The Complete Guide on Meal Planning

The Complete Guide on Meal Planning

M Hasan    2:08 PM   

Do you find that you're asking yourself, or others, "what's for dinner" all the time? Have you had trouble sticking to a healthy diet? Is this your go-to when you're feeling lazy or don't have anything in the pantry to order? Meal planning is one thing that can help you reduce your stress level around food if you find yourself answering "yes" to these questions.

Meal planning benefits.

Meal planning saves us money, time, and stress in addition to being the secret to answering the dreaded "what's for dinner" question. Taking a look at a few of the numerous advantages of meal planning

• Save money: You will know precisely what has to be purchased if you plan ahead of time before going to the store. You'll be less likely to grab things you don't really need, so save money on pointless food purchases.
• Eat better: It's much simpler to eat conveniently—ordering out, eating fast food, or picking up a last-minute dinner at the store—if you don't have a plan for what to eat during the week. These aren't always the healthiest choices. Organizing your meals in advance forces you to consider what you will eat before you eat it, when you are more likely to make better decisions.
• Less stress: It might be hard to be without a plan. Making hurried dinnertime selections after a demanding workday can lead to decision fatigue, which in turn can lead to poor food choices and anxiety over what to eat.
• Less waste: Organizing your meals guarantees you only buy what you really need. An ingredient is purchased in precisely the appropriate amount—neither too much nor too little. When you do this, waste has less place.
• Time is money, and meal planning saves it: You do not need to make several trips to the food shop every week or at the last minute. No time is wasted pondering your day's meal. Just thirty minutes a week of preparing will save you a ton of time the next week

Five stages to making a meal plan

Let's dive right in now that we know how helpful meal planning can be! Use these five simple guidelines to begin meal planning like a pro.

1. Select a day to plan your meals. 

Meal planning starts with as little as deciding which day to start. Putting meal planning on a certain day of the week will help you start incorporating it into your routine and help it become second nature.} Planning your meals for a certain day also helps you establish a weekly food shopping schedule and prevents you from having to visit the store more than once.

Which day works best for food planning? While there is no correct or incorrect response, the weekend or Friday before is usually a good option. Making this move will allow you to finish your food shopping and meal preparation before the start of a new week.

2.Think about your plans for the next week.

Thinking ahead to the next week and any plans you may have will be the second thing you should do when organizing your meals.

Is there a plan for dinner with friends? Are you leaving town? Have a commitment to make with your family or at work? Whether or not you need to arrange a meal for that day depends on your plans.

You probably won't need to schedule a meal on the days you're heading out to supper or going on vacation. You will want to be aware, though, on days when you have obligations like a kid's basketball game or an after-work happy hour. Your future self will thank you later for scheduling an easy, low-effort supper.

3. Pick your recipes, step three.

Here we come to the meat and potatoes (pun intended) of meal planning. Choose your dinners now! By now, you ought to have a fair notion of what the next week will bring. You'll be aware of the days you need to plan your meals and the ones when you'll want something simple and quick to prepare.

Here are some pointers to get you started selecting your weekly meals:

