Meal Prep Made Easy: Time & Stress Saving Strategies for Busy Parents

Meal Prep Made Easy: Time & Stress Saving Strategies for Busy Parents
Monday, April 7, 2025 by Becky Cerling Powers

Saving strategies We’re all tired by late afternoon – kids, Mom, Dad. Everyone’s blood sugar is low. Everyone’s cranky. Everyone’s tired.

It takes all your energy and willpower just to be patient with anyone and talk nicely.

It’s the worst time to make an important decision – like what’s for dinner.

But there are two good solutions for avoiding Suppertime Stress: knowing ahead of time what you’re going to serve for dinner and ensuring that the supplies for making it are on hand.

#1: The 1st solution is the 10 o’clock rule.

Decide what you will make for dinner by 10 a.m. if you will be home during the day. That way, you can thaw meat or other frozen ingredients. And you won’t have to make the decision when you’re tired.

If you won't be home during the day, decide by 10 p.m. the night before. That way, you can start any frozen ingredients to thaw in the refrigerator overnight, and you won’t have to make the decision when you’re tired.

Simply knowing what you’ll make for dinner ahead of time avoids Suppertime Stress.

#2 The second solution is to make a Favorite Family Meal List (and eventually a Master Meal Plan).

The 10 o’clock rule is a breeze when you use the second solution: check the Favorite Family Meal List and/or the Master Meal Plan.

First, list all the main meals your family likes to eat. Keep it somewhere handy and add to it as you try new recipes they enjoy.

If that seems like too much, write down 7 meals your family likes (spaghetti, tacos, etc.) and tape the list inside a kitchen cabinet. Then, as days pass, jot down more meals as you think of them. Eventually, you will have a usable list for making a master meal plan.

Place your list inside a 3-ring binder and use it once a week or once a month to plan your meals for the week or month.

Keep the binder with your recipe books. As you develop a system that works well for you, you can add other ideas and organizational features over time.

In my 3-ring binder, I keep lists like these:

· All the ground beef recipes my family likes
· All the chicken recipes they like
· All the meatless meals they like, etc. etc.
· (and when our kids were still all at home, I kept a list of every recipe our family liked that our oldest son was not in any way allergic to – because he had allergies to wheat, potatoes, rice and all legumes)
· A checklist of basic supplies I need to keep on hand in the pantry

Before my husband started his own business, he was paid once a month.

I used the master list to make a monthly meal plan.

Then, I made one major grocery shopping expedition after payday based on the monthly meal plan.

Today, a lot of grocery stores will deliver groceries.

That saves even more time – as long as you know which meals you plan to make for the week or month.

(You’ll also save time shopping if you train your family to keep track of supplies they are running out of on a list posted somewhere handy, like the refrigerator.)

If you bog down on making a weekly or monthly meal plan, you can still use your Favorite Family Meal List to help you decide what’s for supper. By 10 o’clock!

The hardest part of meal preparation is deciding what to serve.

When everyone is tired and hungry, late afternoon is the worst possible time to face decisions.

If you already know what you’re going to serve, you can pitch in and do the work without having to think clearly.

A lot of family life revolves around food:

· Buying it
· Storing it
· Preparing it
· Serving it
· Eating it
· & Cleaning up the mess it leaves behind

Streamlining the daily process of feeding the family makes life smoother.

Becky Cerling Powers is the author of Sticky Minds: Quick Reads for Helping Kids Thrive, a Bathroom Book for people who want to be better parents but live such busy lives that they hardly have time to figure out how.

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