It’s that time of year again… the first day of school is fast approaching, and we have to think about back to school meals.

For a lot of mums, it’s not so much about the act of cooking – it’s the planning that really sends us for a loop. Figuring out what to make day after day that everyone (or mostly everyone) likes and is nutritious (or mostly nutritious) often seems like a monumental task, so here are 3 steps you can follow to get this job done quickly and painlessly.

1. Make a calendar 

The first step for planning back to school meals is making a calendar. You can use an app, or you can grab a sheet of paper and pen and list the days in the week ahead. I like to use Google Calendar because I believe the more apps you use for your planning, the less likely you are to keep up with it. Plus, it’s a great way to share everything with my better half.

Note any days where there are appointments, sports practices or other tasks that will conflict with your usual cooking time. These are going to be the days you plan to make something quick, like a Crockpot meal or an easy pasta dish. If it’s an extra-busy day, you can pull some of your batch cooking meals out of the freezer – make a note the day before so you don’t forget to thaw it!

2. Create the plan

Check your pantry and fridge to see what you have to use up, especially things that may be expiring soon, and use these as the basis of your plan for the week ahead. You can also look at what’s on sale at the grocery store to make a budget-minded meal plan. 

Write down what your family will eat each day on the calendar you made in the last step, taking care to include some variety. If you know you’re pulling chili out of the freezer on Thursday because you’ll be picking your daughter up from piano lessons close to dinnertime, you might want to opt for a chicken dish rather than something else bean-based on Wednesday and Friday, for example.

If you have absolutely no time at all to cook during the week, then your plan should also include a prep day. When this happens, I like for this to coincide with my shopping day whenever possible so I can start prepping as soon as I get things home and before I start arranging the fridge. Do your chopping for the week ahead, portion out your meat, and get a head start on sauces and baked goods. 

My preferred way of making headway for busier days is to simply make more or prep more of what I am making. It takes less time and is less overwhelming. A few examples include: boiling a few extra eggs, preparing 2 extra toasties, doubling the soup I am making, or chopping a bulb of garlic as opposed to one clove.

3. Make your grocery list

With the meal plan in front of you, it’s time to make your shopping list. You might have an app that will generate this automatically based on the recipes you’re making, but you’ll still need to tweak it based on what you already have. And don’t forget to include things like breakfast foods, bathroom items, cleaning products, snacks and fruit. Those last-minute trips to the store for forgotten items can really mess up your day!

If you’re shopping in person, it makes sense to get into the habit of ordering your list according to where the items are placed in the store, or at least group similar items together. Bringing an ordered list and sticking to it helps you save money in the store and get out of there faster.

I like to order groceries online as it’s much quicker. Having all those items we buy regularly (cue the breakfast foods, bathroom items and so on mentioned above) in my favourites list means I can place all of them in my shopping cart in just a few minutes.

If you’re never planned back to school meals before, it might take a while the first time you do it, but you’ll quickly get into the habit and will be regularly churning out those weekly meal plans in under 20 minutes before you know it!