• Do you keep a handy list of your preferred dishes? List your top dishes—the ones you find yourself making time and time again. You always turn to these recipes. Starting your meal plan will be simple if you have a list of eight to ten meals you enjoy at hand. Select four to five of these dishes each week to spice up your dinners, and then fill in the blanks with new dishes to try.
• Stay in balance with your proteins: Even if you adore chicken, you probably don't want to eat it every day. Try to plan no more than two or three meals with the same protein. This variation will ensure that you eat a well-balanced diet and do not get bored of the same thing. Try mixing up your meals so you have a variety of proteins—chicken, beef, pig, and fish—and add a day or two of completely meatless meals.
• Include fruit and vegetables: While organizing your meals, keep them in mind. Adults should consume 1.5–2 cups of fruit and 2-3 cups of vegetables daily as part of a healthy diet, but the CDC reports that just 1 in 10 adults do. To guarantee you're receiving enough fruits and vegetables, you might purposefully plan to incorporate these amounts into your daily meals. It may be as simple as scheduling a smoothie for breakfast or serving a side salad with dinner.
• Select a quick and easy dinner or two: Life gets busy, as we all know. For that purpose, we serve these meals. Choose one or two dishes that require little preparation time, a small number of components, and minimal cleanup. You'll be glad you have a few simple dishes in your repertoire even if you don't have a hectic schedule because things happen—you feel under the weather, you're tired after a long work day, etc.
• Take into account items you now own: You most likely already have an overflowing cupboard and a refrigerator full of leftovers. Consider possible uses for what you already have on hand. Got extra lettuce or an empty box of pasta? Make an effort to center your meal around these items. You will also save money and waste less. That gets us to...
• Remember expiration dates: Consider how quickly some of the components may go bad when you're planning your meals. This is especially critical when it comes to fresh goods that have a limited shelf life or must be used or frozen a few days after purchase. To reduce waste, aim to plan meals with items that could spoil rapidly to be eaten earlier in the week.
• Consider ingredients for several meals: Asking yourself what ingredients may be utilized for several meals is another way to reduce waste. Have a recipe calling for cilantro, but not enough to use the entire bunch? What extra meals may you include in your schedule to make use of the whole lot and avoid wasting anything? Meal planning in this manner can also result in grocery shop savings. Should you intend to prepare chicken for several meals, you may choose to save money by purchasing it in bulk.
• Try theme nights: Choosing a new daily theme is a simple and enjoyable approach to arranging meals. Try sandwich Saturdays, taco Tuesdays, and meatless Mondays. Possibilities are countless! There are days set aside for casseroles, barbecues, or even attempting something new. This not only helps you plan more quickly, but also helps you mix things up. 
• Arrange for leftovers: Do you have a dish that yields a lot of food? Keep the remainders for the next day. Would you rather have extras during lunch? To be sure you have enough, size up your recipe. "Having a meal plan enables you to manage leftovers wisely, so you never have too much or too little." 
• Meal planning has no right or wrong approach, but these pointers will make it easier. When you first start meal planning, make your week full of your favorite, go-to dishes to ease yourself in. Once you get into the routine, you can then start to be even more inventive with your meal plan.

4. Plan your daily meals.

Organizing your weekly meals comes next. Give each of the recipes you selected one day of the week. This is very useful because you have a few hectic days planned. Make your easy and quick dinner plans for those days now.

One key point: although planning your meals for each day helps to solidify your strategy, it's not really required. It is perfectly acceptable if you would rather select your meals but leave them unplanned! The nice thing about meal planning is that it gives your weekly eating habits some structure while still allowing you to be adaptable when necessary. 

Go ahead and change things around if your dinner calls for a little more work yet you're worn out by the time dinner arrives. Moving meals around depends entirely on your mood that day. Better still, plan in an extra easy and quick dinner on days like this because you probably will run across this occasionally.

5. Write a shopping list. 

It's time to create your grocery list after you've selected your meals and scheduled them out. Following are four easy procedures to make your grocery list before you start: 

1. Look over your scheduled meals and list all the ingredients you'll need for each recipe. 
2. Using your written list, see what you may already have in your freezer, refrigerator, and pantry. Cross out anything on your list that you already own. 
3. Sort through and throw out any expired goods or rotten food before or while you're checking your freezer and refrigerator. 
4. Lastly, list any basic supplies you may be running low on or out of. Things like cooking spray, spices, olive oil, tin foil, and any other essentials or oddballs for the kitchen.

That's it. You've got your shopping list!

How to include food planning in your daily schedule.

Any new habit you want to form into your routine needs time and practice. You will, in all likelihood, occasionally fall behind in your preparation and have periods when you don't plan at all. That is allowed. Here are some challenges and solutions you may encounter: 

• Your life changes: Whether your kids are returning to school or you work from home, your everyday schedule may change, making it more difficult to stick to meal planning. Right now is a great opportunity to reconsider how you may make meal planning beneficial to you. Changing the day on which you arrange your meals or asking a family member for assistance could be all it takes. 
•  You become mired in a rut: Planning meals might occasionally grow monotonous over time. Though some of the above advice should help avoid this, don't be afraid to experiment if you find yourself feeling less enthusiastic about what you're eating. This is the reason we advise making time in your meal plan to experiment with different dishes, even for a single night every week or two. Finding fresh ideas for your food plan can be done well on Pinterest, blogs, and publications. 

Recognize that you are moving closer to incorporating meal planning into your regular schedule just by beginning today. Should it ever become unworkable for you, don't be reluctant to reevaluate and make the necessary adjustments to get back on track.