Find meal plan inspiration and bust through meal plan boredom
Have you hit a meal planning wall? I did but revisited some trusty sources to find some meal plan inspiration.
Yes, here I am with a meal planning business, and at many moments, I am tired of thinking about dinner. Especially now.
Over. Done. Beat. Those thoughts often creep into my mind when I think about our meals. But I need to keep at it and I know you do too.
What’s keeping me motivated?
It’s rising to the small challenge of finding new ideas (or new takes on the familiar) for my family. While I do this, I hope I can help some of you along the way.
Sources of Meal Plan Inspiration
I consume (no pun intended) lots of cooking related content and I have come up with systems to track these ideas. This helps tremendously for streamlining the meal plan process. Even when I don’t follow a recipe entirely, varied sources of recipe ideas help lift my brain out of a cooking fog.
Finding Inspiration in Downtime
I enjoy cooking and trying new foods and techniques and find that browsing food related content in paper and digital forms helps with my inspiration.
Understandably, this may not be how YOU want to spend your time. We can help with a personal meal plan; just submit this TasteProfile to learn more.
Browsing through a huge stack of cookbooks (from my collection or the library) is one of my favorite ways to get re-motivated. I love small post-its to mark recipes that look promising.
I like doing this while watching a show or with a few minutes of downtime. Later, when I have time or want to be in front of my computer I’ll add these to my meal plan spreadsheet.
Reviewing Saved Emails and Facebook Since I am interested in cooking and meal prep I subscribe to digital content. Two of my favorite food sites are The Kitchn and Bon Appetit. Cooking New York Times is another favorite; it’s a paid site, but worth it for me.
To avoid email clutter, my food newsletters are filtered into one folder in my gmail account. I “star” those with recipes that look promising.
I also follow many food related sites on Facebook (and end up with many other paid posts in my feed). I save promising posts to a dedicated food tab when something looks interesting.
Once it comes time to plan, I go back to my folders and mark these in my meal planning spreadsheet.
Other Sources of Meal Plan Inspiration
Input from the family Last week, each member of the family (except the dog), weighed in too. I handed everyone post-its and a cookbook and asked them to select ideas. Figure, this will yield to less (potential) complaining AND take some of the planning load.
My notes I keep a tab of favorite meals and things to try on my meal plan spreadsheet. While doing my plans I review this. At least two of those recipes will be in rotation shortly. I’m also updating it with input from the sources above so that this list remains fresh and handy in the year ahead.
Steps forward
And just like that, these are helping me move forward with my meal plans. By taking the first steps I feel more energized about dinner in the year ahead. I hope I have helped you as well.
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