Meal planning is essentially taking a couple hours on one day out of the week to prepare most or all of your meals and snacks for the whole week.
24 x 7 = 168. That's how many hours you have to work with each week accomplish everything you need or want to do. If you're starting from scratch every single night (cooking, prepping, and cleaning up), you might easily lose more than 7 of those precious hours each week. That is seven or more hours you could be hanging out with your family, working out, working on a project or hobby of yours, or simply just winding down after a long, hard day. Meal planning can help you win some of those hours back.
Again, you would need to pick one day (which, for most people, is preferably on a weekend) to work your magic in the kitchen. You might even split up the process over the course of your three-day weekend - plan one day, shop one day, cook/prep one day. Initially, these steps might take a little bit longer but the more you do it, the easier and quicker you'll go. This series is developed to help you streamline that routine as much as possible.
The Reality
In all honesty, though, meal planning can easily get overwhelming. Here are some tips to help get the ball rolling and not get overwhelmed to the point of giving up on this journey.
#1 The ALL-IN-ONE (or binder, or folder, etc.) Start to keep your recipes organized all in one place. Get all those tried, tested, and true meals and snacks you and your household enjoy and keep them all in one place - a file, a folder, a Drive, a recipe box (there are some gorgeous ones out there for purchase), or a binder. Print them, pin them, do whatever works for you. But start to keep them all in ONE place.
Take that a step further, now, and use tabs (or hashtags) to organize them. Consider the following tab suggestions: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Sides, Salads, Soups, Seafood, Vegetables, Slow Cooker, Poultry, Beef & Pork, and whatever other category titles you deem necessary. Then, when you start planning, you don't have to brainstorm. Just reference your recipe box.
If you don't have any of your recipes saved, it's never too late to start. This will make your life easier down the road. If you've already got them memorized, you're one step ahead of the game!
#2 KEEP AMBITION UNDER CONTROL - Stick to only one new recipe per week. Planning several new meals you've never cooked before is a praiseworthy endeavor but such ambition can often lead to problems, frustration, and lost time. Even the best of cooks will typically take more time the first time through a new recipe. Keeping it simple can keep much of the unknown to a minimum. Yet, with one new recipe a week, you can continue to grow your recipe base and keep it feeling new. So, use your ALL-IN-ONE reference for all but one recipe per week.
#3 CHOOSE THE RIGHT RECIPES - Complex recipes that require many ingredients or very particular cooking methods (which may also translate to many dishes to clean) are not very practical when it comes to meal planning. There are many 5-10 ingredient meals you can work with and we'll cover some of those in an upcoming part of the series.
If you are searching for cookbooks or great resources, look for some keywords that might fit your needs such as: One-Pan recipes, Busy Weeknight recipes, Slow Cooker Recipes, Budget Recipes, Sheet Pan Recipes, Freezer-Friendly recipes, and so on. Trustworthy, credible sites or cookbooks can provide delicious ideas that still fit this practical criteria.
#4 BE REALISTIC - A realistic meal prep plan creates somewhere between 3 to 5 dinners weekly. While 7 different dinners a week is possible, 3-5 is a great starting point. Bottom line? You don't have to prep and plan for every single day of the week if you pick leftover-friendly and repurpose-friendly recipes. We will have a future section on this, too.
#5 FRIDGE & PANTRY CLEAN-UP - Before picking your recipes for the week, consider looking at what foods you may need to use up (both fresh, frozen, or pantry items). It helps to keep your pantry items organized by expiration date, if possible, to make this step easier. Use the foods you find to find recipes that use them.
#6 KEEP YOUR PANTRY MEAL-PLANNING-FRIENDLY - Ask any experienced meal planner what top life-saving strategy they have and this will probably be one of them. Recipes will sometimes have unique ingredients specific to that one recipe. But, let's face it, there are some common denominators in most recipes. These are the ingredients we always want on hand.
Always keep a reasonable supply of versatile pantry essentials that you commonly use a lot. These are the basic, core ingredients that can complete your recipes or help you whip up a quick recipe on challenging nights.
#7 $$$ Saving Tip - USE YOUR GROCERY LIST AT HOME FIRST - Before you rush off to the store with your list, take a few minutes to quickly scan through your list and compare to what you already have on hand. You may get to cross some things off your list before even leaving the house. It happens. We may forget what we already have on hand.
#8 PLAN B RECIPES ARE RECIPES TO THE RESCUE - Life happens. Plans don't always work out. Have a couple back-up ideas that are quick, easy, but nourishing. It might even be a quick breakfast recipe for dinner. Just make sure it includes a food from each essential food group: complex carbs (i.e. frozen sweet potatoes or squash, whole wheat bread or english muffins, quinoa, rice, etc), vegetables (frozen may be most simple in this context but canned can work, too), lean proteins (quick options include canned tuna or canned beans), healthy fats (oils, nut butters, avocado).
#9 MEAL THEMES MAKE YOUR LIFE SIMPLE - Taco night, salad night, rice night, egg night, seafood night, pizza night, pasta night, the list goes on. If you pick a few, it narrows down what direction you'll go for planning and then prepping! Why not give every night a theme? Too predictable? Then, maybe just a night or two per week.
Stick around next month for a lesson on the art of batch cooking, meal planning gear, and a useful guide to make your pantry, fridge, and freezer meal planning friendly.
