In our house, dinner is often discussed over breakfast. The dreaded question, "What do you want for dinner?" usually elicits a heavy sigh. Despite being farmers and enthusiastic home cooks with access to a wide variety of meats and seasonal vegetables, meal planning isn't any easier for us than it may be for you!
One tool that can help is our weekly meal planning sheet. We use it to map out meals and plan for leftovers, then make a list of what we need to pick-up at farmers' market and the grocery store. Here's a copy in black & white or in color.
Try printing one every Sunday to start planning for the following week. Order the meat & eggs you need from us by Thursday at 9AM and then bring it along to farmers' market to pick-up everything else!
A few other suggestions-
Begin defrosting meat for the week on Sunday to avoid day of meal prep panic. Pull all the meat you'll be using in recipes throughout the week and corral it in a shallow glass baking dish or bowl placed on the lowest shelf of your fridge.
Choose recipes that use what you may already have on hand or in your freezer. Rather than selecting yummy recipes at random, consider what the recipes have in common. For instance, could you cook a whole chicken that is first served with roasted potatoes, then as chicken pot pie and finally as an egg drop soup? You can find ideas by filtering our recipes by ingredient (just below the header) or by visiting us on Pinterest.
Prep as you plan, looking at your week's menu identify items that you can prep in advance. These might include chopped or sauteed onions, garlic, grated cheese, or that whole chicken that will be the mainstay of your week's menu.
Stay flexible, I know (I know!) you may not feel like eating what you've planned for next week. Consider starting with recipes your household loves and that you know utilize common ingredients. For example, we always have a pack of hamburger buns in the freezer, just like we always have parmasean cheese in the fridge and breadcrumbs in the cupboard. Those staples can facilitate a menu change from hamburgers to italian meatballs on the fly.
Last year a number of folks on Instagram shared that they create "meat lite" recipes substituting our eggs for other meats. Instead of making beef or goat chorizo tacos, they use seasoned scrambled eggs!
