Meal Planning Like a (Mom) Boss

Laura tells you why she believes so highly in the value of planning out your meals for the week, especially for the busy mom. She gives you some helpful tips for creating your meal plan, and she shares a typical one that you’d find at her house.

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Transcript

You’re listening to the love and lettuce podcast episode number 30. Today we are talking about meal planning like up mom boss. You don’t want to miss this one!

Hey, this is Laura Lima, holistic nutritionist and founder of New Mama Nation, and host of the Love and Lettuce podcast. I am here to help mamas know what to eat to give them energy and help them feel fantastic. So they can better enjoy life with their littles. And remember, this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice from your healthcare provider. And it’s not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. As always, please consult your health care provider to find out what is right for you. With that said, let’s get to the show!

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So right now I am holding my son Ben, he is almost three months old. And so anything could happen. I’m just letting you know. That is my chair that is creaking in the background as I’m kind of rocking him sort of without trying to make any excessive background noise but he’s in between his nap right now, as in he had like one sleep cycle and then woke up and I think he’s trying to poop. So I think that’s like his issue. But I also did feed him just now in case that would help and now he is sucking on a soother. So you might hear that in the background. And he’s kind of grunting as I think he’s trying to poop. So we will see if he is successful with that.

And hopefully I am successful in getting through this episode before my daughter, Maggie wakes up from her nap upstairs. Hashtag mom life, I know that you get it.

Meal Planning

So today we’re talking about meal planning. And I mean, literally, my life right now has so much to do with why I want to talk about this. Because this is how I’m able to eat well throughout the week. This is how I’m able to have energy because I eat well. But the fact is, even if you know the foods that you should, quote, should be eating or that you want to be eating more of, it’s like, how do I fit that into my life? I am so busy. I can’t even think straight.

How do I make healthy meals? How do I make time to cook, this is crazy. All I have time to do is pop something in the microwave or in the oven and be done. And while that’s true, like Sundays, that is the only thing that we have time for well, we don’t have a microwave, we have an oven and a toaster oven. So sometimes all we have time for is that or just like taking the leftovers out of the fridge and eating them right from the dish. Sometimes that is just reality.

And that’s okay. And sometimes we just make a smoothie and take it to go and like you know, pour, make a double smoothie, pour it into separate cups, the girls love smoothies. So that’s helpful for me. And good to go. Sometimes it’s just a meal of snacks like yes, these are all realities that are totally fine. But the other reality is that we have to eat well on a consistent basis in order to be healthy. In order to have energy to get through our days. And be happy little moms. Because we want to be happy. We have to do this regardless, right?

Short Fuse

So why not do it with the most energy that we can with the happiest emotions that we can have? As opposed to being short. I find when I don’t eat well, or if I’m not eating enough good foods, because I’m simply not eating enough food throughout the day if I’m busy or whatever. I am so short. I’ve got a temper. I’m somebody who doesn’t typically have a temper all the time. For sure we all have it and I obviously am a real person. I do have one but it doesn’t come out very often. And it takes a lot to get it out. But man, on those days when I’m underfed or undernourished. Yeah, it comes out so much faster.

And I’m just like, Whoa, you’re being such a “B”, Laura. Stop and then go eat something. So I know that I have to plan my meals in order to make sure that I’m going to be eating healthy foods to have healthy moods, if you will, and to feel energized and to feel happy. I mean, we don’t feel happy all the time. That’s not “normal” either, but I want to feel balanced. Heck yeah! I prefer to feel happy over feeling frustrated, stressed and overwhelmed.

Avoid Overwhelm

Because my goodness, the overwhelm comes in when you’re just like, Ah, I’ve got to make this meal. Especially if you’ve got toddlers or preschoolers or other kids at home who need to eat as well. It’s not like it’s just you, and a newborn, and the newborn can have milk or formula, so you can just fly by the seat of your pants. No, when you’ve got kids who also eat what you eat, you’ve got to plan, you’ve got to make it happen.

So planning is where it’s at. Meal planning is where it is at. And I’m telling you right now, it does not have to be hard. So my question to you is, and you can raise your hand if this is you? Are you meal planning week by week? Give yourself a little pat on the back if you are because honestly, it is something that so many of us skip over. And it’s so fast, so quick to do. But it makes such a huge difference. So, if you’re doing that, heck, that is amazing. So give yourself a really big pat on the back!

Less Stress with Planning

Now, if you are meal planning, pretty much weekly, I bet that you find that it helps to keep your brain organized and your stress levels down. Am I right? And I’m guessing that really it helps overall keep your sanity in check.

