Meal Planning and Organization

I find the key to successful meal planning is being organized in the kitchen. Working at PlantPure, teaching our kids how to cook, writing cookbooks, and teaching cooking classes have forced me to organize myself in ways I never thought possible. Here are a few personal strategies and habits that make my job and life easier (and can save money, too!):
Clean out your refrigerator weekly.


This gives you the opportunity to use up or discard older food and organize your space to make room for new produce. There’s nothing worse than arriving home with bags of groceries and no place to store them. And if your refrigerator is packed full, most likely there is something rotting somewhere in the chaos.
Make a meal plan for the week. Plan meals that allow you to eat all the produce and other food in your refrigerator. Include the kids in this step and even assign them a meal or two to plan and prepare.


Choose a few recipes that you can cook in larger quantities, such as casseroles, soups, and stews, so that you have leftovers for lunch or busy evenings.