How I MEAL PLAN for the WHOLE YEAR in less than 3 Hours | MEAL PLAN for 2021 with me!

Say What!?!?! Yep, it's true, I meal plan for my entire year every December. This time, I decided to time the entire process and show you exactly how I do it. Why do I plan out my menu this way? I'm so glad you asked. I'll answer all of your questions about the crazy way I meal plan in this video... and I'll let you be the judge of if I'm crazy or not :)
//Meal Planning Gear I Use
Amy Knapp Big Grid Calendar: amzn.to/3aIGowu
Purple Pens: amzn.to/3rnS3Xv
Revive Cafe Cookbooks: amzn.to/2KRZSnl
Vegan Yum Yum Cookbook: amzn.to/3rnS6Tb
Excel Spreadsheet (Google Docs could also work): amzn.to/3pi1Egk
//Resources
Ultimate Meal Planning Workbook: makingtimeforgiggles.ck.page/4f6513ca36
Daily Block Schedule Template and Checklists: makingtimeforgiggles.ck.page/5521aa2d0e
//One-On-One Coaching Programs | Work With Me!
I'd love to help you create your own Meal Plan: makingtimeforgiggles.com/set-it-and-forget-it-meal-planning/
//NEW Routines Printable
7 Routines Every Mom Should Have: makingtimeforgiggles.com/7-routines-workbook/
//About Me
I write about making life simple for moms through decluttering, meal planning, budgeting, and routines at makingtimeforgiggles.com/. Subscribe to the channel for more videos about Simplifying MomLife.
This description may contain affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission if you purchase from the link, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
0:00 Intro
1:04 Why I Meal Plan for the Whole Year
5:33 Meal Planning Tools
8:59 How To Meal Plan Your Year
21:30 How Much Time Did It Take?
Music: Epidemic Sound
#MealPlanning #MealPlanningforMoms #MinimalistMom

[@kassyeichele]

What do you guys think? You want to give it a try?!

[@kimberbeardsley156]

I did this 40 years ago when I went overseas on a mission, and bought my groc at Costco to ship over in one of my containers of building supplies, I was hooked and felt the peace of having a full pantry.

[@kassyeichele]

What a cool story! It would work well for something where you have to buy everything ahead of time, I never thought of that before! Where did you go on your overseas mission?

[@mayhemschild]

Special K casserole and Haystacks. Two of my faves! Your calendar is inspiring.

[@rp2099]

Yesterday, I stood at the self checkout in our local grocery store and for once in my life I was like 😳 "What am I doing spending $43.00 on a dinner meal!?" Now I'm here 😊 HELP!

[@kassyeichele]

Yeah, that's a lot for one meal! Unless you have a lot of people in your family 😊 Meal Planning will definitely help you spend less on groceries!

[@sampsondavidj]

Great video. I started meal planning by week, then by month. I started dreaming about doing it by year, but felt it would be too inaccurate. My perspective has now been changed. I'm obviously not a mom, but I am an engineer who constantly tries to optimize things. This video probably saved me years of studying, testing, and learning and by my estimates about 36 hours a year from the weekly method I once did. It could save about 21 hours a year from the monthly method that I currently do. I feel I need to find your theme night video.

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Dave, that is so great! I knew it saved time, but I had never crunched the numbers for how much time it was actually saving!! Thanks for sharing! I'm not sure if the link will be active in the comments or not, but here is the Theme Nights video if you want to watch it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHXNlWavYs6kb6c

[@royramsey8428]

This is just EXCELLENT. Thank you for the concise, methodical and warmly delivered breakdown. Very unique and streamlined.

[@kassyeichele]

You are very welcome! Let me know if you try it out! I'd love to hear what you think of it :)

[@mollysmith6055]

Thank you for sharing your process. Meal planning is a real challenge for this season of life...empty-nesters who basically have two different eating styles. Your theme idea is smart and allows so much freedom, love it!

[@kassyeichele]

I'm so glad it helped!

