It’s about this time of year that I start to rethink our meal planning rotation. Moms start passing around good recipes again, I’m ready for a few cozier meals and whatever we were eating all summer suddenly doesn’t sound quite as appealing.

Honestly, summer dragged on for so long this year that we enlisted HelloFresh to help get us over the hump.

Whether you use a meal planning service, cook a lot or a little, have tiny kids, big kids or no kids at home at all, this system works because it solves the part of meal planning I dislike the most:

What’s for dinner?

What I like about this system is that when I look at our week on Sunday, I’m reacting to a plan that is already there. I’m not sitting down with a blank page trying to come up with seven dinners from scratch.

Maybe Tuesday is suddenly packed and I need to move the easiest meal (takeout) there. Maybe we have plans Thursday and I just need dino nugs for the kids. Maybe I swap in a new soup someone sent me because it finally feels like fall. But the base plan is already done.

Step 1: Start with your 21 core meals

Open ChatGPT. Set a timer for five minutes and type out the first 21 dinners that come to mind. These should be the meals you already make regularly and that your family actually eats.

Don’t overthink this or start looking for new recipes. Just "pizza," "spaghetti," "Chicken with rice" "salmon bowls." The entire point is to use the meals that already work for your family.

My original list circa 2014 took me 2 minutes and 58 seconds and I ended up with three extra meals. That list became my Core Recipe List, and I still use the same idea today.

Step 2: Add your routine nights

Next, think about the things that are already part of your normal week. Maybe you have pizza every Friday, date night once a month, takeout one night or dinner with family on Sundays. Maybe you are using a meal delivery box 3 days a week.

Put those on the list too.

Step 3: Let ChatGPT build the rotation

When I originally created this, we didn't have ChatGPT and I walked uphill both ways to school. With the evolution of AI, this is where you can make the process really easy.

Give ChatGPT your 21 core meals along with the things that happen regularly in your house and ask it to create a rotating meal plan.

Here is your prompt:

You can also tell it which nights are typically busiest so it can put your easiest meals there. Once you like the rotation, you really shouldn’t have to “meal plan” from scratch again.

Step 4: Put it on your calendar

Now take that rotation and put it directly into your Google Calendar and share it with your spouse. Either do this manually or connect Google Calendar to ChatGPT and paste this prompt:

"Connect to my Google Calendar and using the meal rotation plan, add it as events that are free on my calendar each week."

Step 5: Weekly Review

Now when Sunday comes around, instead of sitting down with a blank page and trying to figure out what everyone is going to eat, you can simply look at the calendar.

If you have a late practice one night, swap in an easier meal. If dinner plans come up, move that meal to another night. If the week gets completely crazy, change it.The point isn’t to follow the calendar perfectly. The point is that the decisions have already been made, and you’re only making small adjustments based on what is actually happening that week.

Then use the meals on your calendar to create your grocery list and you’re done.

It’s such a small system, but it takes one of those repetitive weekly decisions completely off my plate.

What do you think about my meal planning system? Will you try it? And if you’d love to have something like this set up for your family but don’t know where to start, I’d love to get it set up for you.

Caroline

Things I'm loving this week:

• So much fall inspo for decorating your own home here
• I've never outsourced decorating my porch for fall but I think I'm going to try it this year to copy/paste for future years
• After trying on too many pairs of jeans, these were the winner for fall
• Scarves are all the rage this season and I'm looking to add this one to my collection
• Bought a new bra from an old store
• My favorite pajama and underwear brand has a really good dupe

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