A Complete Guide to Creating a Meal Plan on Moving Week

Intro:

• Moving week is messy and chaotic.
  • Taking care of last-minute details
  • Saying goodbye to people
  • Everything is (hopefully) packed up … if it isn’t then you have another big task on your list.
  • You may be reviewing your moving budget and wondering where you got off track.
• A great way to keep the peace and save a little money during moving week is to create a meal plan.
• Use this guide to do just that.

Plan Meals Before You Shop

• It’s tempting to just figure out what you’ll cook while you’re in the aisle at the grocery store. Don’t do that.
  • Unless you’re a chef or a champion at meal prepping already, you’ll wind up:
    • buying random ingredients
    • Shopping on autopilot
    • Buying too much
    • Getting overwhelmed
• Instead, plan your meals:
  • Who is eating? (family of 4? 2 kids?)
  • What can everyone agree to eat?
  • What can you whip together in 15-30 minutes?

Choose One Day to Meal Prep

• After you’ve done the shopping, choose a day to meal prep and clear out a good 5-6 hours, depending on what you’re cooking.
• Bribe some friends with pizza to help you do the meal prepping, or get the kids involved (if they’re too young, it might be good to hire a babysitters you can knock this out without distraction).
• You won’t have to cook everything, you may just prep vegetables restaurant-style for easy assembling.
• Don’t forget to make it fun! Throw on some music or a podcast, cook with a friend, enjoy the experience!

Keep It Simple …

• This probably isn’t the time to experiment with a bunch of new recipes
  • You might piss off the family
  • It could be more difficult than you planned
  • Go with what you know!

… But Switch it Up

• Sandwiches every night may be fine for a bachelor, but for a family, it could get old and cause some complaining and more stress.
• Choose 3 meals so you can have leftovers two of the nights and still enjoy a variety of meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

For Breakfast

• Breakfast Burritos
• Protein Muffins
• Oatmeal
• Fruit and yogurt
• Smoothies
• Eggs and Toast

For Lunch and Dinner

• Soups /Stews
• Casseroles
• Pasta
• Burritos / Tacos
• Sandwiches
• Salads

Takeaway

DRAFT:

A Complete Guide to Creating a Meal Plan on Moving Week

Picture yourself one week before moving day. Do you have everything packed? Don’t forget you’re having a garage sale on Saturday! Have you transferred all the utilities and bills to your new address? Don’t forget the credit cards too! Have you registered your kids in their new school? Don’t forget to ask about uniforms! Said a proper good-bye to all your friends and neighbors? Don’t forget you to get hot dog buns for the good-bye BBQ tomorrow! Cleaned every nook and cranny of the house? Don’t forget the floorboards! Breathed? Definitely don’t forget to breathe. At this point, the last thing you want to worry about is what to eat the week of the move. Without proper meal planning, next thing you know, you’re eating junk food, spending ridiculous amounts at the supermarket for pre-made meals and watching your moving budget skyrocket. You have enough stress to deal with so the best way to handle meals during moving week is to have a moving day meal plan! Where to start, you ask? Read this blog!

Plan Meals Before You Shop

While it’s tempting to let the supermarket be your spiritual chef, guiding you to figure out what you’ll cook for the week, you’ll soon find out it’s more like a gluttonous demon that sits on your shoulder giving into every sugar craving and carb obsession. Next thing you know, your meal plan will consist of Twinkies for breakfast, grilled cheese for lunch and frozen pizza for dinner every single day of the week. How to eat healthy when moving and defeat the satanic supermarket spell you ask? By planning your meals beforehand keeping the following in mind:

• How many will be eating? You and the kids? You, the kids, grandma, and the dog? You, the kids, grandma, the dog and the hamster?
• What can everyone agree to eat? (This is a tricky one when dealing with picky eaters. Resist the urge to get frozen meals for the whole week as they are more expensive and less nutritious)
• What can you whip together in 15-30 minutes? (In other words, don’t go planning a five course meal)
• What meals lend themselves to leftovers? (for example, lasagne? Great for leftovers! Chicken salad? Sad, sorry, soggy mess. Not great for leftovers.)

