Latest / The Rooted Family / Ep 7 | The Rhythm of Meal Planning: A Simple System for Busy Families

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Ep 7 | The Rhythm of Meal Planning: A Simple System for Busy Families · The Rooted Family

• Christian Cornish: If dinner at your house often feels like 5 p.m. panic mode, standing in the kitchen, wondering what the heck to cook, realizing you forgot to thaw the meat, and ending up spending way more money on takeout than you planned, this episode is for you. Welcome back to the Rooted Family Podcast. I'm Christian. and I'm Kayla. And today we're talking about one of the rhythms that has probably brought the most peace into our home, and that's meal planning. Yes, this rhythm has truly been a game changer for us. When we think about rhythms that are so practical, but yet bring so much peace into the home, this is definitely at the top for us. And with us, we're a family of nine. We have seven small children under the age of 12 at the time of this recording. And we have learned that over the years, having a meal planning rhythm truly blesses our family it blesses our family on a daily basis, but also a weekly basis. ⁓ Because when we were first married, we didn't really a strong meal planning rhythm in place with one or two kids. It almost felt like just trying to figure out day by day. Yeah. And I ⁓ think it's important for to know that when you started this rhythm and realized the need for it in our home, We didn't have seven kids at that time. changed and found this peace in our life when we were really at one, maybe two kids stage. we found a tremendous benefit then. It's funny because we live in a day and age where meal planning has been easier. ⁓ because there's so many tools, there's so many tips and strategies out there. I mean, you could simply go on YouTube and search meal planning. I mean, go on ChatGPT, for goodness gracious, and ask Chatty how to meal plan. But it's funny because so many people feel like meal planning is not a necessity. almost like it's an afterthought, or maybe it's something that they really want and they tried, but they can't stick with it for whatever reason. That's interesting. You know, I was thinking about how Dave Ramsey, he talks about like, change when we're sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I'm curious when you look back, because truthfully, like, yes, I do help cook and do other stuff, but like, this is really your realm. Yeah, more than mine. also a formerly registered dietician. So this is like professionally was an area of expertise for you. So it makes sense that you. And I also love it, too. I feel like this is totally in my wheelhouse when it comes to strengths. Yeah. But I think even if it wasn't a strength, I think that I lean into it regardless. Yeah. ⁓ Well, to say you were sick and tired of being sick and tired. ⁓ And curious, like what? Will you reflect back, like what were you sick and tired of? That you were like, I'm going to have a rhythm consistency and a system around meal planning. Yeah, that's a good question. I looking back ⁓ on ⁓ a mom, so like when we had Azalea and Ella ⁓ I remember I was a registered dietitian, I remember feeling like Okay, I have the knowledge, I have the skills on how to prep and make good food. Not just like, you know, good tasting food, but like, speaking. I remember thinking that like on the days and the nights, which there were many that we didn't plan or we didn't get our groceries in time and we were stuck with like an empty fridge and we had to like, you know, get takeout or pizza because that's all we felt like we could do, I remember thinking, okay, I know how to do this, ⁓ why is this so hard? And remember being so sick and tired of wanting to provide healthy meals for my family, ⁓ wanting create like a peaceful sit down meal. And so nights we just couldn't do that or I couldn't provide the full quality, I guess, of the family dinner and the meal I was hoping to give. That's good. I think it's important to say that having a family dinner was a value we established really early. So even when it was the two of us, we were committed to having dinner together. Like sit down at the dinner table. Every night. we both grew up in families a family dinner was. important. Yeah, even though you had a lot going on, you're like your family still sat down. Yep. My mom and dad and I literally sat down every single day, did not matter what was going on. Like wow, did that every day. That's so beautiful. So I think that was really important to us. Yeah. from my perspective, because my role and I do play a small role in all of this. But I was sick and tired of a going to the store and spending ⁓ much time shopping. ⁓ back in that day, like Instacart was new for all you kids out there. It honestly wasn't. Our pickup did not exist. No, it didn't. We had to whip out our little piece of paper, make the note, because we didn't even have iPhones at the time when we were first married. No. Totally ages us. Yes. We didn't have iPhones, had dumb phones. We didn't even have the note app to share with each other. Yeah, we share that