The cutest insulated grocery bag that ever was.
Take a minute to gaze lovingly at your calendar. You did it! You have a plan! For every night next month, you already have an answer to “What’s for dinner?”
Be prepared to hold this plan lightly, however, especially for the first few months. If you decide you want to order pizza on a night that you originally planned to cook, that’s okay. This plan is to help you, not to tie you down and remove all fun and freedom from your life. You can shift your calendar schedule to allow for it (another plus in the pro column for electronic calendars, as shifting makes my written calendar look messy). You can have your plan and your pizza, too.
If your life is anything like mine, however, you can’t just shift with wild abandon.
Your event evenings are probably not shiftable (WordPress says this is not a word. Of course, WordPress also says “WordPress” is not a word, so I’m keeping it. I do what I want, Internet.). They stay where they are.
You start with your shopping days. Shopping days drive your meals, not the other way around. One delayed meal is probably not enough to warrant shifting your shopping day. Three or four delayed meals, however, will probably mean you need to consider it. Are there perishables on your list that will go bad before you get to them? If so, you will either need to move the shopping day or keep those meals where they are.
This may also affect your coupon usage. If a coupon is near its expiration date, decide whether it is really worth an extra trip to the store just to use it.
After you get your shopping days reestablished, you can move the meals that go with them around if you need to do so. Then, your plan is back on track.
Tomorrow, we set you up for success by keeping you on track.
I’m sharing my Epic Meal Planning strategies for Write 31 Days – click to see the master list.
M. Suzanne Terry 
I usually have to shift my plan because I forgot to thaw something I was supposed to lol. Last night’s improvisation was garlic Parmesan tuna cakes (the baby was an instant fan)
That sounds delicious. I would try that.
Super easy to make. One egg per drained can of tuna and add breadcrumbs and seasoning until patties can be formed (can you tell I don’t measure?). We used panko bread crumbs, garlic, Italian herb blend, and Parmesan.
They are so versatile–we’ve made so many varieties just depending on what we have on hand–chopped onions, diced veggies, shredded zucchini, different seasoning. I kinda mostly hate seafood most of the time but I do eat it occasionally because of the whole good for you thing and turning it into a well seasoned patty means I’ll actually like it instead of just choking it down 😉