Choose One Day to Meal Prep

Once you have successfully conquered the supermarket, choose a day where you can clear out 5-6 hours to prep the meals for moving week. Here are some tips on how to prepare your meals in a timely and easy fashion:

• Short on time? Involve neighbors, friends, the kids to help out.
• If your kids are younger, it may be a good idea to hire a babysitter for that day so you have minimal distractions and can focus on chopping, grating and bagging.
• Consider preparing meals that require minimal cooking. Things like burritos, salads and sammies are easy to assemble with minimal cooking necessary.
• Make it fun! Throw on some dance music, an engaging podcast or an audio book and enjoy yourself!

Keep It Simple…..

Keep in mind, this is probably not the time to apply what you learned in your master chef class. There is no room for demi glazes, truffle foams or vegetables carved into the shape of your favorite zoo animals. Nor is it time to try out new recipes (even if they are easy). Keep it simple, cook what you know and use what you have in your kitchen.

…..But Switch It Up

Moving week will be stressful so it’s important to reserve breakfast, lunch and dinner to sit down, relax and take a break. If you’re having peanut butter sandwiches every day, meal times are more likely to add to your stress than to ease it. So be sure to plan to have some variety in your meals so you can truly give yourself and your family the breaks they will need. Plan to make three different dinners and have two of the nights be leftovers from those meals. You can also have leftovers for lunch one day and that peanut butter and jelly sandwich another.

What’s For Breakfast?

The following are a list of breakfast ideas that are easy to prepare, delicious and nutritious:

• Breakfast Burrito: scramble up some eggs, then assemble in a flour tortilla: the eggs, pre-grated cheese, pre-chopped onion, bell pepper and olives. Add hot sauce for spice!
• Peanut Butter Banana Protein Muffins These are great for boosting your immune system(especially important during stressful times). Plus, the beauty of muffins is that you can make one big batch for multiple meals during the week!
• Oatmeal: It really can’t get any easier than pouring oatmeal in a bowl, adding hot water and waiting a minute or two.
• Fruit and Yogurt: Another easy-to-assemble, nutritious breakfast! Be sure to use the pre-chopped fruit you prepared at the beginning of the week!
• Smoothies: Just throw together some spinach, a cup of your favorite frozen fruit, protein powder and let the blending begin! Smoothies are particularly good for mornings when you’re on the run. Probably a good one for what to eat on moving day when you’ll be running around like a crazy person. Just throw it into a tumbler and skip your way over to the moving truck!
• Eggs and Toast: No real explanation needed here, but just in case: scramble eggs, put bread in toaster, push down to toast, butter, jam, shazam! Easy breakfast!

What’s for Lunch and Dinner?

The following are easy to prepare/assemble meals for lunch and dinner. Keep in mind, you might want to save the easiest meals for your food on moving day:

• Soups and Stews: These are examples of meals where you can simply throw a bunch of ingredients together in a crock pot and get on with your life. Come back in a few hours, and like magic it’s what’s for dinner! Make large batches so you can have leftovers!
• Casseroles: Not so unlike soups and stews, you can layer different ingredients in a casserole dish, throw some cheese on top, shove it in the oven and 20-30 minutes later you’re eating a delicious dinner. Casseroles are great for leftovers too!
• Pasta: One of the easiest meals on the planet. Skip making your own sauce for moving week and just buy the stuff in a jar. Boil pasta, heat sauce, combine, sprinkle some parm cheese on top and that’s it!
• Burritos/tacos: Just like the breakfast burrito mentioned earlier, these are super easy-to-assemble meals. You will want to chop all veggies on meal prep day for maximum time saving.
• Sandwiches: Again, sandwiches are super easy to assemble. Consider making them a little gourmet by whipping up an over easy egg to put on top, adding cream cheese as a spread or use waffles instead of regular bread.
• Salads: If you chop all of your ingredients at the beginning of the week, salads will be the easiest and healthiest option for lunch or dinner! You can even pre-cook some chicken breast to put on top to make it a full meal! Just keep in mind that salads are not great for leftovers.

Takeaway

The week before your move inevitably is going to be stressful so anything you can do to make it less so is worth it. If you want to save money on moving as well as time, meal prep is essential. Let us help make your move easier and stress free! When you’re ready to move, give the professional San Francisco movers at Moving Forward a call for a FREE quote! Bon appetite!