[@bnjjohnson]

Just found your channel today! I am so glad I did! This video was such an inspiration for my meal planning needs. I'd love to see how you transfer your meal plan into grocery lists. How often do you grocery shop, etc. I hope your channel takes off--it is great!

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Betsy! I am starting a Meal Planning series next week where I will do a deep-dive into my full process so be sure to check that out for answers to your questions! Thanks so much, and welcome to the channel!

[@StephanieGiese]

I love this idea and you have such a natural talent for talking to the camera! I already do theme nights as well, like tacos Tuesday, pasta on Wednesdays, etc. so I bet it wouldn't take every long to fill out a calendar and take a lot of stress off myself for the rest of the year. (Honestly, I could probably just do two months and keep repeating them forever, and I doubt my family would ever even notice.)

[@kassyeichele]

It wouldn't take you long to set up at all if you already know your theme nights! You can totally do a smaller amount of time than a year, and your family won't have any idea! And thanks, it has definitely been a work in progress to get comfortable in front of the camera, so I'm glad it's improving :D

[@jenandjerm1116]

Wow!!! This is Brilliant!!! Thank you!! 😊

[@creativelycountry3343]

Currently mindblown here 🤯🤯😃!!! Love this concept!! I’m thinking of exactly how I’d like to implement it. Love implementing seasonal meals in, love themes that still provide variety. I saw the title and was like what? No way!! Then watched the video and was like I totally need to try this in a bit of a tweaked form.

[@kassyeichele]

Glad you liked the video! I'd love to hear how you set yours up!

[@aileenortega6761]

I would love to see what meals you have on your spreadsheet

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Chistine! That video will be coming on the series that starts next week!

[@tayloranthony4322]

I was thinking… the hardest part is making the spreadsheet with all of the meals organized by theme 😬

[@clewismessina6630]

I'm organized in most areas of my life, but meal planning has always been a challenge. This method turned me into a new subscriber to the channel. It popped up in my search and I thought, 'a year in advance- that's nuts!', but I agree with the idea that it's much more efficient than weekly planning and can always be adjusted as needed. I laughed a little when you simply struck through an evening's meal plan. Very good illustration. Lot's of great ideas here. I also watched the breakfast/lunch videos as well. Good idea to put the focus on the main meal just to keep life manageable. Keep the great videos coming. :- )

[@kassyeichele]

I'm so glad you are finding the meal planning videos helpful! I just had a baby, but I will be getting some new videos out soon! Let me know if you have any specific questions you would like me to answer in an upcoming video.

[@brendagallardo8512]

I like the theme idea. I'm going to try this but change up my meals on a monthly basis. Great video!

[@kassyeichele]

Good luck! Let me know how it goes for you!

[@lindataylor2198]

I ordered the calendar. Will defiantly give it a try

[@withoutlimitsbudgets]

This is absolutely genius and next level. Amazing! I’m going to work on this through the next couple of weeks and try this method myself especially with a prepper pantry. This would help me restock my pantry know what I need when I need and how much I need and I won’t have to worry about meal prepping on a weekly basis because I’ve been falling off the tracks on that this would definitely be a game changer. Thank you so much for sharing new subscriber. 2:59 3:04

[@kassyeichele]

Thanks so much, I'm glad you found this helpful! Yes, if you buy food in bulk it would be a lot easier to know what you are going to eat in advance☺

[@Busybeemiss]

Love this! We have many food restrictions and rotate the same meals probably more often than most. I have to make everything from scratch so in really need to tackle this meal planning beast! So I have some work to do as far as creating categories with enough variety and searching for some new ideas. You have inspired me to get more than a season of meal planning done and i intend to find an app to help me get it on a calendar and generating shopping lists for me too. Well done and looking forward to what else your channel offers!

[@kassyeichele]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Food restrictions definitely make it more challenging, but making a rotation will make things easier to manage and give you more variety! If you find a good app, let me know! I've tried a few but none of them have done everything I wanted them to.

