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If you're like me, summer is your favourite time of year. The long days, barbecues, drinks on the patio, sunshine, lush trees...I could go on forever. All I want to do in the summer is spend the evenings of daylight enjoying the weather and doing what I love (at least the weeknights).
There's one thing that I always fall back on to help me achieve that and it's - you guessed it - meal planning.
Although meals are quite relaxed and a bit easier in the summer with all the fresh ingredients and barbecue meals, having my ingredients, recipes and meal ideas organized help me enjoy my summer a lot more.
Meal Planning
If you've been around for more than a few minutes, you know that I'm a big fan of meal planning. In fact, I make meal plans for other people.
There are so many benefits to meal planning, but today, we're focused on how it can make summer so much more enjoyable.
I spend less and energy time preparing food
The worst feeling on a beautiful summer week day is getting home at 5pm to no food ready and having to spend the next two hours preparing, cooking, and cleaning up. After doing all of that, I'm almost too tired to enjoy the extra daylight hours and beautiful weather - which sucks! I mean we only get so much warm days here in Saskatchewan.
When I make a plan for preparing food at the beginning or throughout the week, I can plan how much time to spend on preparing food and if the meals I choose for that week are too much, I revise my plans to fit my schedule.
I have more flexibility
Summer is the season of last-minute hangouts and spontaneous plans, especially when the weather is nice! When I have my meals planned out - even just lunches - for the week, I don't feel disorganized when I decide to go out one evening and wake up with nothing ready in my fridge to pack in my lunch.
By meal planning, I can plan by having one or two nights of the week open for spontaneous plans. Then, if I don't end of having plans those nights, I plan to have some pantry goods or freezer meals ready in case I don't go out but I won't be short food by the end of the week or scrambling for lunches.
I can enjoy summer's fresh fruit and vegetables
If you're fortunate enough to have a space where you can grow some fresh fruit or vegetables, summer is a great time to use those to make amazing food. There's nothing like enjoying your own handpicked vegetables in a delicious summer meal. If you don't have your own space to grow fruits and veggies, they are still much more fresh in the summer that you can still make amazing food with them. Your meals are bound to taste that much better.
Where does meal planning come in? I find that if I actually make a plan for how I will use the fresh fruits and veggies, I use them more intentionally - whether that be making the right meals to enjoy them best (i.e., fresh tomatoes in a caprese salad) or ensuring that they don't go to waste in the back of your fridge.
If you couldn't tell already, meal planning is on of my favourite ways to keep my life organized and bring my energy to other things in my life like evening walks, a glass of wine, or working on my little projects.
If you also want an enjoyable summer (which you deserve!), check out the Summer 4-Week Meal Plan. With weekly grocery lists, weekly meal plans, meal prep tips, and 24 summer-themed EPK recipes (mostly exclusive recipes), this meal plan will help you spend less time in your kitchen and more time doing what you love in this wonderful season of year.