Now, if you don’t plan your meals out, on the other hand, if you said no to my question earlier, do you find that you spend way too much time in the kitchen, staring at your fridge contents wondering what the heck to cook? On the one hand, you want to be something healthy, but on the other, it’s got to be fast. And really you just need to get something on the table and in your belly and their bellies right away. So then you feel slightly guilty and you vow to try harder the next day. And when the next day comes? It’s the same story. I mean, why wouldn’t it be if you didn’t take the steps to change it? Am I right?

Now, I don’t mean to brag, but I’m guessing that I’m correct with both scenarios whether you said yes or you said no. I think I’m right in how you feel. And given the choice. Wouldn’t you rather be part of that first camp? The one where you where you’re in charge? Where you own your day and your time in the kitchen is a breeze? Thought so. That’s why it is so freakin’ important to plan out your week and specifically to plan out your meals Monday to Friday, and not all of your meals, your dinners only.

Yes, it can be that easy. And also, you don’t actually have to plan out every meal. No, in fact, my husband Miguel, and I only plan out our weekday dinners. So like I said, Monday to Friday. And we include leftovers right there on our plan because that’s realistic. That’s reality. And that’s how we roll. We don’t always cook every night. No, we don’t. And I don’t expect you to either. So really, it is that easy. And it should be.

So when it comes down to it. we only plan to cook two to three nights during the week like Monday to Friday, assuming that we’ll have leftovers the other nights. Ben is now almost asleep. I’ve had to pause a few times. And I think I think he’s out. I hope that you can’t hear me rocking. I’m really sorry if there is annoying background noise. But if it’s just him here and there. I know it’s cute. But I hope you don’t hear rocking or squeaking of the chair.

Weekly Meal Plan Example

So I want to give you an example of our weekly meal plan.

Monday

Today happens to be Monday when I’m recording this and when I am publishing it, so it’s going out there on a Monday as well. So let’s say we’re going to have steak, green beans, and caesar salad. And I’m going to write on my plan to make extra bacon and to wash extra lettuce. So, we’re cooking the Caesar for tonight. But we’re cooking extra bacon to get it ready for the rest of the week. Hint hint. And we’re washing extra lettuce to make sure again, we are covering our bums for the rest of the week. Because we know what is coming up in that meal plan.

So that’s tonight, steak, green beans, caesar salad, for example.

Tuesday

So tomorrow, we’re cooking again, salmon, brussel sprouts, and Greek salad. Now what I’m going to write for myself on Tuesday is to chop extra salad veggies and wash extra lettuce. So I’m getting myself ready for again the rest of the week. So I’m just, you know good, to go for making lunches, for making the next dinner meal that I’m making, etc.

I’m just doing it because it makes things so much easier in the future. You think, oh, yeah, it’ll take me five minutes to wash. Let us all just wait till the next time I have to use it. No problem. But no, the next time you need to wash that lettuce is probably the day that you’re gonna say, Oh, screw it. I’m not gonna have a salad. It’s fine. I don’t have time to wash it. Let’s skip a salad. Am I right? Or am I right? I know I’m right. Because this happens to me too.

And I apologize for that background noise, I thought my phone was on vibrate. It now is. And I’m not cutting that out because this is real life. So the fact that you didn’t wash that lettuce that would have taken you five minutes to do now means that you’re not going to have a salad the next time you think about it. It’s like, ah, all those nutrients that you could be getting that you’re now going to miss out on… all because you didn’t take an extra five minutes now when you already are washing the lettuce to wash a little bit of extra and keep it in the fridge for you.

So think in the future as much as you can. And just do yourself a favor and do extra while you’re already doing it. And it doesn’t have to happen every time. But make yourself those little notes in your meal plan. If you think that you’ll need it for lunches for the rest of the week, and or another dinner. Okay, so just to review, Tuesday, tomorrow, we’re going to do salmon, brussel sprouts and Greek salad.

Wednesday

Now get this Wednesday is going to be Monday’s leftovers. So I’m assuming that we’re going to have leftover steak and green beans, probably not caesar salad, but that’s fine. And if we do have extra dressing awesome. I can make extra because remember, I washed extra lettuce and I cooked extra bacon on Monday. So I can totally make another caesar salad if I want to. Or just stick with the steak and green beans. That’s fine, too.

You don’t always have to have a salad. So Wednesday, we’re having Monday’s leftovers with who we don’t have to cook on Wednesday. Fantastic.

Thursday

Now, what about Thursday? Well, on Thursday, we’re going to have Tuesday’s leftovers. So again, we’re making extra if we need to. We’re making enough to have extra. We’re having salmon and brussel sprouts again, let’s say we only have salmon left over. That is okay, we can also do some spontaneity in the kitchen here. So we can have the rest of the salmon cold or you can cook it into something else for sure you can do that too. You can warm it up again. And you can have a different vegetable with it. Or you can have some brown rice with it. Or you can have some lentils or you can have some, I don’t know soup. It can be so many different options.