[@Busybeemiss]

@@kassyeichele I'm currently looking into Plan to Eat and Paprika, I'll let you know how it goes!

[@christinan7183]

Just ordered the big grid calander and starting this next week. Love it

[@kassyeichele]

Awesome! Good luck creating your meal plan!

[@VardaoftheStars]

Thank you!!!!! I never had anything like home economics. I sure wish I had. I learned what only my mom taught me, and she learned from my grandmother who was the last generation to have home ec in schools. This is amazing!! AND plant-based!?!?!?!? 😍😍😍🙏

[@kassyeichele]

You are so welcome, so glad you are excited about it!! We love our plant-based meals!😀

[@CelesteSeeker]

I didn't grow up with any kind of meal planning in the household, so this has been a real challenge for me to get started. But I'm already big on budgeting and becoming debt-free, so I'm excited to get consistent with meal planning. P.S. As soon as I saw Special K Loaf and Haystacks I subbed because knew I'd like this channel :-)

[@kassyeichele]

Yes, it can be a struggle to figure out if you didn't grow up with it. That's why it took me so long to wrap my head around! Haha, that's awesome, we love Special K and Haystacks!

[@donnaryan3162]

I like this idea a lot.

[@Butterflies.and.Tulips]

Years ago I made lists of our favorite meals by food type (beef, chicken, breakfast for dinner etc) and then made a google calendar where I would rotate the meal every 6 weeks. That seemed to work pretty well. I honestly hate to cook, so this does help!

[@kassyeichele]

That's awesome, I love the idea of using a google calendar!

[@Butterflies.and.Tulips]

@@kassyeichele I also included the cookbook page # or typed it out or whatever was needed to make life easier!

[@TheSunshinefee]

the idea of meal planning seemed to be so suffocating to me but you made it accessible. i am going to try this concept

[@kassyeichele]

I'm so glad this helped! Good luck creating your own meal plan!

[@alexa574]

I like the " Theme" night idea, I'm going to print stickers, so I can print and paste them on😃 Just found you, first video here,,,Wow! I'm impressed already with your ideas! Thank you for sharing!

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Alexa! Welcome to the channel! I love your idea of printing stickers, I might have to use that idea :)

[@artfullyaimee4055]

I love this idea! I have been struggling staying with a meal plan because its so tedious to sit and ask everyone what kind of meals do you guys what to have this week. And I get frustrated but this is a method i am definitely going to try

[@kassyeichele]

Let me know how it works for you! I'd love to hear what theme nights you are going to use :)

[@artfullyaimee4055]

@@kassyeichele I finished my plan this morning. The categories my husband and I settled on are 1. Casseroles/ American (my husband calls this the 'Merica theme 😂) 2. Hispanic Inspired 3. Cajun 4. Ethnic 5. Soups 6. Pastas 7. Leftovers or Out to Eat The best part is, I was able to include some of the recipes I've had saved but haven't tried yet, but also able to space them out enough so that I wont be making something new more than once a month (which is important when you have lots of picky littles lol) Thank you so much for your meal planning tips!

[@kassyeichele]

@CajunCoverQueen those sound great! I had to tell my husband about the 'Merica theme 😂 I haven't had Cajun food, but that sounds really good! Getting those new meals in was my favorite part of planning this way, and once a month sounds like a good interval for your family!

[@artfullyaimee4055]

@@kassyeichele We live in louisiana so cajun food is already at least once a week in our house. Thats pretty much what I grew up helping cook so its like second nature. Having a specific day (ours is Saturday) that we can have family over to eat a home style cajun meal and know its going to be something everyone will eat is great. I also had a good laugh at the 'Merica theme my husband decided on. That's pretty much anything hubby has to grill or casseroles. Also, my 6 year old is so excited because she knows exactly what days her favorite meals will be on and has been telling me "dont forget Wednesday is potato soup day". I would have never thought to do this for an entire year until your video. I am very grateful!