now. And then I was so sick of going to the store, because I would go so often, because it'd be like, oh, we were going to make. Alfredo tonight, but I don't have noodles. And it's like, oh, okay, I'll go to the store. So like, you know, 15 minutes to the grocery store and back. I mean, that adds up. You do that multiple times a week. Or think about it, there's a lot of people that have both working parents in the home. And the wife says, after work, I'm gonna stop by the grocery store and grab a rotisserie chicken. $75 later, she has a rotisserie chicken and a bunch of other stuff she didn't eat and she's getting home later than she wanted. And she still has to think about what to make for dinner because she's throwing something together last minute. ⁓ And it'd be like this constant discussion of. man, I wish we just like ate earlier. It's the kids are getting into bed, they're cranky, or now we're going to bed later because we're cleaning up later. It's, you know, it just, there was so much decision fatigue. Yep. And ⁓ know time we look at each other, like, what are we going to do? It's always like, what can we throw together? And it's just exhausting ⁓ by time you end that night. It really is. You know, when you think about when you think about busy families, we already are doing so much we are giving so much to our kids. We're giving so much energy ⁓ our work. The last thing we need to be doing is giving energy to ⁓ decision that could have been made earlier in the week. It's like we're giving this precious time and energy to something that really doesn't need to be given to you on a daily basis. busy families, we already are doing so much we are giving so much to our kids. We're giving so much energy ⁓ our work. The last thing we need to be doing is giving energy to ⁓ decision that could have been made earlier in the week. It's like we're giving this precious time and energy to something that really doesn't need to be given to you on a daily basis. Maybe you don't think you have to meal plan. We have to feed our families. Right. And ⁓ when you are a good parent, you ⁓ feed your children what you can to help them thrive. ⁓ And when we plan for anything in our life, like going to go to Disney World and we're going to plan and maybe that's a bad ⁓ I think the Disney example's great, Because it's a bigger thing, but do think of it way, If you up to Disney and you have no plan on what you're gonna do, you don't know what you're gonna go to. ⁓ You don't know what rides you want to hit. You don't know what days you're going to do what. I mean, most people only have so much time and so much money to make a trip like that happen. You're going to be mad at yourself if you look, turn around and say, wow, we wasted hours trying to talk about, like, do we go to Magic Kingdom or do we go to... I forget another part right now I've talked about. I could only go to Magic Kingdom if I go to Disney. We are clearly not Disney people. There's the animal one. kingdom. Animal kingdom. So which one are you going to go to? And if you wasted like two hours debating that and then got there late and the lines were longer, I mean, you're going to look back with regret and be like, wow, if we had known what we were going to do, we probably could have found a better price. We probably would have showed up earlier. We would have had shorter lines. You would have had more fun. So true. And it's really not that different with dinner. Like if you sit down and you're not, like think about it, when you're exhausted and you sit down at the dinner table, like. And you're hangry. And you're hangry. I get hangry. It's like you don't have as good a conversation. You don't have those moments of connection. And you get ⁓ the end of dinner and think, gosh, we all just miss each other, even though we were sitting here. Yeah. Cause I didn't have the capacity to connect. Yep. And that's at best, at worst. think about it, when you're exhausted and you sit down at the dinner table, like. And you're hangry. And you're hangry. ⁓ I get hangry. It's like you don't have good a conversation. You don't have those moments of connection. And you get ⁓ to the end of dinner and think, gosh, we just miss each other, even though we were sitting here. Yeah. Cause I didn't have the capacity to connect. Yep. And that's at best, at worst. You're so tired that you pull out the TV dinner table trays and you're all sitting in front of the TV watching a show and eating. That's at worst because you're so tired. Yeah. From the process it took from 430 to p.m. or whenever you sat down, you're so tired already from the full day of work and making all these ⁓ planning decisions or running into the store last minute ⁓ now your family, the you pull out the TV dinner table trays and you're all sitting in front of the TV watching a show and eating. you're so tired. The best thing you could think of to rejuvenate is not sitting at the table and connecting. It's actually just sitting in front of the and just mindlessly ⁓ watching and eating, ⁓ The best thing you could think of to rejuvenate is not sitting at the table and connecting. It's actually just