Truly, the options are endless. Just use some creativity and use Google because Google helps so much. And by the way, I want to say just to you now that Ben is so cute sleeping in my arms. I love it. I can stop rocking him now so I will stop. He is now sleeping. Okay. Well, he is now sleeping. So, Thursday we had Tuesday’s leftovers.

Friday

So we are now at Friday. And what we’re doing on Friday it was is we’re going to do slow cooker chicken and veggies and a mixed salad. Done. So we’re doing a slow cooker. Getting it ready in the morning.

Okay, I lied. He dropped a soother, he woke up a little bit, it’s all good.

So in the morning on Friday, we are putting chicken and vegetables into the slow cooker. And we’re going to have a mixed salad. So we’ll make that you know, three o’clock, four o’clock. Get ready for dinner at that point, take the stuff out of a slow cooker, and it is ready to go. So easy. And by the way, if you have time on Thursday, which you probably will because you’re having leftovers anyway, get your stuff ready for your slow cooker on Friday.

So get your chicken ready exactly how you want to put it into the slow cooker. So if it’s in the freezer, take it out, defrosted a bit, put it in the fridge overnight, get your veggies chopped, wash them and chop them. Just get them ready for the next morning because again, even if you think it’s gonna take me five minutes, and even if it does take you five minutes, that’s still planning to do. Bringing everything out doing it. On top of everything else you have to do in the morning.

And if you have kids or a kid who goes to school in the morning or daycare or preschool, you know that you don’t have endless amounts of time in the morning. Our time in our morning is very limited and if you have to go to a job, you don’t have endless time. If you have to go anywhere to drop your kids off, or go to an appointment or whatever, you don’t have endless time. Not one of us does. So, the more that you can prep, the better.

So this means meal planning and it means prepping my friend. Next week I want to talk with you about my Plan Shop Prep protocol. That this is my PSP protocol. So right now we’re talking about the planning part of it. The meal planning. But I want to tell you how we put it all together in our week because it makes everything flow really nicely for the week. And meal planning is one aspect of it. It’s the most important aspect but it’s just one aspect. So we will talk about the full plan shop prep protocol next week.

Weekly Recap

But for now, here we are talking about the most important part the mealtime. Okay, so now you’ve heard our full week. So now we know we are going to be cooking on Monday and Tuesday. But then we have a break for two days. And remember, notice that we planned to prep a little bit of extra while we’re cooking so that we have the salad stuff ready to go for the next time. And then our slow cooker is great for Friday’s because we do a bit of prep the night before or that morning. Just pop it in the slow cooker and bam, dinner on the table that evening.

Sometimes we’ll cook every other day instead. So instead of doing it on Monday, instead of cooking on Monday and Tuesday and then doing Wednesday, Thursday leftovers. On Tuesday, we will have Monday’s leftovers, and then we’ll cook on Wednesday. Then we’ll have those leftovers the next day on Thursday. Either way, meal planning does not have to be hard. In fact, it should be easy and take so much stress off your plate that you can’t imagine not doing it every week.

Choosing Foods

Now when it comes to actually what to write on your meal plan, as in which foods to be eating on the regular, I’d encourage you to keep that easy, too. So start with your protein. If you’re having meat, fish, eggs, legumes, which is like lentils, beans, peas, like chickpeas, for example, maybe some cheese, some dairy. So you’re starting with your protein, then you’re adding a side vegetable. And ideally, you’re adding a salad as well.

Now, we don’t always have a salad at all. And we also don’t always have a side vegetable. Sometimes it’s just the protein and the salad. Or it’s just the protein and the vegetable. Some days it’s just the protein and the starch because we are real people. So, sometimes it’s just salmon and rice. And that’s it, no vegetable at all, no vegetable to be seen. We tried to make that happen. And we do it usually, but not every time and that is totally fine. But if you can have all three, if you can have the protein and aside veg and the salad, that is the winning combination. But again, just aim for that as much as you can, does not have to be every time and isn’t every time for me either.

When you do have that combination, or even when your meal contains the right protein, the right good fat, because we know good fat is so healthy for us, the right fiber, which is what we get from our vegetables and any plant based foods have fiber. So when we have this combination, that protein of fat, and adding in the fiber, this will help to keep our blood sugar steady. It will feed and nourish us. It’ll give us energy and it’ll taste really good too.