[@kassyeichele]

@@artfullyaimee4055 Oh I love Louisiana! I haven't been in about 20 years, but I thought it was so fun when I visited. I'm glad your whole family is excited about the plan! My oldest daughter is 6 as well, such a fun age!

[@mylifediversions8659]

I love your ideas - I really want to implement this! This would relieve a lot of stress around deciding what to eat all the time. Sounds like you have lots of variety and you probably eat more different meals this way than you would without a plan! You have my vote! Would you share your calendar? LOL!

[@kassyeichele]

Yes, we do have a lot more variety than when didn't have a plan! I've thought about sharing the full calendar! I'll have to see how I can turn it into a video or content without it being too boring :D

[@mylifediversions8659]

@@kassyeichele Can you could make it digital and sell it, with links to recipes?

[@kassyeichele]

@@mylifediversions8659 I've thought about trying to do something like that! The problem right now is I use about 7 different books for my recipes so I'm not sure if people would want to buy that many books to follow along. But I suppose I could put together a Pinterest version? I'd love to do something like this around November/December!

[@janekalmes]

Truly love this! I’m going to make time for this sometime this week.

[@kassyeichele]

Let me know how it goes! I'd love to hear your theme nights :)

[@bclegg5624]

To make it even faster, you can get a stamp made that says Leftover night. You can have a fun font and ink . 😀

[@kassyeichele]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@JenineHurlbert]

I hope to try this!! Unfortunately I need to build up a bigger collection of recipes first 😂 I’m going to begin building my loop lists by category. I got the calendar and regardless of whether I end up meal planning my entire year, I love the calendar! Thanks Kassy

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Jenine! So glad you love the calendar! You actually don't have to have a huge collection of recipes to get started (and sometimes it's easier if you start with shorter lists of recipes for each theme night😀). You can definitely build up your lists first, or if you want to get started sooner, you can check out my video with tons of Theme Night Ideas here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHXNlWavYs6kb6c And you might find that you have more than enough to get started because you can mix and match different types of theme nights😀 Let me know how it goes if you give it a try! I love hearing which theme nights people use!

[@JenineHurlbert]

@@kassyeichele Absolutely! I’m realizing the way that I said it made it seem like I’m not going to do any of it 😂😂😂 I meant I can’t do an entire year all at once yet. I’m still going to start and I’m going to use all of your recommendations, I’m just going to start by planning out 4 weeks of meals. I’m planning to include some new recipes each week (on the days where I have the time and energy to try something new 😂). As I finish a week I’ll plan another week. New recipes that we love will be added to the appropriate theme night’s loop (I hope that makes sense). I really appreciated how you explained that planning far in advance takes away the temptation to overanalyze what we feel like cooking and/or eating. I’m hoping that planning a month out will help with that, at least a little. (Regardless it’ll be way better than deciding around noon every day… or 4… like I do now 😂) I won’t have the time savings at the start, but I’m very motivated to spend a little more time in the short run to build up recipes… knowing that I’ll eventually get to the point where I can plan out meals for longer and longer periods of time. I really hope I get to the point where I am planning out a whole year at a time. I figure I have 6 months (until December) to build up recipes.

[@kassyeichele]

Awesome! That sounds like a great plan to get started! You will for sure be ready for the yearly meal planning by the time December rolls around! I completely relate to choosing the day's meals at 4:00pm the day of😂. That was my Mo before I started the yearly meal planning! I'd love to hear what theme nights you are doing!

[@JenineHurlbert]

@@kassyeichele I’ll update you as soon as they are chosen 😄 We’re headed out of town so it’s my project for when we get back. Can’t wait

[@Melody-en6xn]

Awesome idea! Can you make another video on if and how, when you tweak the recipes? I assume you’re not eating the same exact recipe you wrote every week.Maybe I am wrong, so I would like to know more in depth on how it goes through the rest of the year.