sitting in front of the and just mindlessly ⁓ watching TV and eating, ⁓ we're not against watching a show and having food. Like we have a ⁓ pretty regular Saturday night tradition in our where we have pizza ⁓ and we watch family movie. And I think that's super fun. But what I'm talking about But that's planned for. Yes. And it's fun. It's planned for. ⁓ It's not something we do on a regular daily habitual basis. That's such a good thought. And that's why I care so deeply about this rhythm. ⁓ this is like a theme I'm seeing, ⁓ that we don't sit down at dinner table because it's too much effort. ⁓ It's much work to get to that point. ⁓ The dinner table is piled high with So they can't clear it off. ⁓ They don't a plan. So they're just grabbing takeout and they're all sitting in front of TV. ⁓ Or they're so, ⁓ crazy busy, that they don't even have a plan to sit down at all as a family. They don't have a meal plan to say, you know what, on every Tuesday night or every Sunday night, we're gonna sit down together as a family. And so life just keeps happening. And you look back a year or two, five years from now and you realize, wow, we didn't intentionally make family dinner a priority. We don't have a plan. to be intentional about it. And the plan is not which I absolutely love. Yeah. ⁓ of course there's complicated plans out there, but I having the simple plan that you've come up with has been ⁓ so ⁓ beneficial. ⁓ And so I would love hear, like, is meal planning actually look like and share with us your system that you've brought into our home. so I'm just going to lay it out for you in the most step-by-step basic way because I want to equip you today ⁓ a listener to be able to just do this. I think when we have a runway to just run, we are able to succeed and then that success ends up breeding more success. ⁓ here's what I do. I sit down ⁓ single week. Saturday night or Sunday morning is my timeframe because I want to be sure that I have the grocery planning and the groceries ordered before Sunday night. That's always my goal. first I go through a note. I have a super simple note on my phone and I the notes app And I Lay out the week, I lay out by date, know, so like Monday the first, Tuesday the second, and I will go through our family calendar and look at, are there any heavy things happening in the evenings that I need to be mindful of? Because I'm all for ordering takeout as long as you plan for it. Like, I don't want this to be a last minute result because I didn't plan. So. if your family benefits from takeout, you could put Monday the 1st, we're going to do takeout because the kids have and we're not able have a sit down dinner that night. So that's the first step is I choose meal for each day of the week. ⁓ And I simply just write the meal name. If it's a recipe in a cookbook, I'll the page number. so I can remember where to look, or if it's a recipe online, I'll put the link. that's essentially the first step, is just picking a meal for each day of the week. ⁓ second step is I then create my grocery list. And if you have not hopped on the grocery ordering ⁓ app train, have got to hop on now. ⁓ Like I even know why you haven't. because it makes grocery shopping so much simpler. And Like it doesn't matter which one it is. They're also easy to use. in this day and age, we ⁓ should be to find a app for any grocery store, unless going to some mom and pop grocery store that literally ⁓ doesn't even have a website. Yeah. And I've heard some people give an they mark up the stuff on the shopping apps. Just let me say it's maybe 10 cents the most. Like, do you want to waste three hours in the store? With crying, screaming children in your shopping cart? Yeah, Or would you like to pay someone 10 cents to pick that item for you so you don't have to have that stress? It's like you're paying for peace in a way. ⁓ You And you're also ⁓ saving, our time is money. Our time is worth money. So like if we spend three hours in a grocery store where we could be spending that time doing something else more valuable, like sitting down the table with your family. I think it's well worth the extra markup. ⁓ But you know what? I we actually have saved over time. I agree. and I'm the one that goes to the store, and I am guilty of this, so I will raise my hand. Oreos, throw it in the cart. Ooh, there's that ice cream, and we didn't get that flavor I wanted last week. ⁓ Throw that in the cart. buffalo wings are on sale this week. We didn't talk about that, but you always need to have buffalo wings in the freezer. So you can actually thank me for this transition, because I have just saved you from all of your hangry shopping trips where everything just looks amazing. You have, and you're the best. I just think like, OK, people, most us listening right have children. ⁓ You have of many different ages. Do you really, I mean, honestly, do you really find it in the top favorite things that you do is going to the grocery store every week with your littles, knocking down boxes on the shelf, crying and whining and asking for popsicles for the millionth time. Does that really sound fun to you? I mean, if