Reverse Meal Planning for a Peaceful Week

Plan your work, work your plan

This is a favorite piece of advice from my mom. Reverse meal planning is all about setting yourself up to succeed so that when things get busy you can simply follow the plan! How do I do this every week? I start by figuring out what we have and need to use. This is the “reverse” part of the meal plan. I structure our meals each week around using up the food we have or things I’ve found on sale recently. I check out our neighborhood grocery store for grass-fed meats on sale, we buy local, seasonal produce, and I also buy pantry staples in bulk. 

How to reverse meal plan

1. Find out what you have: for me, this is done in conjunction with a fridge and freezer clean out. I pull everything out and wipe down the shelves and walls of the fridge. Then I assess what needs to be eaten, what’s running low, and what needs to be composted or thrown out. I keep my meal plan printable nearby so I can jot down a list for my shop and note what we already have.
2. Next it’s time to sit down with some inspiration and think about dinners. For this step, I will pull out a few favorite cookbooks, open Pinterest, and reference my own recipe notebook.
3. I start my reverse meal planning by considering the foods we already have, what sounds good, and what will make sense for our week. For example, if I know it’s a busy week, I will lean into sheet pan, crockpot, or one-pot dinners. If I have a whole chicken in my freezer, I might bake the entire thing for night one and then make soup with the rest on night two.
4. As I’m scheduling these meals, I will note kitchen to-dos for the week. This is where I list things like: make greek yogurt, sharpen knives, use up sourdough discard, or roast red peppers for salads. Keeping a list of these to-dos helps me to stay organized and prepping beforehand makes meals so much faster and easier.
5. Finally, it is time to work your plan. Go to the store and stick to your list. Take note of which recipes were well received and how long they took to make. Learn from your mistakes each week so that you can become a better planner!

Tips for reverse meal planning

Get help

My husband enjoys cooking with me most nights, but once a week I ask him to take over as head chef for a meal. For this night he chooses the recipe and I serve as his sous chef. This is a fun change up for both of us and takes a little pressure off me as the typical head chef. You can also incorporate this principle with your older children or have a boys or girls cook night. These kinds of nights help to keep things fresh for everyone and make sure the whole household knows how to whip up a good meal.

Schedule a leftovers or restaurant night

Trust me this is for your sanity. If the budget allows, a weekly or biweekly meal out will take some pressure off the meal plan. And/or, a leftovers night towards the end of the week is a great way to take a break from cooking and clear out the fridge.

Be flexible

I know I just told you to plan your work, but you also need to roll with the punches to make this happen. This can look like: moving meals around if something else sounds good/there’s a great sale, taking a leftover day mid-week to clear out the fridge before making more food, diving into your larder for a pantry staples dinner if you run out of groceries sooner than expected.

You are more creative than you think

Facing a tight budget, narrow grocery options, picky eaters, or time limitations can be challenging, but you can and will rise to the occasion! When my mindset is limited, I find that I am limited. So allowing myself to face challenges with a mind open to possibilities is essential to making reverse meal planning.

Kitchen Prep Ideas

There are so many things you can prep in the kitchen to keep on hand so that your week runs smoother. I find that when I think through what I would like to have handy and make it, I am less likely to eat processed food or order out! When I’m reverse meal planning, I like to prep things ahead of time to have homemade staples ready to use. This means everything comes together quicker and easier come mealtime. Here are a few things I like to keep around:

• sourdough granola
• sourdough bread crumbs
• sourdough croutons
• sourdough cookie dough (I keep it in the freezer!)
• homemade bone broth
• Greek yogurt
• Sweet tea with lemon
• brown sugar syrup (for coffee)
• Labneh
• sourdough pie crust (keep in the freezer)

INSPIRATION FOR REVERSE MEAL PLANNING

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