[@kassyeichele]

Hi There, I will be doing a 2022 version here in a few weeks! Hopefully that will help answer your questions. I don't eat the same thing every week, but some of my theme nights are the same from week to week. For example, our Mac and Cheese night is the same every single week, but our Build it Meals night rotates through a set of meals so each week is different, and of course our new meal night is different every week. Does that answer your question?

[@ammerslo2632]

IDK but this seems cool... Ill give it a try. TFS

[@kassyeichele]

Let me know how it goes for you!

[@zormier2002]

Love purple! And I am a pen thief so better keep an eye on it! Lmao 😂

[@kassyeichele]

Haha, awesome! I actually need to order more myself, I just ran out! The pens are linked in the description if you want to get some 😂

[@esmiram5375]

How do you go about grocery shopping? Weekly, monthly, what items do you freeze?

[@amysteele9778]

Genius!

[@kassyeichele]

Glad you like it!

[@JunkJournalTreasures]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. Just wondering about the Revive Cafe cookbooks..I can’t afford to get more than 1 or 2. Which would you recommend?

[@kassyeichele]

Hey There! Book 5 is my absolute favorite (I've had it the longest and I've made almost every recipe in it) and book 4 is the runner up! I hope you enjoy them!

[@doriskey6374]

Great ideals

[@kassyeichele]

Thank you! 😊

[@megboulden8130]

Hi there, thank you for this video! Just wondering if you ever considered reusing last year's meal plan for this year?

[@kassyeichele]

That's a great idea! For me, I don't do that because of my new meals that I need to write in. But if someone had a meal plan without a New Meal Night, you could easily just copy over the previous year's plan!

[@zenobiaaibonez844]

I want to know your build it meals! I just searched for this hoping someone hated meal planning as much as I do, and hallelujah. I am working on doing this now. My themes are still undecided, but I have a list of all the meals we eat, so I'm hoping to sort them now. I have my calendar, and I'm ready to fill it out... in pencil. 😊

[@kassyeichele]

The funny thing is that I actually read all of my built-it meals when I filmed this video, but I thought it was boring when I watched it, so I edited it out! I'll have to think of an interesting way to make a video about the built-it meals! I'm so excited to hear how you like planning your meals in advance! Let me know how it goes!

[@zenobiaaibonez844]

@@kassyeichele Finished. My categories are: Sunday, family classics (like meatloaf, chicken parmigiana, e.t.c things that take longer and could be prepped as a family) Monday, soup, salad, sandwiches (any combination of those things) Tuesday, Make your own / easy (tacos, flatbread pizza) Wednesday, frozen to oven (things I can prep and freeze ahead of time that goes in the oven or crockpot, lasagna, rattatoui) Thursday, kid favorites (things the kids love, but also the older kids can prepare, mummy dogs and fries, meatballs and gravy over egg noodles) Friday, meatless dishes Saturday, grilled or skillet dinners Thanks for motivating me to think about this. It seems a bit much to plan the whole year, but it's really just a plan, and I did it in pencil as well. The worst that can happen is I have to erase. Lol! We also added one take out dinner a month, and one what we call Snacky Dinner a month, (where the kids pick one item of a snacky nature, cheese and crackers, pizza rolls, cut veggies) and we have a buffet of finger foods.

[@kassyeichele]

Congratulations on getting it done! I love your theme night choices! Penciling things in is always a great way to start, it makes it less stressful if you have to change things around😀 Keep me posted on how it goes for you!

[@proudadoptivemomandwife889]

@@zenobiaaibonez844 awesome so you mela plan the whole year. Way to go

[@rolandabradley6193]

I just found your channel and I absolutely love this idea. I have tried weekly, and monthly but this seems like the way to go! Do you ever change your meal plan after you've done it?

[@zormier2002]

Yes when she showed on the calendar when she changed it. She just crosses it off and writes in something different.

[@kassyeichele]

Yes, I do! Sometimes if we have company (or the past couple of months when I was in my first trimester and I didn't have much energy in the evenings to cook) it is easier to change things up. Often under normal (not pregnant :)) circumstances like when company is visiting and I don't think they will care for what is on the menu, I just switch the week of meals with the one that is ahead of it. Even with needing to change things every once in awhile, it is easier than starting from scratch every week!

