THIS MESSAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY COLLARD KALE 2020

#CollardKale2020

If you’re looking to save both time and money when it comes to putting healthy, nutritious, and delicious meals on the table for you and your family, the best way to go about it is through meal planning. Meal planning will make it easy for you to achieve all of the above plus, it takes out the stress of your weekday afternoons and evenings because you won’t be scrambling to figure out what to cook for dinner and making a quick trip to the grocery store for the ingredients.

Browse through our collection of 100s of great recipes that incorporate our greens and veggies by clicking here!

Save Time & Money at the Grocery Store

Two huge benefits of meal planning come at the grocery store—by walking in with a shopping list and a plan, you’re less likely to spend extraneous time wandering up and down the aisle of the store and inevitably adding additional, unnecessary items to your cart. You’ll browse the aisles with ease as you put just what you need in your cart and head to the checkout line quicker than ever before.

Reduce Your Weeknight Stress

Meal planning ensures that you, and everyone in the family, knows what’s on tap for the week when it comes to dinner. You won’t be sidetracked at work as you try to think of something for dinner that everyone will love and you won’t be trying to squeeze in a quick trip to the grocery store—during the busy afterwork hours—on your way home.

Make It a Family Activity

Start your kids out young in regards to educating them about great snack and meal choices by involving them in your weekly meal planning session. You can take a look at the calendar together as you map out your family’s activities for the week and determine which meals you’ll be gathering around the table for as a family. Having everyone’s input can seem daunting but in reality, you’ll be giving everyone a voice in making sure that some of their favorite meals make it into the rotation, too. This will save you sibling squabbles and complaints of “but I didn’t want that for dinner!” during the week since everyone will know ahead of time what to expect. Who wouldn’t want to save that time for extra family bonding time?

But how exactly do you go about meal planning to save time and money in a world that’s already crazy busy and constantly on the go? Here’s a few tips and tricks that we have for making meal planning as quick and easy as possible.

• Create a Recipe File

Sit down and create a file somewhere—it can be a recipe box, a recipe binder, or even on Pinterest—of all of you and your family’s favorite recipes. You can sort them by type of meat included, the type of meal (salad, soup, pasta, etc), or even by time it takes to make. Having this handy will make the process go faster because you’ll have everything you need in one spot. All you have to do then is pick 5-7 recipes, jot down the ingredients, and then your meal plan is ready! 

• Set Aside Time for Your Weekly Grocery Shopping

Whether you choose to use a shopping service or you go to the store yourself, set aside a designated time each week. Preferably, it’s a less popular time to shop so that you or your shopper can get in and out of the store even quicker! 

• Keep Your Pantry & Freezer Stocked

Save money in your overall grocery shopping budget by keeping an eye out for your most commonly used ingredients going on sale at the store. Even though you might not need that ingredient this week, you might next week, and you’ll be glad that you got it on sale ahead of time. It has the added benefit of also saving you a trip to the store in a pinch. If you need to substitute a different meal during the week than what you had scheduled, it’s easier to do with a well-stocked pantry than with one that is depleted. 

Happy meal planning and shopping, friends! Tag us in your photos and your videos as you tackle meal planning together with your family or in the meals that you’re making each week by using @naturesgreens. We’d love to see what you’re up to in your kitchen!