It seems like we were just celebrating the end of school. From packing up the backpack for the last day of school to taking the end-of-school year comparison pictures and celebrating graduations and milestones in between, it felt like an endless summer before us.
And now, we’re just weeks away from the start of a new school year. Whether summer felt long for you and your family, it’s time to start thinking about the routine and what’s to come when the books open again this fall.
Of course, one of the best parts of summer is the lack of a schedule. It’s easy to fall into the routine of not having a routine, which can make getting back into it feel a little bit harder. The school year schedule means you have set dinner times, either preceded or followed by practices, homework, games, and friends. Moving to a more precise schedule after letting it flow all summer long can be hard.
Suddenly, the old ways of surfing the fridge to find an assembly of items for dinner just doesn’t cut it anymore. You need a new way to get through the week – so that your weekend intentions become your reality when Wednesday’s fatigue finally hits. This is the back-to-school system that you need.
Play Calendar Tetris First
It’s tempting to just sit down and start to think about what recipes sound good for the week ahead. But, this can quickly turn into a flop if you don’t think about what’s on the calendar.
Returning to school means meet and greets and intro sessions, and a return to the practices and games that were mostly gone from your summer schedule. Each of these takes up valuable time, some of which eats into planning and getting dinner on the table.
Step 1: Look at the calendar for the week ahead. What’s coming up? What takes you out of the house before, during, and after dinner? Are there busy nights that would be better served with leftovers? Note these on your menu first.
Clear Out the Pantry
Last school year’s snacks have likely overlived their shelf life, so get them out. Clear out the clutter – you know, the ingredients that you thought you would use, but never got around to it. (I have a jar of pesto that really sounded delicious one hunger-fueled night at the grocery store, but it just never made it to a plate. We all something like a jar of pesto in our pantry.)
With the pantry clear, you could take it to the next level and organize it. Not mandatory, especially if it adds more stress. But maybe, with those expired and unnecessary foods out of there, it’ll make it a little easier.
Step 2: Get your pantry ready for a new school year with the snacks that top the list, and the ingredients that you actually need.
Build an Emergency Buffer in Your Kitchen
Every time my parents come to visit, my dad makes spaghetti. It’s the best (there’s nothing better than someone cooking for you, am I right?).
Instead of living off the leftovers for the next week, I have a few different containers (that I may or may not have bought specifically for freezing his spaghetti sauce) that I fill and put in the freezer. This has become my “we forgot we had a play date tonight and need a quick dinner first” meal.
I also have a few frozen pizzas and some leftovers from some crockpot meals in the freezer for those just in case nights.
Step 3: Get your emergency buffer ready. Have some meals at the ready for a quick warm up to eat while you’re in-between evening events. And, don’t forget to be ready for that surprise bake sale – nobody will judge you for having a box of brownie mix in the pantry in the event for such emergency.
Build Your Meal Planning Strategy
That feeling at 3 p.m. when you realize you haven’t figured out dinner gets old, real fast, especially at the start of the school year. As summer winds down, now is the perfect time to think about how you’ll plan for meals this year.
Weekly Table offers an all-in-one tool for your recipes, meal plan, and grocery lists. Use your recipes or ours, and get a weekly meal plan – ready for you when you need it. The grocery list? It’s automatically created and organized to how you actually shop in the store.
Step 4: Find your meal planning strategy. With Weekly Table, you can start by planning a few dinners this week – and adjust to what makes sense for you and your family. The meal plans meet you where you are with the recipes your family actually wants to eat.
Skip the Sunday Meal Prep – and Meal Prep Smarter
Let’s face it, once the school year is in session; time with your kids gets more limited. Who wants to spend an entire Sunday meal planning and prepping veggies for the week? Not me.
As you start cooking meals for the week, find ways where you can cook an extra cup of rice for tomorrow night’s dinner or chop a few veggies for the salad later in the week. Doing it while you’re cooking makes it feel less intrusive to your day, and helps you get it done when you already need to clean up the kitchen.
Step 5: Skip the Sunday meal prep and do it as you go – using your meal plan for the week to tell you what to focus on. From pre-cooking rice and meats, to chopping veggies and getting them ready, it’ll save your sanity (and time) when it comes to the 5 p.m. dinner rush the next night.
The True Key to the Back-to-School Dinner System That Nobody Talks About
A successful dinner system, especially when juggling new schedules at the start of the school year, doesn’t have to be perfect. It just must be a system that can work for you and your family. Maybe it’s using a system like Weekly Table. Maybe it’s a paper-based system where you write it out by hand. Whatever it is, find a dinner system that helps to cut down your stress – even just by a smidge.
Celebrate your wins and give yourself grace. Get excited when you follow the plan, and you don’t hear any complaints about what’s for table that night. And, give yourself some grace when things don’t go as planned. After all, that’s just part of life – and know that the right systems in place can help you pick up right where you left off and take the stress off your plate once again.
Ready to get your back-to-school dinner system in place? Get started with your free trial and see what Weekly Table can do for you.