it is, you go. That's awesome. But I... choose to not do that, because that just to me is like a giant stressful event. And I think that by pulling up an app, so after I choose my meals, I pull up my grocery app, I simply go through each of the recipes, I add those ingredients to the shopping cart, within like 20 to 30 minutes, I have shopped for our entire list. So it takes me about a half hour to plan the meals, it takes me about a half hour to shop the list. And it's so simple. Once I have all the ingredients in the cart, I go through my staples in the house, see what else we need, throw a few little fun things in the cart. And I love that we can see the total at the end. That's true. I do love that too. That is so satisfying to like not get to the checkout and be like, oh, we just overspent like by $200 on our food budget. Oh, and if you go to like a Sam's Club or Costco, that is where like we've I've literally gotten up to the front and been like, oh my goodness, that is like 200 to $300 more than we do. Oh, yeah. You throw 10 items in the cart at Sam's Club. You're like 300 bucks. It's like for real. Yeah. And so even all of that, it has saved us money. It has saved us time. going once. And, know, I've seen you prep a few things ahead of time. Actually, one nice thing about meal planning. is it does help you, like sometimes we've been hosting for instance, and you're like, hey, they're coming over on Friday, I know I have XYZ on Friday, I'm actually gonna do some part on Thursday ahead of time, because Friday, I know I'm not gonna have all the time I want to put into this. And has worked wonderfully, but that's not something we run into very often. No, ⁓ and have to look at it as different rhythms. So you have your meal planning rhythm. meal planning is separate than meal prepping. It's a really good thought. ⁓ And so think that sometimes women get overwhelmed because they see all these trends and they're like, ⁓ I have to meal prep all these ⁓ vegetables and containers and ⁓ all this to have a successful week. ⁓ And honestly, prepping has not been a huge part of my process. ⁓ I think I a lot on the plan because I know if I have the plan. and if I stick to the plan like 80 % well, I know that the week is gonna go so much smoother. But for me, I do a lot of my prepping the day of, like the morning of ⁓ or the before, but I don't usually have like a two or three hour window where I'm just like prepping a ton food for the week, cutting up a bunch of things. ⁓ For me, that doesn't work, but that could totally be a rhythm that you as a listener might really benefit from. Like if you want to have prep, that I would just make that a separate rhythm with a separate timestamp. Because like you and I always talk about this, rhythms really are not real unless we put a timestamp on them. So that's why I'm saying like with meal planning, like I sit down every Saturday night or Sunday morning. Those are like my timestamps. I have to get the meals decided and the groceries in the cart by then because to continue with the process, then once we submit the order, Then ⁓ you, go and pick up the groceries. ⁓ That's part of process and maybe you could share a little bit more, like what is your role here in our meal planning rhythm? Yeah, so I kind of just everything home. ⁓ But I mean, yeah, do. have a rhythm around it's every Monday after work. and it intertwines with our daughter has dance. So it's like right before I go pick her up, do the same thing every week. I grab the little kids, we go to the store, we call that order in so they could bring it out right away. And then we go get her and we come home and you and I put it away. And part of that rhythm is you either have a meal prepped Monday night, or ⁓ something really simple because it is a little later, but we plan for that. as a part of our weekly meal plan, just knowing like, hey, Monday I get home later, because I'm doing this extra trip, so we have a simpler meal to make that work. you know, I do check the substitutions that come through and, you know, sometimes I'm like, ooh, I know we really need that thing that got substituted, I'll run in and grab it, but ⁓ yeah, my role has been to make sure that I pick it up and we've been really consistent about doing that, so it's like really it's not a random day. ⁓ It's not like, ⁓ I've got all this other stuff going on and I'm trying to squeeze that in. It's like, I know every Monday without a shadow of a doubt, I need to be there to pick that up. ⁓ even just to share with you ⁓ hardcore we are with this, we literally have a schedule. It's scheduled in our family calendar ⁓ when are getting our groceries. ⁓ Like have grocery pickup scheduled as a reoccurring event in our Google calendar. ⁓ And that's what we mean by having a timestamp. know, rhythms can be flexible. We've talked about that in previous episodes where there is grace in rhythms and you can absolutely move a rhythm as needed because weeks can be different, you know, for week to week. But I would say that we have found the most success with our meal planning when we have stuck to a very specific day and time for