It’s 5:00 pm and you realized you haven’t eaten anything but coffee since 8:00 am.
Your partner is texting you “what’s for dinner tonight?” and you realize you don’t have anything prepared. . . so, ugh, guess it’s another “stop at Chipotle on the way home” situation.
So much for telling yourself that this was the month you were going to save money on eating out (but you say that every month).
You bounce between feeling overwhelmed at the ingredients in your fridge that you don’t know what to do with and resignation that the only things you’ve been eating lately are frozen Trader Joe’s dinners, reheated pizza, and peanut butter and jelly on tortillas.
Your DoorDash bill is pushing higher than your mortgage and you feel tremendously guilty about pitching yet another moldy bag of salad after weeks of avoiding it — but not guilty enough to stop the cycle.
You want to cook for yourself. You want to eat at home more. And you want to save money.
But meal planning might honestly sound really terrible, awful, and time-consuming.
It might bring up flashbacks of obsessive fitness people who want you to weigh your tilapia by the ounce and only eat portioned-out protein and vegetables for two weeks straight.
Or it might remind you of all the times you signed up for yet another HelloFresh plan, all the while swearing that you weren’t going to rely on this overpriced crutch after this last round.
The words “meal planning” don’t fully encompass what you want and need, because what you really need is a personalized road map.
What I’m talking about is, honestly, more of a flexible, expansive meal planning and cooking strategy.
Instead of taking someone else’s ideas and schedules and trying to fit them into your life, why not envision a system that’s integrated into your daily life?
If you want to shop smarter, have less cooking stress, waste less food, feel supported by your routines, and — gasp! — actually enjoy the process of preparing food, this meal plan system will help get you there.
(Can't see the video above? Watch it on Loom.)
Specifically, it’s not one of those DIY templates that you download… and then feel so overwhelmed by the prospect that you end up doing nothing with it.
That’s because there’s nothing cookie-cutter about this meal plan.
Maybe you’ve already tried to solve your nightly meal stress by googling “how do I meal plan?” and found a bunch of pre-filled templates with recipes you’d never make on your own, that don’t sound appealing, or are either way too complex or way too boring.
Or you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of meal prep and delivery services, which worked for a while until you realized you were blowing your entire monthly wad on a lot of packaging and more meals you didn’t want to eat anyway.
It’s not your fault if you didn’t stick with those solutions — because they set you up to fail by not giving you wanted to eat in the long run.
This might sound obvious, but food is a really personal, emotional component of our lives. We eat to comfort ourselves, to treat ourselves, to motivate ourselves, and to sustain ourselves in so many ways.
It’s a much deeper and more complicated scenario than just “eat chicken tonight” or “eat tacos on Tuesdays.” And hey, I love eating tacos on Tuesdays and burgers on Saturdays, but maybe that doesn’t work for you.
You don’t want my meal plan because you’re not me. You want a way to organize and plan for the food you really want to eat.
The Make Your Own Meal Plan system is a completely customized, one-on-one coaching program where you and I work together to create a meal plan road map for the way you eat and live.
This personalized, transformational system comes from my own dissatisfaction with the existing meal plan templates out there.
I hated those options too, so I spent years building and tweaking my own custom meal plan system—on paper, on white board calendars, in spreadsheets, you name it.
And after all of these tests and trials, I discovered a way of meal planning that can be adjusted, shifted, and made flexible enough to fit my always-changing schedule.
This is what works for me, and I want to bring that sense of balance and ease to your daily life too.
You don’t have to try and figure this out on your own.
You don’t need to have all the answers or feel like you need to fit someone else’s idea of what a meal plan should be.
What you need is a partner who can provide both nurturing guidance and a tough-love kick in the ass to get you going, and that’s where I come in.
With the Make Your Own Meal Plan system, I’ll give you a truly custom-built system paired with one-on-one support to get you comfortable with a new routine.
But I’m not just telling you what to do and shoving you out the door. I’m with you every step of the way.
I’ll spend time in deep conversation with you, getting to know you and all your food quirks before building the plan that’s right for your lifestyle.
We’ll have a full hour-long consultation and talk about everything:
It’ll be like therapy for the kitchen. Told you food was personal!
Once I’ve downloaded all this information, I’ll create a fully-mapped-out two-week meal plan to get you started.
I’ll use your favorite recipes and foods and tailor the plan to your weekly schedule. Like a couture gown, this is a plan designed to fit you.
We’ll have another individual coaching session to walk through the plan together.
I'll show you how all the elements work, tweak and adjust as necessary, and make sure it feels manageable. Then it’s time for you to put it into action.
