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Ultimate Mom's Meal Planner

Meal planner - making life easier!

Why plan your family's meals?

meal planner Well, there are hundreds of reasons! I have planned meals for my family for more than 15 years, and have always enjoyed the peace that comes from knowing what will be on the table for breakfast, lunch and supper.

The biggest reason in this day and age is that it is economical. It is actually cheaper to plan and purchase according to a specific list Why? Well, let’s see…

~ You avoid convenience foods which are expensive, create excess waste disposal and are normally packed with preservatives which affect your health.

~ By staying out of the shops you are not tempted to buy more than what you need and always give into whimsical purchases. You also save on petrol and on time.

~ As far as possible, without making it a burden to busy moms, I have given you recipes to “cook from scratch” – another sure way to save money and not compromise health!

~ Another benefit of cooking your meals from scratch (or as close to it as you can get) is that you create a “kitchen ethos”. You have to create time in your day to spend in your kitchen and having your children as they help you prepare the food causes a wonderful time of fellowship to spring up in your day.

~ Other benefits to this meal planner are that I have indicated where you can double up recipes and freeze them. A freezer meal on a busy evening can be a saving grace! Doubling quantities (even though not every night) saves on electricity and time too!

~ If this is not enough for you, then I have planned meals that will save you even more money…you will find that there are 2 meatless meals every week. Don’t worry, I am not turning you into an unwilling vegetarian…they are tasty and easy to prepare and by not using meat in these meals you will be saving money!

Just wanted to let you know that your menu planner is FANTASTIC.

I am busy baking bread - hasn’t happened to often in my life)

There really are some lovely ideas and I especially love planning the evening before and knowing what is happening tomorrow.

Also everything is quick and easy to make which is right up my alley because I really am not the biggest “kitchen person” and prefer to be in and out as quickly as possible. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Lisa, mom to 2

My meal planner is slightly different to others out there. Firstly, I believe that children from as young as toddlers should be involved in meal preparation. This allows for so many skills to develop – fine motor skills, planning, problem solving, language, co-operation, team work and on the list goes.

So you will see that each meal has a helping hand logo which gives you prompts for where your children can help you. Initially it will be slower for you to prepare the meal like this, with your little chefs alongside, but as they grow and learn the skill you will be immensely glad that you took the time to train them now.

I have also included breakfast, lunch and cookie jar recipes for you over and above your dinner recipes. I have 4 children and have noticed that they eat a lot – LoL – and not only at dinner! We have to provide 3 squares a day – don’t we?! And in between meals I like to have some treats to offer them that are homemade and healthy.

They also love a weekly dessert which in our home is a once a week treat!

Other meal planners out there offer you dinner plans only and often only for 6 days. You have a full 7 days of meals for 3 months. I have broken this into two sections – 6 weeks of winter meals and 6 weeks of summer meals.

This means that you will eat the same meals only after 6 weeks in summer or winter. But this does not mean you cannot eat through the winter meals in summer as well and vice versa.

You will find that your meals range from family favourites, to interesting Indonesian, spicy Mexican to traditional South African, scrumptious Italian to many others! All of them are guaranteed to be tasty, easy to prepare and have been given the thumbs up by moms around the world who reviewed and tested this planner with their family.