the planning part of it and the pickup of the groceries. And that just, we always know. We always know what we're gonna have then for the week. We always know that we have everything in the cupboards that we need to make those meals for the week. And we just follow that boring, mundane plan week in and week out. Yeah, and it's not always been the same. Like we've tweaked it over the years. what's a tweak you can think that we've made over time? I mean, I think about just, we've changed even the day. Like we've had different days, like we used to pick up our groceries on Sundays. that ⁓ a very simple tweak. Like I think you and I have been very consistent in each season, winter, summer, fall, ⁓ to have a sit down conversation and say, okay, what rhythms need to be tweaked for this season? What ⁓ rhythms to be adjusted ⁓ so we can thrive? ⁓ And would say that we... ⁓ have definitely been open to what's a better day to pick up groceries. Because we have a lot of people in this family, a lot of people living in this home, a lot of mouths to feed. And our groceries, it's not like we have two bags of groceries. I mean, when you go pick up the groceries, it's like many trips into the house with these groceries. I've been asked if I own a restaurant. Multiple times. Have you really? No, I'm dead serious. they could they'll bring the order like if I have a new person that brings the order out because actually now it's like it's so consistent the same people like we're buds that could bring out the stuff but once in a while if they're not working and somebody else comes out I've been asked multiple times if we have a restaurant. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so like that's what I mean. Like picking up groceries it is thing for us. ⁓ We to be ready to receive the groceries. I mean, have to be mentally ready, because I mean, this is like ⁓ a solid to 30 minutes of organizing, you know, the bridges, organizing the cupboards. Yeah. So ⁓ anyways, it's like something that we can be like, ⁓ hey, can you run to the store and like go get our groceries and like just make it happen? ⁓ I mean, we really do have to have it planned. We do. So I would say that's one change. Another tweak that we've made recently that I am so loving is that we have been probably for six months now, or a little bit less. We have been doing a bulk shopping trip once a month to our local, which is not really local. I was about to say, in local. It's like an hour and a half away. to our Sam's Club because we live in very small town Colorado. We have to go to New Mexico actually to get our Sam's Club groceries. ⁓ But I this. This has been a really cool tweak. I still do the same steps that I told you about, ⁓ but now I been planning a giant list of meals the month that I can pick and choose from ⁓ each week. So it's like I have a bank of meals that I've thought about. ⁓ 20 to 30 meals, and then I have been, well, you have been going to Sam's Club and getting all of these groceries for most of what we need for the month. Now, you know, this is a whole nother side conversation, because there's a logistics to all of this. You know, we have a new, we have a deep freezer But ⁓ anyways, I'm getting off topic. think it's important if you, ⁓ want to make some of these adjustments to your meal plan, you'd think about like, what is best for your family? And for our family, we have a big family, it makes more sense financially to buy in bulk. So I've liked this tweak that we've made. Yeah, so I think the important thing there is we started with a simple meal plan, and we were consistent each week. And over time, we were able to say, we know we'd save more money. we did bulk shopping so we added that to the rhythm so it was like okay and It would like you said it's the exact same process. I don't go in the store I Literally show up we load the car and we go home. Yeah, so it's been wonderful even if I have to drive that far but It didn't change like the process it wasn't this massive tweak it was hey take our simple system hand it off there and it was a great next level thing to do. You're right, that was a great thing and it saved us a lot of money over time. Yeah, so I think I just shared my meal planning system, very basic steps. Obviously there's more details and logistics to it, but ⁓ think the thing I want you to ⁓ encouraged by is that your system doesn't have to be complicated. ⁓ see these different people online selling and workshops and all these different things for meal planning. ⁓ And there can be all different ways that you do the system. But I would say just come up with a few simple steps that you can stick with week after week try to stick with your plan 80 % well ⁓ ⁓ will have a very successful meal planning rhythm. That's a great thought. ⁓ is something you would say to someone who ⁓ never meal planned before? Like ⁓ thing could they start with? I would say definitely. ⁓ utilize the tools that are around you. Like we just got into using apps, like use your grocery store planning app, ⁓ your note app on your phone, use Pinterest. Pinterest is a great tool because you can easily find recipes. But