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Simplify dinnertime with a Capsule Pantry

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Meal Planning · March 15, 2020

Creating the perfect dinner backup plan

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in 3 easy steps!

Cooking Dinner: Love it or hate it? As busy moms, we usually fall into one of those categories when it comes to making healthy dinner recipes. Some moms are killin’ it with crockpot meals and we see the “look what I made for dinner tonight!” on Facebook every night, and yet others struggle just to come up with a quick and easy chicken recipe to feed their kids.

Which one are you?

You could be a meal planning beginner or you could’ve been meal planning for awhile. But there will ALWAYS be a time when you forget to defrost something, or someone eats the whole block of cheddar cheese you were planning on using, or you thought you had a carton of chicken broth in the pantry, but low and behold, it’s not there.

You need an emergency plan so you don’t have to order pizza at the last minute.

This is the first post in the series “Create the Perfect Dinner Backup Plan” – that will help you create that emergency plan! Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking about 3 different ways to make sure you always have dinner on hand. When you add them all together, you will have a seriously solid back up plan!

You can find the rest of the series here:

  1. Creating a Dinner Backup Plan with Rescue Meals – this post!
  2. How to Solve the “What’s for Dinner” problem with Freezer Cooking
  3. How to Meal Plan Only 4 Times Per Year (part 1)
  4. The Capsule Pantry™: A Faster, Easier Way to Meal Plan (part 2)

First up on your backup plan is what I like to call Rescue Meals.

What is a Rescue Meal, you ask? Good question! It’s basically dinner that:

  • requires little to no prep
  • takes 30 minutes or less
  • you always have the ingredients for

I personally think the magic number of Rescue Meal recipes is 5. This gives you a few different options when it comes time to make one of your emergency meals.

Okay, let’s create your own Rescue Meal plan!

1 Download and print the Rescue Meals Planner

2 Find recipes for your dinner backup plan

This probably seems like the most difficult part of this plan, but it’s really not. Once you have your handful of recipes, the hardest part is actually keeping the ingredients on hand! But don’t fret, I have tips for that below.

Here are a few places to start brainstorming. Think about:

  • dinners you can make with your eyes closed
  • family favorites that get requested time and time again
  • dinner “staples” like tacos and burgers and pasta (a box of pasta and a jar of sauce totally counts!)
  • recipes with a protein that’s already cooked or cooks fast (like sausage, shrimp, bacon, ham)

Some things you can search on Pinterest

  • quick soup recipes – soups are great for last minute dinners!
  • pantry challenge meals
  • quick and easy pasta recipes
  • 15 minute dinners

Bonus: I have a Pinterest board dedicated just to Rescue Meals for you to get ideas:

3 Always have the ingredients

Like I said, this is the part that gets lost in the shuffle. Here are some things you can do to make sure that it doesn’t happen to you!

  • a dedicated basket or bin in your pantry AND freezer only for Rescue Meal ingredients
  • a section of your grocery list devoted to only the ingredients you need
  • as soon as you “break the glass” and make it – actually before you make it – put the ingredients on your grocery list
  • set a reminder on your calendar to check the ingredients
  • keep your Rescue Meal planner in a place you’ll see it and use it: on the inside of your Pantry door, on the fridge, or in a meal planning binder.

There you have it, Step One in creating a fool-proof backup dinner plan!

And don’t forget your Backup Plan Booklet that will help you plan out everything in the series, from Rescue Meals to Freezer Cooking to a Capsule Pantry…

In: Meal Planning

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Spice jar organization! Swipe for the before. Alt Spice jar organization! Swipe for the before. 
Although I had cute little glass jars and labels before, I was having trouble seeing my spice labels (hello aging eyes...). 
And I don’t know about you, but I tend to not use something if I can’t find it easily. 
So I got new jars and made myself some easy-to-see labels using sticker printer paper. 
Now I want to use ALL the spices! What do you think?
(jars from Amazon - link in bio, labels designed on Canva and printed on Avery sticker paper)
The best, true, good love. Nothing can separate us The best, true, good love. Nothing can separate us from it. 
❤️ Happy Valentine’s Day!
How to come up with dinner (quick!) when your meal How to come up with dinner (quick!) when your meal plan fails. I wasn’t planning on making dinner tonight but then our plans changed and I needed an idea pronto! Here’s how I deal with that.
Fun fact: I have ZERO poker face. Like none. I’m Fun fact: I have ZERO poker face. Like none. I’m a thinker and have  always lived in my head. It’s the Enneagram 5 in me. 
Bonus: it’s allowed me to be able to talk my way out of any situation. (Except that one time in social studies in 10th grade when a girl was bullying me and I had to fight back. Let’s just say she left me alone after that!😂).
Anyhoo. A friend recently said to me “it makes sense that your face betrays you because you’re so in control of your tongue”. 
My face betrays me 😂 
She’s right, I can hold my tongue pretty well unless it’s something that really gets my goat. 
🐐Fun fact #2: “gets my goat” is one of my favorite phrases ever!
🤢 Fun fact #3: I am not a picky eater and will eat just about anything but don’t you dare make me eat a sandwich with the cheese and Mayo touching!! 
Tell me: are you a thinker too?!? What are some fun facts about you?
One of the most common misconceptions I hear about One of the most common misconceptions I hear about planning for more than one week is that it takes so much time...

But the reason this is such a big misconception is because if you think it take a lot of time to make a seasonal meal plan, think about how much time it takes you to meal plan from a blank slate every week. 
Let's look at it over the course of a year.
1. weekly meal planning 1 hour x 52 weeks = 52 hours
2. monthly meal planning 1 hour x 12 months = 12 hours
3. seasonal meal planning 2 hours x 4 seasons = 8 hours 

And we're not even talking about how much time you're losing by following a weekly meal plan and subsequently grocery shopping. 

