10 Tips For Successful Meal Planning

Go ahead-live on the edge of culinary pleasure. It's all about what you have in the house and making sure the menu is time appropriate for the sanity or insanity of your life on any given evening. I guarantee you, if you walk through these steps, you will be healthier, happier and have more free time and disposable income.

1. Have a Blank Grocery List: Commit to having a blank grocery list on the fridge or nearby pegboard that is clearly visible to all. You can go visit www.cookingfortherushed.com to print ours or use it as an example to create your own. It's important that there are five spaces on the top for meal selections.

2. Get Everyone Involved: When everyone in a home has a say about which meals they would like to eat, they are likely to be more open to other family member selections as well. Even better, tag the person who selected that meal to cook it as well, depending on their age of course.

3. Keep It Simple: Once five complete dinner selections have been made, pair the longer preparation meals with the evenings you have more time, and the shorter preparation times with the days you have a small amount of time.

4. Relax!: Relax with a tea or a glass of wine for 15 minutes each week and rekindle a love affair with your cookbooks and find recipes on foodtv.ca. I have proven in my conferences across North America that it really, really only takes 15 minutes to complete a custom-made reusable meal plan. So set your timer because steps 4 through 7 will honestly only take you that long once the dinner selections are chosen.

5. Fill in the Blanks: Once the recipes are chosen and sourced in your meal plan, it's easy to simply transfer all the ingredients from each recipe into the appropriate food section of your blank grocery list (print neatly as you will re-use this over and over again). **Do not fill this list in according to what groceries you have on hand.

6. Protect Your Masters: Protect your master list and printed meal plans with a plastic sheet cover and store them beside your recipe books in a small binder. Because this list is complete with all the groceries you will need for those particular recipes, it's timeless.

7. List What You Need to Buy on a Separate Sheet of Paper: The master list quickly assists you with this as you scan your freezer, fridge and pantry.

8. Get the Groceries in the House: When the groceries are in the house, it frees up your mind about what you're having for dinner. Just a note; knowing what you are having for dinner leads to good eating health. When family members know what they are having for dinner, they tend to have something in the opposite food groups for lunch, which naturally creates a balance.

9. Lay Out Your Ingredients: This could be before you go to work, it could be once you arrive home or it could be the night before. All that really matters is that you do it first. Once all the groceries are laid out, a commitment to cook has been made. Who in their right mind would put everything back and then order pizza!!

10. Celebrate Eating by Working Together: If one person cooks, others clean up. Put a candle on the table, tell the person who cooked how happy you are and how beautiful the meal is. Watch what happens! You won't believe your eyes, but your palate and your waistline will convince you, if you meal plan my way, dinner time will become an event, not a chore!

Sandi Richard is the Host of Fixing Dinner.