Last month, I began feeling insanely overwhelmed. Part of that overwhelmed feeling was because I was coming off the summer. As a youth pastor’s family, our summers are in & out, so getting back to the routine of being home was … let’s just use the word ‘difficult.’

One of the biggest things I was struggling in were mealtimes. Especially the dinner hour.

I’ve always been one to meal plan. And when I say always, I mean usually. Like 9 weeks out of 10. So that’s practically always, right? But even that was beginning to take sooo long. And I felt like I didn’t have time even to plan out my dinners!

However, I stumbled upon a method that is working amazingly well. It’s called the 2 week plan.

Original.

We’re doing it. And loving it.

Every 2 weeks we eat the same exact thing for dinner. I checked with my husband before implementing this and he was totally on board. The only thing we aren’t switching up is our Friday meal. Which is duhh, homemade pizza. {crust recipe here + white sauce recipe here}

If you’re looking to make a meal plan like this, I strongly recommend thinking through your schedule first. Like this:

Sunday: our busiest meal, so I utilize the crockpot.
Monday: my cleaning + main laundry day. Which means I usually shower late. Eggs are fast, so we eat bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches or breakfast burritos and salad.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays: days when I usually have more time to cook. So I just put some of our favorites in those slots.
Wednesday: My husband is involved with our teen outreach during dinner, so the kids and I eat a fast dinner of quesadillas after their naps and meet up with the youth group.

This has saved me so much time and sanity! I don’t have to meal plan every week! Or think of new options! Has my overuse of exclamation marks proved my love for this system yet?!?!

Here are 3 ways this has helped me:

• it saves time planning.
  • instead of making new meal plans every week/month, I just use the one I’ve already made.
• it saves time shopping.
  • because we’re eating the same things every 2 weeks, I’m also shopping for the same things every 2 weeks. Or I could get smart and shop once a month. But I don’t have enough pantry space for that. Whatevs. It’s not like I live an hour from the grocery store.
• it saves money.
  • my husband isn’t getting frantic texts about needing to go out to grab the sub special from Harris Teeter anymore. Now it’s Chipotle. okay, I’m kidding. Yeah, actually, we haven’t even gone out for dinner in several weeks. Clearly I don’t have anything against going out to eat. Let’s get that down in permanent marker. But I’m not a big fan of going out to eat only because I forgot to plan dinner. And let’s face it, Harris Teeter has some kickin’ subs. But anything eaten several times in a row is bound to get b-o-r-i-n-g.

Wondering what recipes we use? I’ll share some of my faves + fave recipe sources later this week!

This post is part of the 31 day Simplify Series.
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