We’re well into January 2015 now which means many of us will have put our New Year’s resolutions into action. Was meal planning one of your resolutions? If not and you find cooking dinner for the family is somewhat of an afterthought (franticly rushing around the kitchen panicking about what to cook, whilst everyone is hungry in the next room), meal planning can make a HUGE difference!
I swear by meal plans! They’re an excellent way of organising my meals and my kitchen stocks ahead of each week. With fresh produce having a ‘best before’ date, I don’t want to buy lots (with good intentions) and then not have enough time to cook them before they go bad. Meal plans have really helped me reduce food wastage, and has helped keep my weekly shopping costs low as I only buy what I need each week.
Meal plans don’t need to be complicated either. Simply learn to cook a few meals well and rotate them. This way there’ll always be variety in your family’s diet, and by cooking these meals over and over again, you’ll start cooking them quickly saving you valuable time as well.
So to help out, I’m giving away FREE meal planners to My Baba readers. Each meal plan is reflective of the feeding stage your child is at so you can plan each meal or snack for the week. To download for free simply click on the link relevant to your family, save and print. Then stick it on your fridge and populate it with your meals for the week.
- Babies: 7 months – 12 months (3 healthy balanced meals per day)
- Toddlers: 12 months – 2 years (3 healthy balanced meals and 2 snacks per day)
- Weekly family meals (includes after school snack planning)
Article written by Zainab Jagot Ahmed, author of award-winning Easy Indian SuperMeals for Babies, Toddlers and the Family available to buy now from Amazon and Waters tones (RRP £14.99).