How to fit cooking into your working week

April 22, 2015

zucchini frittersWhen it comes to meal planning, are you like most of my clients who find their struggles are:

a. Finding time to plan
b. Making a shopping list
c. Fitting cooking into my working week

If this sounds like you, don’t worry – you are not alone!  Depending on your Meal Planning Personality® you need to tackle each of these slightly differently! The guides go through exactly how to approach this, but I thought I’d share some tips over a few upcoming blog posts that will help you all immediately!  Since we tackled Finding Time to Plan and Making a shopping list last time…..

We’re now ready to tackle: Fitting cooking into my working week

Give each day a THEME based on the style of food you need to cook that night.  The idea is to remove the thinking you have to do – yes even Intuitives get sick of being in the moment and going with what we feel like!  Sometimes it is just too damn exhausting!

Look at what you can do on nights that will help you get ahead, i.e. can you do a bigger batch of something on days you have off? So, for example you could map it out like this one a client and I co-created:

  • Sunday: (consider this the start of your week and make that dinner count to get you ahead / eg Burgers + Salad (for dinner and week ahead plus prep vegies for Morning tea)
  • Monday: could be something you cooked on Saturday (eg bulk cook up/ sunday night)
  • Tuesday: A Quick Cook meal (eg stirfry/ san chow bow/ meat and vege/????/ Relevant Creative Cooking Short Cut for your Personality®  – see the guide!! )
  • Wednesday: ?home late – freezer meal / Relevant Creative Cooking Short Cut for your Personality®  – see the guide!! )
  • Thursday: Day off: bulk batch/ Leftover Buffet so you don’t waste any food!
  • Friday: BBQ – family fun
  • Saturday: Bulk

When it comes to bulk cooking – for example if you make up a curry/ pasta sauce how much do you cook? Please let the answer be 2 kg of mince and a stack of vegies? This is your “new norm” – so you get a big batch that provides food for tonight, tomorrow and one for the freezer.

Do the same thing on a weekend too. If you and the family like burgers, you could do that on a Sunday night (make up extra meat balls for the freezer) and then whip up a couple of salads to last a few days into the week/ for lunches. Cut some carrot sticks/ vegies for lunches too while you are doing the vegie prep. For example the two salads I make each week are:

Now if you need some morning tea, lunch or breakfast options made – look at what you can make ahead to make your week days easier.

Now I would love to hear from you!  Tell me what other strategies have you found helpful to fit cooking into your working week?  I hope these few little tips have been helpful and inspired you get organised and make your life easier!

Don’t forget – Click here to take the quiz and discover more information on the Meal Planning Personality® Profiles.

Louise xx