this videos you are doing so much!
I would love to see how you use/store food to avoid waste. I have started cutting up peppers, onions, spinach, etc. and putting them in my freezer before they are bad because of you!!
Also, I would love to see any of your food prepping in a food video.
Sarah, kitchen videos have me in heaven!! 🥰
It was fun watching and comparing notes with your method of meal planning! I actually do it very similarly! About 5 years ago I decided to try out a meal planning app, Paprika, and that has actually really helped me organize and keep up our favorite recipes. I needed something to quickly download/import and store my recipes digitally since we were moving overseas, and it creates a shopping list from the meals I select, which then syncs to my husband's phone. So I can meal plan and have the shopping list ready and he can shop on his way home from work. He started doing that for me when our babies were small and it saved me so much! I love how you shopped your pantry first and also use the notes app for your recipe list and to create your shopping list. Like you, we save so much money and time and frustration by planning the week out. Keep up the great work!
Love learning from your channel! I told my husband that I feel like your channel is spiritually impactful😊
Cause most channels are fun to watch, but I feel like your channel shows me how to practically be better in my kitchen. Which in turn is helping and inspiring me to love my husband and family more;) thanks for being a guilt free binge channel! Also love the paprika app- it's a one time $5 buy, will store ANY recipe online, and with just a few clicks creates a grocery list! So amazing. Thanks Sarah!!
This is an interesting method of meal planning! We base all of our meals around the main protein and fill in from there. We do one Costco shop per month (to try and stay within budget) and try to get EVERYTHING we would need for that month, which usually results in two weeks of produce heavy meals and two weeks of creative freezer based meals. Every week is an assessment similar to your of 'what do I have and what can I make from it?' Great video :)
You make it look so easy + with 5 kids… so inspirational !!! Thanks and keep doing that !
We don’t do “meal planning” for the week, but instead we always have a variety of things on hand and we make meals depending on what we have. I always have a list of meals I can make with what we have on hand, but I very rarely go out of my way to buy specific things for specific meals. If I don’t have something I need to make a certain thing, I either improvise or scratch it all together 😅 We are so similar with how we shop for groceries, it really does save quite a bit of money!
I think the egg bake you were referring to is Shakshouka. Great reminder for me to make it as it has been a while! Thanks so much for this video, I have been needing to fine tune my meal planning and this was really helpful!
Videos like this really keep me on focus as a SAHM! Thanks for sharing these tips! 🥰💗
With how busy my partner and I are as two working grad students, when we dont have our family meeting and meal plan for the week we feel totally off kilter. With our schedules we have to switch off cooking if we want to eat 😅 so its helpful to be able to have a guide or what the plan is
I love meal planning videos. I have my own system, but I love implementing tips from other people!
This is pretty much what I’ve been doing for the last 3-4 years. It works so well. When I don’t have/make time to meal plan things generally go sideways fast.
I did find it helpful to see how you carefully inventory and curate your grocery list at one time. I usually throw stuff on my list as I run out but, inevitably, I forget a thing or two and then I don’t account for it when I’m grocery shopping.
I do this exactly same things every single week and it works amazing for me and my family
Thanks for the good info. I meal prep every week and I gained a couple of tidbits! We do grow our own veg and have chickens, but the reality is, sometimes things don't go as planned and there are crop failures or other curveballs. When I didn't prep, I had no plan and it leads to food waste.
I appreciate how you plan. It works.
Super helpful straight forward meal plan system. Love it! Thank Sarah 🤍
I really liked that type of video, because I am not very organized and I never plan my meals one day ahead, but this was very inspiring to give more thoughts into that as a mama of two. Thank you so much for sharing this with us Sarah! 😊
Talking to the camera is great because it means more footage of those amber / gold eyes we all love!
That makes me feel better with how much you spend! That is about how much we spend for a family of seven. It is always so painful!
“I don’t plan out my breakfast and lunch”
YES, Girl! You are speaking my language!
Meal planning is a must in my home!
This was the most useful mealplan video I've ever seen, thank you!
I appreciate that you don’t homestead and rely heavily on a grocery store! I feel like as a stay-at-home/homeschooling Mom it’s almost expected that we grow our own food and have our own chickens. While that is realistic for some, it’s not for me in this season! So thank you ❤
We meal plan almost the exact way. Organize, shop from what I already have ❤ when all my kids were home(we are family of 7) we also homeschooled, I would let each person choose a meal. We rotated on easy or expensive , allowing so many each week. I would shop on Mondays and have meals for each day , allowing for a leftover day if needed. Enjoyed your video ❤
this is AMAZING!! 🧡🧡
Meal prepping really works! I remember following you when you would eat more plant based recipes… still love your cashew cream recipe! Use it every week!
This is like, exactly how I have meal planned and shopped for years. There was a whole where I mentally tracked the meals for the week but I’m back to writing it out.