[@kassyeichele]

Yep, it's that easy!

[@938quilt]

have you tried making 2 or 3 pot pies and freezing the 1-2 for later? it was a rare meal for us as well as my mom made homemade biscuits for topping hers and fresh was yum...

[@kassyeichele]

That's a great idea! I haven't tried it because we typically eat one entire pie that night and I use one for leftovers the next couple of days. But I may have to try that, thanks for the suggestion!

[@brittanynicole9318]

🤯😳😲 You make this so easy to understand. You should be a teacher. 😇🥰

[@kassyeichele]

Awe, thank you!

[@RR-ce2ob]

What are the kinds of light suppers that you make? I only have like a couple and would love some ideas.

[@kassyeichele]

On my light supper list I have: bean dip and chips vegan spinach artichoke dip and crackers popcorn and smoothies red pepper dip with crackers homemade soft pretzels and several other dips and chips/crackers :) I hope that helps! I will be elaborating more on this in the Meal Planning Series I am starting next week!

[@withherfamily9531]

Subscribed! I like you already!

[@kassyeichele]

Awe, thank you! So glad to have you along :)

[@proudadoptivemomandwife889]

I love this idea and think will try it. I see you mentioned plant based and vegan in your video. Are a vegan household? We are over here. Is revive vegan cookbooks.

[@kassyeichele]

Hi There! Yes we are a completely plant-based household, although we do eat honey and eggs... so technically we are "ovo vegetarians" but since most people are more familiar with the term "vegan", I usually just say that :) Yes, the revive cafe books are all plant-based. In books 1 and 2, he does have a couple recipes that include feta or goat cheese, but 90% of the recipes are still plant-based. All of the later books (3-7) are completely plant based with no dairy in any of the recipes. He has some great dessert recipes in his books as well and mostly uses honey has the sweetener instead of refined sugar, which makes me happy!

[@zormier2002]

I would love the Mac n cheese recipe please.

[@kassyeichele]

Sure! Here it is, I do adjust certain things to taste, so taste as you go :) I start my pasta water when I start to blend the cashews, then the pasta is typically done by the time the sauce is. Blend until smooth: 1.5 Cup of Cashews 2 Cups of Water Add to the blender: 2 tsp onion powder 2 tsp salt 2 tsp garlic powder 1 4 oz jar of pimentos 1 4 oz can of mild green chilis 1/2 Cup Lemon juice (I like mine tart, but when my husband makes it he always adds about half of them lemon juice because he likes it less tart. So taste this as you add :) 1/4 Cup nutritional yeast flakes Blend until everything is incorporated. Then we just pour the sauce over each bowl individually. It saves better if you keep the sauce and the pasta separate when you store the leftovers, otherwise it tends to dry out. Hope you enjoy it!

[@janarichards5511]

Hi, I just found you two days ago. This was the first video I watched, I had to come back to say I throughly enjoyed it! I always did a month of menus at a time, since we were paid monthly. I also shopped for groceries a month at a time. Lately I have gotten into freezer meals and gotten away from monthly planning. Do you ever freeze meals ahead for busy days or Sabbath days?

[@kassyeichele]

I'm so glad you enjoyed the video! I have done freezer meals before when I was pregnant, and they were so helpful when the babies were born! I'd love to hear some of your favorite freezer meals!

[@janarichards5511]

@@kassyeichele Spaghetti sauce freezes great. I have found most soups, stews, and chilies freeze well, and in some cases, taste even better. Something that is fun is to take small amounts of “thick” leftovers from those listed, mark a snack bag with the contents, place about a 1/4 cup in the bag, zip shut and place that bag into a larger freezer bag marked “for hand pies”. When you have accumulated several different bags use them for filling. Give the children the choice of what flavor they would like early in the day, so they can thaw. You can use pastry dough or pizza dough for the pie. Let the children fill and mark their pie in a special way so they know which one is theirs, or you could mark the parchment paper next to theirs. Fun for them, and a good way to use small amounts of leftovers. Things I freeze: Coleslaw Banana salad Peach salad Apricot nectar salad Frozen Waldorf salad Waffles Baked oatmeal Sweet potato apple hash I freeze lots of other dishes but I’m not vegan so I don’t know if I can be of much help.