I would that the biggest thing is just start with just a few meals a week. ⁓ look at your this next week, for example, look at this next week and say, okay, if I'm gonna cook dinner two or three nights a week, what two to three meals can I make for our family? Knowing that there probably will be leftovers, there'll probably be ⁓ a takeout night maybe one night or a pizza one night. But if you can plan just two or three meals next week, that can go so far with your sanity. thing is I would say be really intentional about collecting your family's favorites. ⁓ Like this is so fun for our family. at the end of a meal, which it does not happen every night, let me tell you, but it does happen maybe once a week, ⁓ will ask the kids, is this a family favorite recipe? And if it is, the whole table will cheer and say, yeah. ⁓ I'll add that recipe to our family favorites ⁓ the know app. ⁓ So I just have this giant ongoing list of family favorite recipes. that whenever I feel stuck on like what to make this week, if I go into that note, I can very quickly see what the majority of my family will eat without complaining. Yeah. Which for a big family is actually very helpful. And it really does limit the decision fatigue you face. And it really helps with your shopping because the more you kind of find those things you repeat, I mean, the faster, you know, do I have that ingredient? Do I not have that ingredient? And it's easier to find. And actually too, you'll go through them too. Like some things you buy for recipes, they could sit on the shelf for months, know, partially used, cause you didn't need the whole thing, but you actually will use it if you repeat those recipes every couple, you know, every so often, you're gonna have it and use the stuff up. So that's another benefit is like you actually use what you buy, which is wonderful. Yeah. And I find that a lot of people that don't stick with rhythms are usually of the personality type. where sticking with routine rhythms and structure is just a little bit harder. they usually, some these personality types will also say, well, I want I want freedom, I want flexibility. And so the idea of repeating recipes sounds boring. But you have remember that getting your family fed, is the first priority. And so ⁓ we know that by recipes in our family, when we repeat a recipe once a month, something that our family really loves. For one, it makes planning super simple, ⁓ But two, you know that you going to have less stress trying to come up with ⁓ all these creative recipes. ⁓ You have to come up something brand new every single week. ⁓ You can simply make a four menu and literally repeat that month after month. It will be delicious. I promise you, your kids will love that if it's very intentional. And I think that this whole thought of like everything has to be creative. I have to have something new. It truly just drains us. It keeps us from the purpose of sitting down and having peaceful dinner. Unless it's like your biggest hobby and you have the time to do it. Yeah. Which we don't. We just find most people don't. And I used to not be able to cook and now I can a little bit. And I will just say it is a practice. Like you have to practice. You have to do, repeat and do things over and over to get really good at it and have fun. Like cooking was not as much fun before as it is now, because like now I'm better at it. And so it's a lot more fun. Totally. And you know, it is more fun to like to not have that decision fatigue weighing on your brain, but like to just get in there, pull out what you need and get started. Like it's so much more freeing for me. I'm speaking for myself. Yeah. So much more freeing. can actually be more creative because I can be like, ooh, you know, last time I did this and it worked out well. But if I tried this different seasoning this time, I think that would be even better. And fun with that. And I always forward to it. ⁓ What are some mistakes you find people make when trying to meal plan? what are some things that will help people to keep it simple? Yeah, I would say one big mistake is just not sticking to the plan. Like we think, I'm gonna meal plan. and we do it one week and we go gung ho and we plan all the lunches, all the dinners, and we to Wednesday and we're like, yeah, I wanna do this. Or you're like me and you're just like, I'm craving chicken wings. Yeah, so just ditch the plan altogether. Which might happen ⁓ seven days week if it were up to me. Yeah, I think that's a big mistake is that people... ⁓ either go gung-ho for a week and then they're so burnt out from how like intense they made it because they planned every single meal. They prepped every single meal. They get to Sunday night and they're like, yeah, I'm just ordering in the next week. I don't even want this. Yeah. So I think that could be a big mistake or they have the plan and they just simply don't look at it. So they just, don't follow it. that would be like my biggest piece of advice is make the plan and stick with it 80 % well. ⁓ And you will find that it's just such a well-oiled machine that point when you're sticking to the plan. ⁓ Like if you think about it, if you sit down on Sunday, you have your cozy beverage, you got your tea, you got your coffee, ⁓ you're in a really relaxed, peaceful state of mind. ⁓ You're not super hungry, so you're making like, you know, decisions just based on what you think your family will eat or nutritious, you know, nutritious decisions. woman or that man making that plan on Sunday ⁓ you're super relaxed and in good state, that's that, I would say that boss of the meal plan ⁓ the boss you want to follow the rest of the week. Because when you get to 5 p.m. on Monday and you're tired, you're cranky because work didn't go well or the kids, you know, had a rough day at home. You may be like, I just want to order pizza because that is literally the easiest thing to do right now is just order a pizza. if you say, you know what, I'm going to listen to my Sunday boss who ⁓ thinking strategically about our ingredients, who is thinking creatively about ⁓ to give our family nutritiously. ⁓ going to just pull that plan out and say, you know what, Monday we're going to make, salmon and asparagus. I'm gonna take the extra steps to make the salmon and asparagus. So one, the asparagus doesn't go bad and we just throw it. And two, I'm giving my family something that I planned for. And so I think that is a big tip. I think another common mistake would be trying to do all the fancy plans that are out there. You know, we see the plans of like, make all these freezer meals and then. you'll have like your whole freezer stock full of all these slow cooker meals ⁓ you're gonna do every night. Or there's all these systems about prepping that are so exhaustive or like different diets out there that you wanna follow. And because there's so much noise out there about meal planning, we don't realize that like something's as simple as writing down a menu, ordering the groceries, up the groceries, making the food. We don't think that that simple of a system could actually be a huge blessing. ⁓ it's so easy to do this in any sphere, whether it's like exercise that we're to improve upon or ⁓ something else, but it's like jumping the, ⁓ Problem isn't always hey, you need some super advanced system like what the benefit you're actually getting in that super advanced system is probably just the steps getting it done and Just do the steps. Yeah Totally the best meal planning rhythm that you could have is the one you stick with Truly, that's the best meal planning or them you could possibly have That's great. I love that. What would you say has changed in our home since we started doing this consistently now? I mean, we're 10 years into this rhythm. I'm like, what would you say has changed the most in our home? definitely the overwhelming sense of peace, knowing that I get to feed family the way that ⁓ makes me feel proud of the food that I am blessing my family with. I really consider it a act of love and service to my family to prepare food. And it truly is like a love language for me, being able to cook for people. I love to able to serve people with good food. ⁓ And so I love that at p.m. I can ⁓ easily pull up my note or look at our chalkboard menu. ⁓ and say, know what, tonight is going to be X, Y, and Z. And I whip out the ingredients, I can prepare it, I can listen to my Billie Holiday jazz playlist, and it's just such a peaceful time. I invite the kids in the kitchen with me more frequently now, now that we have meal planning done, because I don't stress about what to make. Instead, I'm stressing about them not chopping their fingers off. It's a different kind of stress, but it's more enjoyable because I know what we're making. I know we have the ingredients in the home I know I don't have to bother you to like run to the store and down most nights at 6 p.m. around the dinner table, lighting some candles and just having that time to connect with each other. Talking about highs, lows and buffaloes and knowing that I didn't to give my mental energy to figuring dinner out has been the biggest blessing and source of peace we're parenting all these little children because nighttime already has enough stress. mean, bedtime alone. I mean, if you have little children, know bedtime alone is a stressor. And that's a whole nother rhythm that we can talk about on another episode. It is. I didn't think about this earlier, but I think it's worth saying now. I found a significant blessing from this rhythm in this last year. Because as you know, in our story we've shared, you were for eight months. Yeah. Of the whole calendar year. And ⁓ this like we the shared note, so you would share with me the meal plan. And we ⁓ continued this It didn't miss week, it didn't miss a beat, even though you weren't here. ⁓ because you were still able to meal plan. You still place the groceries for me. I mean, yeah, we'd have to talk like, hey, do you have this, do you have this, whatever. We figured that out. then I had a ⁓ plan. We just simplified certain things to fit the timeframes that I was gonna have. We repeated a lot more recipes. We repeated more recipes more often. Actually, I came to you and I said, hey, we could