Meal Planning In 5 Easy Steps
I’m not ashamed to admit that for as long as I can remember I’ve been completely disorganized with meal planning. I buy roughly the same ingredients each week and cook roughly the same meals each week.
From time to time I feel inspired to cook something new, but overall I tend to either follow a similar “meal plan” each week or dinner time suddenly arrives and I have NO IDEA WHAT TO MAKE!
If you’re like me, then this post is for you! I’ve been inspired lately to get into gear and follow a proper Meal Planner so my family can enjoy a wider variety of balanced meals and I can actually know in advance what we will be eating through the week.
Here are the steps I took and that you can take to meal plan in 5 easy steps:
Step 1: Think about the food your family like
Cook what your family enjoy. Get them involved in the planning process. Hold a mini family meeting and ask each family member for the favourite meals.
Take note of meals they would like to enjoy more often and favourite ingredients. That doesn’t have to mean everyone has their favourite every night, but it’s thoughtful to include at least one family members favourite each night.
Step 2: Take stock of what you already have
Look through your pantry, fridge, freezer and make a list of ingredients that you have that you need to or want to cook with in the next week.
This will save you time (and money) when you’re completing the remaining steps in your menu planning exercise.
Step 3: Time to plan!
First try and plan meals around what you already have to hand to minimize your grocery shopping dollars. Take into account family favourite meals acquired in step 1.
Balance the week so you’re having a variety of protein sources each day and over the week you enjoy a variety of foods and flavours.
Pick a couple of theme nights to help plan your week – for example follow Meat Free Mondays, Taco Tuesdays etc. We like “Breakfast For Dinner Thursdays” where we have fried eggs for dinner with heaps of veggies on the side.
Also take into consideration your activities through the week. For example, some nights may be super rushed (or more rushed than usual) with evening sports and other activities. Think about quick and easy meals that can mostly be prepared in advance on those evenings when you need to have dinner on the table in minutes flat!
Seek inspiration from Blogs, Pinterest, YouTube, Instragram – everywhere!
Write out your meal plan. It’s up to you whether you prefer to plan week to week or a whole month in advance – do what feels right for you.
Step 4: Make your shopping list
Once you have your meal plan, cross check with what you already have and then make a list of all the items you still need to complete your meal plan.
Lately I’ve LOVED using the app Wunderlist for my shopping list. I always have my phone on me and I can go through previous week’s lists to add them back onto my list for this week at the tap of a button.
Step 5: Prep & Cook
Now that you know in advance what’s on your menu each night, you can get organized by prepping vegetables and other ingredients in advance when you have the luxury of time.
You can even make notes on your meal plan to help you prepare meals in advance so you don’t even have to think about it!
Putting it into practice:
Last week I went through the above steps and put together the following menu:
Week Commencing – 1st Feb 2016
Dinners:
Monday
Meat Free Monday – Cauliflower & Cashew Curry – Simply Nigella
Tuesday
Sausages with Sweet Potato Mash and veggies
Wednesday
Ribs & Veggies Tray Bake with mashed potatoes
Thursday
Breakfast for dinner – Eggs & Veggies
Friday
Chicken Nugget Burgers – Nom Nom Paleo
Saturday
Mushroom Carbonara
Sunday
Roast Chicken, Potatoes & Veg
Breakfasts:
Toast/Yoghurt/Granola/Fruit/Eggs
Lunches:
Leftovers/Chopped Livers/Salads/Toasted Sandwiches
I shopped twice for all of the ingredients – on Sunday I shopped for everything I needed until Wednesday and then on Wednesday I shopped for everything I’d needed for the rest of the week. Except the chicken for my Sunday roast – that I’ll shop for fresh chicken on Sunday.
Here’s a video of the grocery haul from Sunday at COLES:
Here’s a video of the grocery haul from Thursday at ALDI:
This week has been my first official meal planning week and I found it so much easier getting through the week knowing what we were having for dinner every night. Not having to scramble at dinner time to work out what I’d be making has been simply fantastic.
I’ll be sticking to this meal planning habit in the weeks and months to come and will be sharing my meal plans with you.
Do you meal plan? Got any tips to share? I’d love to hear them!
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