Meal Planning Guide

Meal planning can help you save money and time while preparing delicious and healthy meals.

Like any new, healthy habit, it requires a bit of getting used to, but it saves both time and money in the long run. It can also reduce stress and help you succeed in your healthy eating goals. I suggest scheduling a time each week to spend at least 30 minutes meal planning. I've attached my meal planning form to make this easier, and it helps you to create a shopping list as well. Once you’ve done this for 3-4 weeks, you can go back and re-use previous meals or use previous plans for inspiration and timesaving.

Following these steps can make meal planning less overwhelming. Have fun with it and soon it will become second nature.

Involve Family

When beginning your meal plan adventure, have a discussion with the people you regularly eat with, whether it’s family members or housemates. Consider collaborating in the kitchen or switching off days you cook. If you are the only cook, involve them in the meal planning by asking what they would like to eat or what their favorite (and least favorite) ingredients are.

When they go out to eat, what is their favorite cuisine?

 You can also use the form to get the whole family involved in meal preparation by assigning tasks or allowing you all to see what’s for dinner and for the first available person to start preparing the meal because the plan is posted in the kitchen. This is a great way for teens to see what’s involved in planning, shopping, cooking and clean-up for 3 meals per day as they’ll be doing this on their own soon. For little ones, it is an opportunity to introduce them to the kitchen and get them excited about trying new foods. If they drop an egg on the floor or spill the coconut milk, relax! It is a learning process.

Build Your Recipe Repertoire

Remember that box of 3x5 index cards your grandmother had, filled with favorite family and holiday recipes? Well, that is exactly what you are doing here. Whether you choose to use recipe cards or an app such as https://realplans.com, building a stockpile of recipes will simplify your meal planning over time.

Start with your familiar go-to recipes and be sure to write them out. When you swap out ingredients in a favorite recipe to adhere to your new diet, make a note of what the original ingredient was in case you want to change it around again in the future. As the weeks progress, add in a couple new recipes to try each week. Find new recipes by taking 2-3 cookbooks out from the library at a time. Or choose an ingredient and do a Google recipe search, when you find websites you like, bookmark them. I find key words or phrases such as healthy, paleo, dairy-free, and gluten-free help narrow the search. For example, “healthy paleo broccoli recipes”.

A good goal is to work up to about 20 recipes for each season. As the weather and the produce available changes throughout the year, we often eat seasonally without realizing it. Start paying closer attention to this and cater your recipes to these seasonal changes. For example, in the fall we tend towards winter squashes, apples, nuts and warmer spices while as we head into spring tender lettuces and asparagus may be what we crave.

Even as you become a meal planning veteran you can still challenge yourself to try 1-2 new recipes per week to keep things interesting, then fall back on 3-4 favorites to keep things simple.

Plan Your Week

Once you have a menu plan created for the week, use it to build your grocery list. Create a grocery list template to save time. Here you add everything you ever buy (and you can add on as you add more ingredients to your repertoire), then each week just click on what you need to customize the list. Organize your list according to sections of the grocery store for faster shopping. For example, all produce is listed together, then canned goods, and so on. Once you have added everything you need for your weekly meal plan, add on any other staples and you are ready to go.

Find a rhythm in your weekly schedule. Each week set aside time to create your meal plan and build your grocery list. Then, look at your schedule and find a time to grocery shop, either once or twice depending on your rhythm. Some people shop every 3-4 days, some people find it easier to shop once per week. Be sure to schedule the time into your week so you are not stressed out and running through the store.

Prep your Meals

You do not need to cook every day, so figure out ahead of time each week which days will be easiest for you to cook and which days you will need a dinner that you have prepared ahead of time. I find that I do not have as much time to cook on the days that I grocery shop, so I plan for that. Cut up vegetables for a side dish or stir-fry in advance and store fresh in the refrigerator. Get into the habit of batch cooking. Double or triple stew, soup, curry, sauce, stock, meatball, or casserole recipes and freeze in family or individual size portions. Date and label your freezer items. You can also batch cook individual ingredients such as beans or peeled and roasted squash. Roast a whole chicken or two, reserve some for immediate use, then shred and freeze the rest in portions. Freeze the bones separately to make a large stock later when you have several more carcasses.

 For recommendations on how long a food will stay fresh once frozen, go here:https://www.almanac.com/content/freezer-storage-times-how-long-can-you-freeze-foods 

When freezing, be sure to push as much air out of the container you are using as possible, this will help keep the food fresh for longer as air leads to freezer burn. Gallon and quart freezer bags work great and can be labeled with a sharpie, however the plastic can be wasteful and not environmentally friendly. To reduce waste, consider freezer safe, reusable silicone bags such as Zip Top https://ziptop.com/ or Stasher https://www.stasherbag.com/. These require an initial investment but they last a long time and if they break or tear the companies will send a prepaid shipping label for you to return them to be recycled so there is never any waste.

For recommendations on how to store prepped ingredients or freezer ingredients or meals, go here: https://earthfriendlytips.com/how-to-freeze-food-without-plastic/

The Gift of Leftovers and Freezer Meals

Cooking meals ahead of time is like a gift to your future self. It reduces stress when you have the time carved out and the ingredients on hand to make extra meals. So, batch cook to your heart’s delight and remember to include your freezer meals in future meal plans. Once you are in the habit of making extra for the freezer, you will find that instead of opening the freezer and seeing it as the place frozen pizzas go to die, it will be a haven of nourishing homemade meals ready to eat.

Leftovers are another gift to yourself. You can freeze them in meal size portions or use them the next day. When putting leftovers away, make a meal to bring to work, then it will be ready to go in the morning when you may be in a hurry to get out the door. Incorporating leftovers into your breakfast and lunch menus save time and reduces waste. This, in turn, reduces your grocery, restaurant, and take out bills.

Remember, you do not need to cook every day!

Don’t stress, meal planning makes cooking easier and allows more time to do the things you love. As you learn to cook smarter you may find that it becomes less of a hurried chore at the end of a long day and more of a meditative Sunday afternoon activity to prepare you for a successful week ahead. Even if meal planning remains a chore for you, it undeniably unclutters your daily stress of what to eat and allows for a more nutrient dense diet.

Take time to enjoy the fruits of your labor

You have put in the work and intention to provide yourself and your family with love and nourishment through the homecooked meals you are providing. Take time to set the table, turn off the tv, put away your phones and take a deep breath. This may be the only time during a busy weekday that you can create a truly present environment for your family to come together, so make the most of it.