[@Angie2Pink]

I am studying your method and trying to implement it in my daily life. I am having a hard time meal prepping as I used to batch the ingredient preps. I find that it's more efficient if my weekly recipes are more or less coherent in which ingredients they require, and I like to prep in advance what I can so that my daily cooking is quicker. Do you have any tips for that or do you start from scratch each day?

[@kassyeichele]

Hi There! I am actually starting a series with more of the details in the process that will start sometime this next week. One way that I make my daily cooking much faster is that my breakfasts are very simple (which I explain more of how I do this in the first video) and our lunches require almost no cooking (with I will cover in the second video). Let me know if that answered your question at all or if you have a more specific question. Hopefully you can join us for the series!

[@Angie2Pink]

@@kassyeichele thank you so much, I can't wait!! 😍

[@proudadoptivemomandwife889]

Do you grocery shop weekly or monthly or how when you yearly plan.

[@kassyeichele]

I still grocery shop weekly, but I can make my grocery list much more quickly because I already know what I'm going to make. Since we eat mainly plant based foods, it wouldn't work to shop monthly for us because vegetables don't last that long. But it could work to shop monthly if you eat food that doesn't spoil as quickly (we used to do that in our pre-plant-based eating days :)

[@selinasnowdon2834]

Totally mind blown, I try to meal plan for a week and husband is like no don’t want that.

[@kassyeichele]

That would be a challenge!

[@taylorferrell8308]

Love this video!! I am having a hard time coming up with enough meals though. We are a gluten free dairy free, sugar free family. Would you say those cook books aline with that?

[@kassyeichele]

Yes, the majority of the recipes in the books are gluten free (my mom is gf also and she loves them. The first couple of books had some recipes that have gluten in them, but the later books (4 &5) are completely gf.) And we don't do processed sugar in our family and he uses dates and honey (which we use) in his recipes when they need a sweetener.

[@taylorferrell8308]

Thank you! I am totally going to order.

[@sarahaskew4018]

Do you share your Meal planning Excel sheet? I see you have a link for the excel program. I have excel, but I am curious how you organize your excel file.

[@kassyeichele]

Yes, it is in the description! Let me know if there is anything that you are looking for!

[@shawnjensen4391]

I would LOVE. To meal plan this way but we are transitioning to empty nester and plant based way of eat so our family favorites and tried and true recipes do not really fit anymore.

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Shawn! That's a lot of transitions for sure! But if you want to give it a try, check out my video on Theme Night Ideas! There are a lot of other options for different theme nights that you can use depending on which stage of life you are in :) Here is the link to that video if you are interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHXNlWavYs6kb6c

[@zormier2002]

What are your eleven build it meals? I know waffles and tacos, but what else?

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Tara! Here is the Built-It Meals rotation that we use: Falafels Tacos Gado Gado Burgers Portobello Fajitas Baked Potatoes Don Buri Burritos Patatas Bravas Malasian Laksa Hot Dogs Waffles are actually on our Sunday morning breakfast rotation. I just published a video where you can see all of my rotations as I build my spreadsheet for the year. Here is the link if you want to check it out :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXepqZl3gcikZ6M

[@curious1366]

I like your sense of organization. I was worried at first that "meal planning" meant that you decided in advance details like, "how many potatoes to eat on June 6th or your actual shopping lists for the entire year. For myself, I recently decided to have theme weeks. For example, a variety of Mediterranean dishes one week, or a variety of Mexican dishes the next, etc. I also have certain things that would be seasonal and so on. I have a long-shot question.....I once bought some cookbooks from some students who were fundraising for an Adventist school in Tennessee. The books were definitely vegan. The books were lost in my last move. Do you have any clues on how I can find copies of a cookbook that would have been sold by an Adventist school?