Yes, I love seeing how others plan! My method is similar to yours. Often what I have in the pantry or freezer will spark an idea that I add to my list.
Love this video, thank you for sharing your fab tips! I really struggle to mealplan and tend to go day by day. Writing meal ideas down is such a great idea, simple but genius! 😘
Something I really love doing in a pinch, on a busy end of the day. We have a full breakfast for dinner. So pancakes, eggs, bacon etc. our kids call it Opposite Day 😅😂
I like this video. It’s raw and I like videos like these.
I do a lot of the same things so it's nice to compare and see how you do it and maybe learn a little something!
Thanks so much for this video and others like it. I skipped Home Economics in high school and realizing I’ve missed out on such important skills. You’re my home economics course now. Thank you!
I enjoyed this video 🙂 I do similar to you. But I use a Pinterest board for my meals list. With one section for things I’ve made, one section for this week, and then lots of others for different types of cuisine - chicken, potatoes, snacks, breakfast ideas. I also like looking through my cupboard for things I haven’t used and incorporate that into my meal planning.
Family of 5 here I always meal plan for Mom - Sat and do leftovers of Sunday too :)
I like your system, I took inspiration to be more organised
When I was at home with my children, I had everything planned out: healthy, balanced meals, shopping, to-do lists of household errands, daily tasks, gardening and vegetable gardening, children's activities, etc. Since I went back to work full-time (due to skyrocketing living costs) I really miss this order and scheme. Now it's full improvisation and frantic running from task to task. It is exhausting me and my family. But the bills don't want to pay themselves 🤷🏼♀️
Daycare is expensive and you can always work part time at home. Meal planning also saves a lot of money on food and less going out (which is not cheap).
@@yanak7159 Here where I live, children have free daycare. And it's at a very high level. But also a part-time job here is not enough to support a family
@yanak7159 how do you know she doesn't have someone watching the kids for her? I work and don't pay for daycare for my 3/6 that would need it.
Love seeing how others do their meal planning. I actually did some of mine while watching this 😊
This is how I do as well! Which is interesting because my mom does it completely differently. She looks at all the grocery stores flyer and buys what's on sale and then every day or every few days she'll improvise her meals based on what she got.. she always says it's cheaper to do it this way (but obviously you have to be a pretty good home cook to be able to improvise) but I can't do it that way because I buy organic meat and produce and they're almost never on sale lol (Canadian too!)
Really helpful video and some great tips to stretch out meals and use what you have
Nice, I just started my own mealprep list and see how it goes. Thanks for the inspiration. Before I just did it on the go and became creative whenever there was some leftover vegetables, but I think this will make it even easier.
Love this video. I struggle w meal planning but your breakdown made it sound less intimidating. Thank you!
This is a great video! Very helpful! I have such a hard time meal planning. I love that you share your tips and tricks! Thank you!
I like the thought of meal planning. I am such a organizer and a planner but we don’t really meal plan.
That's how i meal plan - we have a list of abbot 30 meals which we rotate though. I always have meats in the freezer like you I buy a lot on markdown and so I only ever need to find the odd ingredient or two to finish a meal so my shops are small too we do have shopping offers and rewards here in Australia so I make sure I shop little stock piles for pantry stable goods to make sure we never ru out of anything and if we do then it just goes on the list and like you if it's not on sale I just wait. Then I'm not paying full price for anything
I really love that video.
It takes me back to your old videos that I really enjoyed, and still enjoy :)! I would love for more of those Typ of Videos in the future when your busy live can allow them.
God bless you and your family!
Thank you for the joy and inspiration that you bring people with your videos. ❤
Great video!! Thank you 😊
God Bless you and your family.
I loved this! Thank you for sharing.
This was so needed and exactly what I needed! Thank you so much Sarah!
I believe the dish name you're looking for is 'shakshouka', for the tomato egg bake
I’d love if you made a video of how you make sushi!!
Also. Love videos like this. The inspiration is great!
Hey Sarah!
Would love to see some snacks/deserts/sweet recipes ideas from you
Maybe more sourdough but sweet?😅
I loved this video! helpful to see a system for how you manage this major part of running a home!
I never really thought of what “method” I want to use to meal plan, but I just happened to do it the exact same way as you do it! Other than cookbooks, I use Pinterest for meal inspiration too ☺️
I love your choice of cookbooks! Oh She Glows is one of my favs! Would you ever consider doing video on making gluten free sourdough ? Love your videos!
Wondering what you think about Middle Eastern diets in the sense that they have their big meal for lunch, and the smaller/easier meals are for breakfast and dinner. I think they do this because if you have your biggest meal for lunch, then you're fueling your body for the rest of the day and you're body is working off that big meal for the rest of the day. Whereas if you have your biggest meal for dinner, you have this heavy food sitting in your stomach as your less mobile at night and maybe you even go to bed feeling uncomfortably full. Maybe this doesn't apply to families with young kids if you're eating at 5/5:30 PM and then going to bed at 11/11:30 PM (because that's more than enough time for the food to dissolve), but was just wondering your thoughts.