As you move through the two-week plan I've created, I'll be checking in with you (AKA being your nagging buddy) regularly.
I'll be available via text and voice chat as well as email to give you both accountability and motivation.
If your days go haywire or if you run into problems with the plan, I will help you recover and pivot with advice and guidance.
And I'll cheer you on and offer support every step of the way!
Once the first two weeks are over, we'll have a final one-on-one session and build another two-week meal plan together, using what worked from the first meal plan and learning from what didn't.
I will make sure you're feeling confident and comfortable, and be there for you with more one-on-one chats and troubleshooting as you continue to work through the plan.
After that, the training wheels are off! But I’ll still be helping you and guiding you, with 30 days of email follow-up access for questions, issues, and support.
You’ve tried it all — and I’ve tried it all too. You feel stalled out and sick of searching for an answer that fits your specific set of life problems.
There’s a way for you to get out of this tailspin. There is an end to the seeking. You can get it locked in and won’t have to think about it anymore.
You won’t be eating Eggo waffles for dinner unless that’s your choice — because it really is a valid choice when you’re deciding out of desire and not desperation.
When the Make Your Own Meal Plan is up and running, you’ll have a set of recipes and strategies you can plug and play for any day, week, or month.
And it will be flexible enough to move with your life and schedule, so when a last-minute meeting or game comes up, you can manage it.
After our time together, you’ll have the momentum to keep building, feeling the confidence to go with the flow and roll with the punches instead of scrapping everything when life gets busy.
In a few months, you’ll have a library of go-to recipes and a solid foundation of pantry ingredients so you can work with the framework of your favorite foods.
You’ll be able to create a plan by “shopping your pantry” with basic elements and simple meals so you don’t have to build from scratch every single time.
By this time next year, you’ll be able to go back to the meal plan from months ago and have it ready to go without a second thought. Swap out a few meals for new ones that are exciting, or simply leave it as is if it looks satisfying to you. No stress, no overthinking, it’s ready to go when you are.
In addition to our one-on-one work and your customized meal plan, the Make Your Own Meal Plan System features a personalized suite of Notion templates designed to make your planning, shopping, and cooking workflow easier:
Because you don’t want to rearrange yourself or your life to fit a plan. You want a plan that fits you.
Because you’re worthy of enjoying good meals every day. And you can make that happen, but you don't have to figure it out on your own.
Not at this time. I firmly believe that accountability is key to finding success in meal planning, and that's why I am here to support you. This program is not passive and I can't magically create something for you without your participation and commitment. If you're looking for an instant, quick-fix solution without any effort on your part, this is not the plan for you.
No! The free Notion plan has everything you need to use the Make Your Own Meal Plan system. You’ll be able to use it on your individual account as well as share it with limited family members.
Notion *can* be complicated, or it can be simple—it’s all about how you want to use it! I will provide an online tutorial to show you all the crucial elements you’ll need to navigate and customize your meal plan in our one-hour walkthrough session. You’ll also get exclusive video tutorials on using and building the meal plan as well.
As long as you want! You have unlimited one-on-one access to me (for troubleshooting and getting comfortable with the program) for one month, but the meal plan system is yours to customize and use forever.
Not to be way harsh, but there are no refunds offered. Due to the time commitment required to work together and create each customized meal plan system, all purchases are final.
I'm a food writer and creative strategist with nearly two decades' experience in recipe development, communications, and project management. I bring together my diverse range of skills to help home cooks like you find their sweet spot of confidence in the kitchen. I've worked with corporate brands, media companies, and publishing houses, but my true passion and purpose is meeting individual cooks where they're at to help them succeed on a personal level.
Hi, I'm Casey Barber. I'm a food writer and creative strategist who combines a visually-oriented artist's approach with a straight-up logical problem-solving mind.
For the past 15 years, I've been an expert guide to home cooks who want to build confidence and gain clarity in the kitchen—and in their lives.
As a cookbook author, recipe developer, and founder of the site Good Food Stories, I create solid, reliable dishes that people want to make again and again.
As a multi-tasking 21st-century woman, I understand that life gets freaking busy and most of the time, all you want to do is just. get. dinner. on the table.
I also know the infinite value of a system that lets you do what you need to do. Forget about overachieving, it's all about doing more with less.
These are the methods I use to keep my life organized and running smoothly, and I want to bring more order and ease to your life too.
a one-on-one, customized, deep-dive program to build a personal meal planning system that works with your life
1429.00 USD
Check your email for all the information you need to get started, or take the next step right now by filling out your intake form.
Copyright © 2023 Casey Barber | Good Food Stories LLC