change the recipes, but let's do like, pizza on Sunday, tacos on Tuesday. I don't remember everything, but I remember it was like, we're gonna do pizza on Sunday, we're gonna do tacos on Tuesday. Like, sliders on Wednesday. It's gotta be like, let's just change the recipe, but it was these categories which simplified it even more. I had to carry the, like, way more of the load when you were gone. ⁓ this didn't miss a beat, and I didn't have to ask you, we didn't have to figure it out. It was like, this was done, it was in place, and tri- Really carried us. Yeah, cuz I didn't still it didn't have to go to the store I mean imagine if I had to do that plus all the meal plans I would have went insane so true if I had to like pick it all up and even if I did knowing your system would have known what to do. Yeah, if I had to do it alone Yeah, and so ⁓ truly has been just a tremendous blessing even in that season. I wasn't Pondering that earlier. I love that you brought that up because I feel like ⁓ that's such an encouragement you don't have a meal planning system in place, if you take the time to get this in place and a storm comes your way, like similar to what we through, ⁓ if you're not going through a hard time, a hard time come, I promise. And when you set up your rhythms today, when things are going fairly smooth in your life, you are truly setting up your family to a little smoother through those hard times. Like when you are grieving the loss of someone, ⁓ you are walking through a job loss or a transition of a move or any other big... you know, thing that we can walk through in life, if you have certain rhythms set up in your life to almost like ⁓ the background of your life, it really does make hard times a more bearable. that's why we're so passionate about rhythms, because we have seen it firsthand how when we set them up in a way that serves our family, that keeps our family moving forward, you actually can thrive in difficult seasons with the right rhythms set up for success. Yeah, that's really true. So ⁓ yes, today we talked about planning and meal planning is a simple thing. You're like, why are you so long about meal planning? We just talked for 45 minutes about meal planning. We could talk for days. And it's because it is such ⁓ a benefit and it's really You know, you could almost call it like a gateway rhythm, right? Like they have gateway drugs. don't know if you have to like be so... Gateway rhythms. Like you, when you nail this one down, You start to think how, how could I do this with my laundry? How could I do this with all these other things? And you start to be able to do, we were so passionate about do what the Lord has called you to do. How can you do that as a family? and equip yourselves to be involved, to a business, to do whatever it is God has called you to do, ⁓ be able to do that with peace and crush yourselves along the way. And so you for listening today. We love sharing this with you. And we have wonderful ⁓ free resource to continue equip you. It's called the Six Week Meal Plan Reset. ⁓ And this just a shameless plug. I don't know if it counts as a shameless plug, because it's a free resource. Like, we're making any money off of this. ⁓ But it's free to you. And it's gonna help you have a plan for the next six weeks. So I hear so often from women, ⁓ I... ⁓ would love to meal plan, but I'm lacking the creativity. Like I just don't know what to make. this six week meal plan reset is going to give you a new fresh meal plan right to your inbox every single week for the next six weeks. ⁓ also gonna get a action step for me that will take you just a little bit. further in your meal planning rhythm to get it set up for more success. ⁓ so you can download that. You see the link right there in the episode description, but get yourself this resource. If you have fallen off the bandwagon, or you're like, you know what, I ⁓ need to ⁓ recommit myself to my family's or I want to do that. I don't even know where to start. ⁓ This is the perfect resource for to just dive in and just slowly, a slow drip over the next six weeks of getting a done for you meal planning rhythm. Yeah, so go to the show notes, download that six week meal plan reset, and while you're there, make sure to leave us a five star review. We absolutely are so blessed by those And if there's anything Kayla that you want families to remember about meal planning as we close out, what would you say it would be? ⁓ would just say that meal planning isn't about perfection. It's not about having some perfect system or perfect rhythm. It's about just having ⁓ rhythm supports your family life to thrive instead of reacting to the chaos that can happen to all of us every single evening. And so I just hope that this episode encouraged you today. to take that next step with your meal planning rhythm. And as an action step today, we again, just encourage you to to that link in the show notes, download yourself the six week meal plan reset, ⁓ and you can start thriving today, feeding your family. Thanks for being everyone. Yes, thanks for being here. We'll see you next time on the Rooted Family Podcast.