How I Meal Plan
Do you ever find yourself wondering what you’re going to have for dinner tonight? Or you have something in mind but you don’t have all the ingredients for it? I find one of the keys to staying on track with eating good meals at home is to meal plan. I don’t meal prep because eating the same thing every day for a week isn’t for me, but I do like meal planning because I know what I’m going to eat when, and I can better plan my grocery list so that I have everything I need for those meals.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we eat exactly what we have planned every night; some nights I’m tired and I just want to order in pizza instead of making a full dinner, and that’s okay! Meal planning isn’t necessarily for people who want to diet or count calories. It’s just a simple way of planning ahead so that you’re prepared, and it also keeps you accountable at the grocery store. I do try to keep my meals somewhat healthy, but that’s not always the case. There are plenty of times where my meal plan includes “Friday Dinner: Order pizza” and “Tuesday Lunch: Chick-fil-A”. Meal planning isn’t a diet style. It’s just planning ahead and then only buying the groceries needed for those meals.
I’ve tried most all the planning/prepping you can do for weekly meals, and I find that, especially working from home, that simple meal planning is the most effective for me and my lifestyle. Meal prepping, aka making large batches of food and portioning it out into individual meals for the week, worked well when my husband and I were both commuting for work. You cook once or twice a week, and the rest you just grab and go. This saves a lot of time in the morning, but you do end up eating repeated meals. Food prepping is pretty much the same concept as meal prepping in that you cook large batches of food at the beginning of the week, but you don’t portion out meals. This form of prepping allows a little more variety in the meals you can build with the food you prepped. It takes the tedious work out of cooking so that when it comes time to eat, everything is done and all you have to do is throw it together. The main items I’ve prepped have been rice or pasta, roasted potatoes, chopped veggies, washed greens, etc. However, food prepping still leaves meals sort of open ended. You have all these prepped foods, but now you have to figure out how to make them a meal. Meal planning tells you exactly what meal you’re making.
I like to buy weekly calendar pads from the dollar section at Target (sometimes they have actual meal planning sheets like these) and leave them on my fridge. Every week before we go grocery shopping, I plan out each meal we’re going to eat, taking into account days we have plans or that we want to eat out, and write out our grocery list as I go. This way I know exactly what we’re going to eat and what ingredients I need to make those meals. This means there are no surprises, and usually no last minute runs to the grocery store for a forgotten item. This is also a great time to take inventory of what you already have in your fridge or pantry. I figure out what meals I can make using the food I already have, and then hopefully I don’t need to buy too much from the store. Currently, I’m only planning dinners. I used to plan breakfasts and lunches as well, but since my husband and I are both working at home, it’s not as necessary. I also try to make enough at dinner so that we have leftovers to eat for lunch the next day.
Other than the calendar, I also bounce between the Notes app and the Reminders app on my iPhone to make my grocery list. You can also write it down on a notepad, but I like how clean the app makes it. You can easily check off an item once you have it in your cart and it moves to the bottom of your list in Notes, or it disappears off your list in Reminders. Something I’m still working on is organizing my grocery list by section (meat, dairy, produce, etc.). The Reminders app is great for this because you can edit your list to reorder the entries. The goal is to be in the grocery store as little as possible. Less wandering also means less random items you’re likely to place in your cart as you pass by. I definitely grab my fair share of non-listed items, but I do try and write down any snacks I may be inclined to buy before I go into the store.
Most of the time, I’m planning my meals for the week on Saturday or Sunday before I go to the store. But, if I see a recipe or think of something I want to eat throughout the week, I’ll write it down for the next week’s meals. I also keep a running grocery list that I’ll add to if I think of something I need or if we run out of something.
Something I like to do is have a schedule or “theme” for my weekly meals. Most often, we eat Mexican on Tuesdays and we go out on Fridays or Saturdays. Other “themes” include Asian inspired meals and pastas/Italian dishes. I also try to space out similar foods; if I’m making chicken Monday, I’ll try not to make chicken Tuesday. And if I’m having a carb-heavy meal one day, I’ll try and keep the next few meals a little lighter, or emphasize the protein. It’s all about balance. I also like to try and plan my meals around the weather, so if I know we’re going to have a particularly chilly day, I might plan a hearty soup or chili for that dinner.
Meal planning helps narrow down the items you buy at the store, but it’s also important to stock up on easy meals for those days you don’t feel like cooking. This includes frozen meals, dried pasta, deli meat and cheese for sandwiches, rotisserie chickens, etc. If the goal is to save money or eat out less, then having these around the house provides one more buffer between cooking and ordering take-out.