How to Meal Plan for When Mom (or Dad) is Away

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Getting everyone in the family fed is challenging enough in regular times, but when one of the grownups in the house has to travel for work on pleasure, this can get even more challenging. So, I wanted to share my tips on how to meal plan for when mom (or dad) is away.

I recently had to travel for work. This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, the reality of the fact that I am in charge of our family’s meals becomes very apparent. Over the years, my husband and I have come to understand that if I am traveling on a weekend, he can take care of things without much help, but if the travel is during the week, then some planning and preparation is necessary.

It isn’t that my husband can’t cook, he actually has a number of meals that he makes very well, but he is not a weekday cook. It takes him a long time to get anything on the table. This can work on weekends, but on school/work days when time is short, things can get stressful fast.

In talking with others, I have found that in many partnerships it is common for one person to be the family cook, while the other person takes on other responsibilities (oftentimes the dishes). And for single parents, usually the burden of all of it falls squarely on their singular shoulders! Given that this is a common reality, I thought it would be helpful to share some tricks for how to meal plan for when mom (or dad) is away.

Meal Planning for When Mom (or Dad) is Away

Make Mornings Easy

Getting through the morning routine, including making sure breakfasts are eaten and lunches packed, is hard enough on a regular day, but when you are down one set of helpful hands, then anything to streamline the process is a lifesaver.

So, when I am going to be away, I try to make sure that there are simple breakfast options ready to go. Some of our favorites include muffins, granola, and egg wraps. (The Scramble’s weekly make-ahead breakfast options are super helpful here, as well. Sign up for a free trial to see how we make both dinner and breakfast planning and prep easier.)

Pre-Prep Lunch Items

In our family, both the boys and my husband bring their lunches to school/work everyday. On a normal morning, while my husband is on breakfast duty, I am usually packing up his lunch and making sure the components for the boys’ lunches are ready for them to pack themselves. My husband can’t do both jobs at once, so I try to make sure there are some of the boys’ favorite lunch options ready and waiting in the freezer or fridge for them to grab and go. Some recent favorites have been tomato soup and breadsticks, baked chimichangas, and Mexican egg rolls.

Bonus tip: if you don’t want to fruits and vegetables to be forgotten, I recommend washing and pre-slicing some regular favorites for grab-n-go lunch packing.

Double Those Dishes

Probably the simplest solution for everyone involved is to make double batches of a few favorite meals in the weeks leading up to your trip. That way, you can enjoy half for dinner one night and freeze the other half for when your partner needs them while you are away.

Doing this means that you don’t have to put in much extra effort and yet the meals are ready to go. Some of our favorite options for this include soups, stews, and casseroles.

Prepare the Components

Many delicious dishes can be pulled together incredibly quickly if the components are prepared ahead of time.

• Rice or another grain can become a fried rice or pilaf.
• Roasted vegetables can be reheated for a simple side or can be included in a build-your-own night, like bean and rice bowls.
• Chopped up raw vegetables are great in a salad, but can also be used in sandwiches, stir fries, and bean and rice bowls.

If you prepare a few components ahead of time, then your partner can have some flexibility in what they prepare, while still getting dinner on the table quickly.

If All Else Fails, Prepared Food

The most important aspect of family dinners is the time together, not the food. So falling back on take out or microwave meals may be the perfect solution. And guess what, everyone will be just fine!

These Tips In Action: How I Prepared for My Trip

I put these tips into action when I was meal planning for my own work trip recently, so I wanted to share what it actually looked like in practice.

First, a reality check. The weekend before all of this travel was intensely busy. We had a soccer game, rock concert, and sleepover birthday party planned, so my time for cooking was very limited. Therefore, I had to use the time I was already cooking very carefully to maximize what I could offer.

Make-Ahead Breakfasts Made

Luckily I already had a sizeable stockpile of some of our favorite make-ahead breakfast options in the freezer, so all I did was also make sure that there were enough eggs in the house, since my older son is on a major scrambled eggs kick right now.

Lunches Stocked

It was a super wacky school week this week with two school-related overnight trips for the boys while I was away (I know, crazy timing), which meant that lunches needed to be a bit more flexible than usual. So, I did two things:

• I stocked the freezer with one of their lunchbox favorites, calzones, so that they could just grab one, throw some fruits and vegetables into the lunchbox, and be done.
• I got in some favorite options for “bread and cheese platter” lunches including French bread, sliced ham, cheeses, olives, and dip.

I doubled

A few weeks ago, I made a baked macaroni and cheese. At the time, I doubled the recipe and froze a smaller casserole dish of it for the guys to pull out while I was away. The extra bonus: I prepared enough macaroni and cheese that they were able to enjoy it for dinner and lunch the next day. So, in essence, one round of cooking gave us three meals!

Prepared Components

I knew that my husband wanted to make his specialty, Brazilian-style fried rice, one night while I was away, so I made sure that all of his favorite components were ready and waiting in the freezer and pantry including rice, eggs, black beans, and frozen spinach.

Lessons Learned

Once we were all home together again I asked everyone how it went and here’s what I learned.

The Freezer Saved the Day

My poor husband had a ton to juggle on his own with band rehearsals, music lessons, a super busy week at work, and having to pack and unpack the boys stuff for two different overnight trips, so having dishes like the calzones and macaroni and cheese that required nothing but reheating was a life savor.

Prepared Meals = Fewer Dishes

The pre-made meals that I had frozen were valuable not only because they required little to no effort to prepare, but also because there was almost no clean up. The fact that my husband didn’t have a giant pile of dishes to wash saved his sanity.

There Are Other Helping Hands

I was so focused on the fact that I wouldn’t be there to help that I forgot about the other two sets of hands that would be there. My husband reported that both boys stepped in and were helpful in getting dinner on the table and lunches made.

The Hard Part Wasn’t the Food

This may seem obvious, but while the prepared meals were helpful and definitely appreciated, the hardest part of it all for my husband was the having to take care of the logistical stuff like driving kids to activities, overseeing homework, and packing them for their trips, not the food. I’m glad I was able to take the food piece off his plate but, as it would be for anyone, flying solo was the most challenging part and that he just had to figure out on his own.

Do you travel a lot of work? If so, what are your tricks for meal planning when mom (or dad) is away?

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