I meal plan the same way. You save a lot of money “shopping” ur pantry/fridge. Do you use a certain apps for ur notes or is the notes that come with ur phone? Mine doesn’t have the check marks that I can uncheck and they go to the bottom of the list. That would b so nice to have.
I definitely don’t utilize my notes app enough so thanks for the tip!!
Love this video. I need to start meal planning. Definitely helped
Ooo Sarah! I want to see that recipe list please 🙈I only have two kids here and struggle is real.
I love seeing you meal plan cuz its so similar to the way i do it.
This video was soooooo helpful ❤ thank you Sarah
Thanks Sara! This is awesome and so helpful. I also meal planning weekly. I’m from the US. Do you also get personal items while grocery shopping or do you order laundry soap, toothbrushes, toilet paper, etc online? Just curious how you plan that stuff out. I personally get all that at the grocery store as I grocery shop. Always looking for new ideas. ❤😊
i do appreciate this video because i do the same thing but like to see your ideas and meals!
Love meal planning. I don't go to the store until I at least have the week's meals conceptualized (leaving room for shopping the bargains of course ;-)
This video is SO USEFULLLL
I love this video bc my husband and I will spend so much at the store weekly and that makes no sense😅. I will start by organizing our freezer and fridge by food items bc things definitely get lost and you end up with too much extra
Sarah where did you get your shorts?! I love how modest yet flattering they are.
I just changed my SETTINGS ON MY PHONE as I didn't know it could do that. FYI - General - Notes - (Viewing) Sort Ticked Items - choose Automatically - that is it! I hope it helps someone.
Your shoes on the floor, haha. Love your video Sarah, like always!!
I love meal planning! I haven’t since becoming pregnant because nothing sounds good hahaha so we plan on a whim. Hoping it ends soon! I can eat what others make me but I can’t eat what I make 🥴
I love to meal plan but I'm only feeding two, me and my partner. He is a big eater but im sure a lot easier than feeding 6 other mouths. I don't plan for the weekends I leave those free because sometimes we eat out and most of the time I have leftovers. I don't really plan breakfast or dinner. I don't always eat dinner and if I do its usually lentil soup. Lunch is my biggest meal and what ever I eat for lunch is his dinner, he always has a sandwich for lunch. I def shop what I have first and I usually just think of 3 or 4 meals and they tend to serve about 4 so I always have leftovers to cover the gaps. I look to the internet for ideas but ideas usually just hit me from the ingredients that I have on hand.
PS. Im not sure if it was this video but I think shakshuka was the name of the tomato egg dish that you were thinking of.
I would love to see Costco favorites or costco haul!
Honestly, meal planning is essential even with fresh vegetables. Stuff goes to waste when I don’t.
Super helpful! Random, where is your calendar from in the background at the end?
Hi Sarah. My planning looks like yours, it‘s pretty much the same 😊
would you mind sharing which fridge you have? My family is in the market for one & I love the layout of yours!
I felt like I was watching myself 😅 This is exactly how I’ve been doing things as well!
Very great video with great ideas thankyou loved it ❤❤
The eggs in tomato is called shakshuka or eggs in purgatory
Love this video! Do you guys buy many snacks? Or do you mostly rely on baked goods for snacks?
Good job, Sarah!💕👍🏻😊
Hi Sarah. This has been a question for me for a decay. Why American & Canadian don't mind lunch so much? I mean, they consider dinner, as a main portion or course in a day. Actually, in other countries, people consider lunch over dinner, honestly, we prefer to eat lightly for dinner.
Us Americans like to starve ourselves until dinner and then gorge out. Jk lol
But after a hard day of work it’s nice to sit down to a nice meal. We don’t do siesta and take a nap, so a light lunch is better.
How long are lunch breaks in your country? In America, we don’t get long lunch breaks in the workforce. Even children get a short lunchtime at school. I think it may be a cultural thing, because having a nice dinner is something that we just do.
Unfortunately, in America people don’t typically have a long lunch break, and children in school have a short lunch break as well. Dinner is when people can sit and enjoy their meal.
@@KatieJane31 That makes sense. Thank you😊
@@G7FarmsUs, too. I'm from UAE, Dubai. In our country we don't have long lunch break at work and at school,too.Therefore, when we get home, we have our late lunch at around 5pm. We don't consider it as dinner😅 Then again around 3 hours later, we will have our light dinner.
When she called Costco the promise land 😂
Awesome vid. Just wanted to tell you that almonds are high in oxylates therefore not good for us girlies who have low iron. Maybe you already knew that and maybe u just use a very less amoint of it so it isnt a biggie. But yea thts the reason i havent made my own either.
Meal planning also saves a lot of money! 😁
This was lovely