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Adrienne, I love your idea of theme weeks! That would be a great way to save money on ingredients because you can fully use each ingredient that you buy instead of just part of it for a recipe. As far as your question goes, my best guess would be an Adventist Book Center. They typically have a lot of vegan cookbooks. Here is the website if you want to check it out, but there are brick and mortar stores in many states as well if you like to shop in person: adventistbookcenter.com/books/cookbooks.html Hope that helps!

[@curious1366]

@@kassyeichele Thanks for the tip! The book center is a great place to get started instead of the usual google search that would take me in all sorts of directions! I'm glad you like my "theme weeks idea". I only cook for myself, so it really helps to reduce wasted ingredients.... or... an overfull refrigerator!

[@kimberbeardsley156]

Are you SDA, I saw Special Kay Roast!!!

[@kassyeichele]

Yes I am! :)

[@eva_1977]

@Kassy Eichele, Making Time for Giggles i need to plan BOTH dinner and lunch which are hot cooked meals in my country and i also have picky eaters so what my daughter eats my son won't so i need to double the recipes each time. basically that means that i'm cooking 3-4 DIFFERENT meals A DAY and i'm having really hard time with meal planning. what's your view on that? any idea??? it would be also cool to see your excel spreadsheet and how you organized/categorized that....

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Eva! I replied to your comment on the other video, but your comments gave me a great idea for a video! I'll have it out this week or next (I'll leave a link on your comments when I am done so you will hopefully see it). Let me know if there are any other struggles your family is facing with meals and I'll try to answer all of your questions in the video! Thanks for watching!

[@eva_1977]

@@kassyeichele thank you for being so kind and inspirational!!

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Eva! I just posted a new video that I hope will help you out! Here is the link to it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6ukZKWFppVlo68

[@itsacarolbthing5221]

What is the Special K meal, please?

[@kassyeichele]

Here is a traditional special K loaf: beautifullifeoftwo.com/special-k-loaf-recipe/ And here is a vegan option if you are vegan: uhohitsvegan.com/the-best-special-k-loaf/

[@sarahaskew4018]

Where can I get the cook books, the calendar and your spread sheet!!

[@sarahaskew4018]

Just now seeing your links! Thank you!

[@kassyeichele]

Sorry I am just seeing this, but yes, links are in the description :D Let me know if there is something you are looking for and you aren't seeing it!

[@brenx2606]

What time of meals are haystacks?

[@kassyeichele]

Haystacks are like a layered taco salad where everyone layers the ingredients on their own plates in this order: Chips Beans Cheese (we use a vegan cheese sauce) Lettuce Any other veggies you enjoy Salsa and any other dressings you would like

[@itsacarolbthing5221]

Why do you not just use last year's plan for the current year? I really don't like planning meals, and that's just for myself. I can't imagine doing it for a whole family!

[@kassyeichele]

You absolutely can do that! I think I talk about that as an option in a more recent video. My family really enjoys trying new things so we like to change up our theme nights every year, but you can definitely use the same one if that works better for you :)

[@AmberAnastasi]

Use Pilot Frixion Erasable Pens

[@kassyeichele]

Great idea, I will look into those!

[@visanlala]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💯💯💯💯

[@danish7753]

Hi

[@kassyeichele]

Hi!

[@SpringFlowers537]

Didn’t see the video in categories for meals for each night?

[@kassyeichele]

Hi Amber! Here is the link to that video :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHXNlWavYs6kb6c

[@SpringFlowers537]

@@kassyeichele Thanks for sending!

[@kassyeichele]

@@SpringFlowers537 No Problem :)

[@proudadoptivemomandwife889]

so are you still sticking to the meal plan

[@kassyeichele]

Yes, I am still sticking with it, with minor adjustments as needed :) How is yours going?