And Don’t Forget the Fat

I know I just mentioned it but this is just to give you an example. This is where you’re adding butter for example or coconut oil to your cooked vegetables. So whenever I do cook vegetables, I’m doing butter, literally all of them, I add butter so it melts right on. I stir it in and I add sea salt. I’m using Real Salt. And so it’s whole real mineral sea salt, so all natural. It’s not table salt. It’s not the stuff that’s been manufactured and had stuff added to it. It is only salt and it is literally Real Salt that has other minerals besides just sodium chloride.

The fat can also come from the homemade salad dressing that you’re making. So maybe you made it with some beautiful olive oil. Yes you did. I’m looking at you. Keep it in your fridge. It lasts at least a week if not longer – it will last and freshness I should say and if you finish it sooner, awesome because that means that you had a lot of good fats. But when you have these types of good fats, use them my friend and you don’t even have to have a salad to use that salad dressing. Just pour it on your chicken, pour it on your salmon, whatever. Make it delicious. Don’t be afraid of the fat.

And in fact, don’t forget the fat. We want more of it than we usually have. I would say for most of us. And what about creativity? Well, I think you’re going to like this answer too, you don’t need it. Simply decide which protein you want. And then my friend, Google some recipes. Yeah, do the same for the vegetable and the salad. And for the vegetable, often, all you need to do is steam it, saute it, or roast it, and then add butter and salts like I do. And it’s so delicious. Easy. Fast. You don’t have to think about it.

Google It!

And yeah, use Google like that is where it’s at. Don’t think you have to create new recipes, ever, all the time, or actually ever, and use what other people have already created. They’ve done the experimenting. Awesome. So if you’re like, you know what, I’m gonna have some brussels sprouts. Laura said on Tuesday, she had salmon with brussel sprouts. Awesome. Go look up Brussels sprout recipe. Let’s say you want a butter Brussels sprout or an olive oil based. Or maybe you want to go crazy and have a cheesy or a cream sauce based brussels sprouts, which is what we usually have at Thanksgiving over here on our farm and it’s delicious.

Go and Google it and do it. Why not? So you yourself don’t have to recreate if you just Google it. And you can also Google what to have with so you can say salmon with and then it will fill in the blanks for you. So if you’re like what the heck vegetable should I have today? Or for this week? What should I buy for this week? Hint, that’s coming up next week talking about the shopping part of it. But if you’re like, What should I buy this week for a vegetable, just Google it. Good vegetable ideas. Good vegetables with chicken, good salad with salmon. I keep talking about the same things salmon and chicken. But you know, those are just easy examples to use. Google that, my friend. Okay, just go Google it.

Keep it easy and fun

And that’s that. Don’t make it hard on yourself. I hope that you see how easy and fun actually meal planning can be and how much stress it takes off your plate. Because nobody’s got time for extra stress or overwhelm. Thank you very much. And if I can help you in the kitchen to relieve that, then I am one happy camper. So I hope this does help you take the time this week to plan out your meals. If you’re listening to this on the day it comes out. It’s already Monday. But it’s not. It’s not too late, my friend, you can still decide what you’re going to have tonight. What you’re going to have for the rest of the week. And don’t forget to use those leftovers because those are real life. And you should, why should we have to cook five days a week and decide what we’re going to make five times? I don’t think so.

Weekends

And by the way, I haven’t even mentioned weekends. And that’s because we don’t plan for our weekends because they’re up in the air. We’re going to be at family’s house, maybe we’re gonna have some friends over. Maybe you know, we’re going to be on the run. So we don’t plan for our weekends because those are more spontaneous for us typically. And it’s nice to have that spontaneity and not to always have a plan. But Monday through Friday are pretty typical. And so it’s nice to have that plan.

Change Is Ok

And the last thing I will say is even though you’ve made that plan, don’t think that you can’t change it. Don’t think that well shoot, we’re having chicken tonight, so we can’t we can’t have that steak that you brought home sweetie. No, if you brought home steak, and he wants a steak, and you want the steak, have the steak. The chicken can wait till the next day. These meal plans are very fluid and very flexible and they should be.

The important thing is that you have the plan in the first place so that when mealtime comes and you don’t have hubby coming home from the store with the steak, you’ve got the chicken ready because that’s what you plan for. And that is the name of the game.

So I hope this has helped you. Let me know what you meal plan for. If you do Monday through Friday, if you do every single day of the week, if you stick to your plan, or if you veer from your plan. I want to know everything.

So go to my Instagram. Look for the post with this podcast episode number 30 on it and write a comment below the post because I want to hear from you all about your meal planning thoughts, questions, and tips because we could all use extra tips. So leave those there and I will talk to you soon my friend. Have an amazing week nd don’t forget to get your free copy of my new mama energy guide.

Just go to bit.li/new mamas for instant access. Thanks for listening to the Love and Lettuce podcast! To find out how to work with me and for more great info, check out newmamanation.com This is Laura. Until next time, love and lettuce.