Maybe you think you don’t have time to sit down and plan two weeks’ worth of meals. But when you plan 14 menus at once, you eliminate the nightly need to figure out what’s for dinner after a hard day at work. Having dinner either cooking (in your slow cooker) or crying out for you in the refrigerator (a leftover) is a way to increase your life span and decrease your heart rate! That sounds a little extreme, but it’s true.
Many people want to save time, but spending a little time at the beginning often pays off. Check out these benefits of menu planning:
Taking control of mealtime and your evenings: When you plan your meals a week at a time, you have so much more time to do what you’d really like to be doing, and enthusiasm to present your family with the absolute best meals in town.
Improving your family’s health: Menu planning will improve overall health and establish good eating habits for younger children as well as tweak eating habits for the rest of the family. Lowering sodium and saturated fat while increasing fiber in the diet does wonders for overall health and wellness.
Saving money: Planning saves money. Who doesn’t want to give the food budget some relief, especially when times are tight? Follow these tips to make your dollars stretch:
Take advantage of sales and coupons.
Make a list.
Don’t overbuy.
Make wise use of leftovers.
Buy in-season produce.
Consider canned and frozen options.