Think about how much you're missing out on with your family by spending so much time planning and shopping so often. An hour meal planning + 2 hours grocery shopping every single week is 3 hours a week you could have back to do fun things with them!

I mean, I get it...you NEED to feed your family every day, right? (kinda something we hafta do...).
But you can  do 👏🏼 it 👏🏼 differently 👏🏼
A seasonal meal plan with not only help you spend less time in planning-mode, but also help with your grocery shopping so that you can go to the grocery store less, and stop making emergency trips to the store because you forgot something.

And while you're here, let me tell ya this: avoiding a seasonal meal plan because you don't have TIME is HOGWASH... because I have lots of short cuts and tricks to show you that will maximize your time. 

PS. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post - I'm sharing my newest meal planning formula calendar... It's only around for a few days...see ya tomorrow!

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Meet Karyn. She had amazing results as a customer Meet Karyn. She had amazing results as a customer of ours and I need to share her with you.
 
She bought the Daily Dinner Blueprint calendar, dug right in, and told me she was so excited because she got these results:

📆 her meals are planned until SPRING (and she said it was painless!)!
🛒 a streamlined grocery shopping list!
🥣 an ingredient-based plan that doesn't limit what her family is eating!

She also said how every month "will be even quicker and easier"!

Here’s what she had to say about our business in her own words...
"My husband and I just did our first plan using your system and I wanted to drop you a line to say THANK YOU! Once you wrap your head around the process, and you start using it, it's easy to see how it will streamline grocery shopping without limiting what you are eating!

WOW! I would have to say this was pretty painless! Another benefit is I can see a clear way to categorize my recipes for future use! Each successive month will be even quicker and easier!

Back in the day, Emeril would've said "BAM, kick it up a notch!" I love that my meals are planned UNTIL SPRING! 🙌."

Thank you Karyn for being a customer! 💜
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One of the most common mistakes I see people make One of the most common mistakes I see people make when it comes to meal planning ​is doing it backwards.
BACKWARDS = planning your meals THEN doing your grocery shopping. 
Honestly, I used to teach it this way. 
But I found this doesn't work because:
🕳 you buy single, hard-to-find ingredients that end up in a black hole after you use it for just one recipe (oyster sauce in the back of the fridge, I'm looking at you...)
💰 you overbuy ingredients thinking this is the week your toddler finally eats broccoli, or this is the week you're totally going to cook every night...but end up eating the same thing over and over anyway.
🤷🏻‍♀️ you have too many options and if your plan gets interrupted (which it WILL), you're left staring at a full pantry or fridge wondering "what can I make???" And then end up ordering takeout!

Don't worry, I've got ideas for you. Check out my stories for 3 things you can do instead of backwards planning!
I could tell you so many things about this girl... I could tell you so many things about this girl... 
...my BFF Cara @apurposedrivenmom 
...but I want to focus on how she KILLS it at going after her goals. And loves teaching other busy mamas to do the same. 
She helped me map out an action plan for my goals on Saturday and wow, guys. Just wow. 
So I asked her if she would help my audience with their goal setting for the new year...
...and she agreed! 
Join both of us this Thursday (LIVE!) for “How to Take MASSIVE ACTION on your Goals (without burnout or overwhelm)”.
Sound like something you want to chat about with us?!? Link is in my bio (just click this picture of Cara and I!).
Who else hates throwing away lots of un-eaten prod Who else hates throwing away lots of un-eaten produce at the end of the week as much as I do? 
Focus on an ingredient-based meal plan instead of the other way around. That's what the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar does. Here's this week's meal plan...
🍕🌮 🍔 
‣‣‣Monday: Dinner Blueprint # 51 (A4+B1+C3)
Homemade Pizza Dough & Pizza Sauce (two recipes)
‣‣‣Tuesday: Dinner Blueprint # 33 (A3+B1+C1)
Blackened Tilapia Tacos
‣‣‣Wednesday: Dinner Blueprint # 10 (A1+B3+C2)
Crispy Lemon Chicken & Veggies
‣‣‣Thursday: Dinner Blueprint # 5 (A1+B2+C1)
Santa Fe Double Chicken
‣‣‣Friday: Dinner Blueprint # 40 (A3+B2+C4)
Baked Fish Sticks (+ leftover veggies or salad)
‣‣‣Saturday: Dinner Blueprint # 13 (A1+B4+C1)
Santa Fe Double Chicken Soup (just add a carton of chicken broth to leftovers to make soup)
‣‣‣Sunday: Dinner Blueprint # 3 (A1+B1+C3)
Chicken Parmesan w/Pasta
🍕 
If you're following along on the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar, these are the same Dinner Blueprint #’s for each day. You can use the blueprint to come up with your own dinner idea, or use the linked example recipe.
🌮 
If you don’t own the 2021 Annual Meal Planning Calendar, you can purchase it by clicking my link in bio or if you're seeing this on Facebook, click here:
https://mpb.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1065589/?action=signup
🍉🥬Tell me... what fruit or veggie do you always end up throwing away? (watermelon and fresh spinach here!)
I don't know about you, but I can waste time like I don't know about you, but I can waste time like a CHAMP. Like re-drying the same load of laundry 3 times or scrolling IG like a zombie in bed.
Anyone else?
But I don't like it. 
And I definitely try to be more intentional on the things that give me more time back than what I spent on it. 
Meal planning is one of those things. Spend ONE hour a month meal planning, and you'll gain so many more hours each day (and *bonus* - it's during that dreaded pre-dinner time when the kids are maniacs!)

P.S. Please stop weekly meal planning. That doesn't actually save you time. (you can watch the ✨free training✨ in my link in bio if you want to know how often I suggest!)
Tell me...what would you do with an extra 30 mins each day?
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