Meal planning is an important aspect of sustainable eating (check out my blog post Sustainable Eating Made Easy) and sustainable living altogether. It can provide numerous benefits for you and your family. According to Project Meal Plan, meal planning is the simple act of taking some time to plan any number of your meals for the week. And this simple act can make your life a WHOLE LOT EASIER. Get started with meal planning using this beginner-friendly guide I’ve created for you below.
First, assess your needs.
Whether it be to save money, time, minimise food waste, or satisfy your dietary requirements, meal planning can provide a solution. So, it’s important to first determine your reasons for meal planning so that your plan can be tailored to fit those needs. This step is essential for effective meal planning.
Choose your recipes.
Meal planning is more likely to be successful when you focus on dishes you like. It may be more tempting to seek out recipes that are easier to prepare. However, with meal planning, the probability you’d be eating the same dish more than once for the week is high, so it’s important that you really enjoy the meals prepared.
To further narrow down recipes for the week you, may also look at what’s already stocked in your pantry or what’s regularly on your grocery shopping list, and build dishes around that. If your needs are dietary, try looking at healthier or more nutritious ways to make your favourite recipes.
Come up with a few basic recipes and rotate from week to week to avoid getting bored.
Decide which meals of the day will be planned.
You don’t need to plan all your meals for the day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and you certainly shouldn’t start out this way. Meal planning shouldn’t be exhausting, it’s meant to make your life easier! Some ideas for starting could be prep for one meal, like breakfast, for an easier start to your day. Or, you can try prepping dinner so that you don’t have too much to do after a long day at work.
It’s time to go shopping.
Once you’ve narrowed down your recipes for the week and decided which meals of the day you’re going to prep, it’s time to go grocery shopping. But hold up! Before you do, check your pantry to see what items you already have, then make a shopping list for the remaining items you need to complete your recipes. Now, off to the supermarket!
Prep begins!
Your prep can take a variety of forms – from chopping all the vegetables you need to prepare your meals for the week on Sunday, to fully preparing your recipes for the entire week. Where you fall along this spectrum depends on your bespoke needs and how much time you can devote to meal prep. Alternatively, meal planning need not involve any form of food preparation by you. For instance, if you have specific dietary needs but little or no time to prepare dinner for the week, meal planning for you will involve identifying restaurants that prepare dinner meals that satisfy your nutritional requirements, at a price point you can afford, ahead of the upcoming week. Remember, meal planning consists of identifying what and how your meals are prepared, and (as the term suggests) creating a plan for this, not necessarily creating the meal.
Be flexible.
Recall, your meal plan is meant to simplify your life. So, take it easy! Start with small steps and make adjustments as you go along. The likelihood of success will increase if you go at your own pace. So don’t be too hard on yourself and most importantly, remember your reasons for doing this. This is critical to your meal planning success.
As a Nutritionist I approve of these meal planning tips. Another benefit of meal planning is being better able to track what you eat, especially for health and fitness purposes so get at these tips guys!
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Very practical.