Feeling overwhelmed by the daily dinner dilemma? Tired of constantly ordering takeaway because there’s nothing in the cupboards? Do you want your family to eat healthy, home cooked meals but you’re lacking inspiration? Well, my guide to easy meal planning ideas for beginners may be the answer!
Benefits of Meal Planning?
Meal planning is basically devising a plan of what you and your family will be eating during the coming week. This helps to:
- Reduce stress – no more staring blankly into the fridge wondering what to cook that evening
- Reduce waste – no more throwing away decomposing bags of lettuce or mouldy carrots
- Reduce the amount you spend – meal planning is great if you are on a budge as it will save you money. You’ll be less tempted at the supermarket to put things in your trolley that you don’t need
- Add variety to your meals – no-one will be saying “not pasta AGAIN!”
- Save you time – whilst it takes a bit of time and effort to get started, in the long run you will save yourself a lot of time
- Help you lose weight – by planning your meals you can choose healthier options and you won’t be tempted to order takeout when hungry
How to Meal Plan as a Beginner
How you meal plan depends on factors such as, how much you like cooking; how often you shop; how organised you like to be, and what your family does during the week. I tend to plan all of our evening meals and lunches too on weekends. I don’t feel the need to plan for breakfasts or weekday lunches but you may feel differently. Some people like to plan everything, including snacks.
The meal plan is there to make your life easier, so if something isn’t working for you, then review it, and make some changes. If things don’t feel right, maybe you’re over planning or being too rigid. My meal plan can change mid-week and I’ll switch meals to different nights or decide we deserve a treat and order a takeaway instead. Just remember to keep it as simple as possible. It’s meant to be a help not a hindrance. Meal planning doesn’t mean cooking from scratch every night. Be realistic and decide how many nights a week you can cook and where you may need a simpler solution.
The Step by Step Process
1. Make a list of meals
This is an essential element of successful meal planning and really helps to take the stress out of the process. Your list should include a variety of around 20 to 30 meals that your family enjoys. Try to get inspiration from many places – recipe websites, cookbooks, friends, family and social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest. You can also involve those you live with – ask your family if there are some dishes they would like on the list.
It’s a good idea to categorise your list depending on the main ingredient, cuisine or time to cook e.g. “chicken”; “30 minutes”, “mexican”. Store your list somewhere. I’ve used excel spreadsheets and also tried an app called Any List. Both work but I think my preference is my spreadsheet. Storing your list doesn’t have to be high tech though. If you prefer, you can use a pen and paper approach and have a binder of recipes and meal ideas. However you prefer to do it, get started on creating that list!
2. Check the calendar for the week
Next, have a look at the family schedule for the week to get some idea of how much time you have to cook and what kind of meals are needed. Who’s doing what? Do some nights need very quick meals? Can you sit down together or will you be eating at different times? Do you want to plan a meal out or a takeaway on certain days?
3. Check what food you already have in the house?
Then take a look at what food you already have in the house that could be used that week. Check your freezer, fridge and cupboards for items you would like to use and meals that could be made with them and incorporate these into your plan.
4. Choose your meals
Choose the meals to have that week and which days you will cook them, ensuring they’ll fit in with your schedule. Write the list of meals down and keep it somewhere that it can easily be seen. It could be a piece of paper on your fridge, on a whiteboard in the kitchen or as a google doc on your phone. I like to put the meals into my calendar on my mobile phone.
5. Write a grocery list
Next you’ll need to create a grocery list of items you will need. Write it down or use your phone. Make sure to take a look at your cupboards after you’ve made your shopping list. You’ll probably find that you already have one or two items that are on your list so you could be saving money by checking. Then go shopping and remember to try to be strict and only buy what is on your list. I’m sure you’ll be surprised at how much less you spend.
6. Keep the meal plans that work
As the weeks go by you’ll create loads of weekly meal plans. Keep the ones that your family liked the best and before you know it you’ve got a plenty of weekly meal plans to choose from and you’ll just need to make your shopping list without much extra thought.
Other Ideas for Easy Meal Planning for Beginners
Schedule some time
It’s important to schedule some time for meal planning. It does require some concentration and time to do it properly (especially at the beginning), so set aside some time to focus on it to complete the task.
Get a slow cooker
Think about investing in a slow cooker and using it often – I find my stress levels are much reduced on days that I’ve planned to use my slow cooker. I try to prepare the pot the night before with all the raw ingredients and put it in the fridge. Then just before I go to work, I turn it on. This means most of the work for dinner is done by the time I come home and then it’s just a few finishing touches before a delicious dinner is on the table! Why not try my slow cooker spaghetti Bolognese.
Theme Nights
Try adding a theme to each evening meal to simplify the process of choosing meals. Themes could be based around an ingredient (e.g. chicken, pasta) or a cuisine (e.g. italian, chinese) or even the way you want to cook (e.g. roasting, slow cooker). A plan may look like this:
Monday – pasta night
Tuesday – Traybake
Wednesday – slow cooker
Thursday – stir fry
Friday – Indian
Saturday – fish and salad
Sunday – roast dinner
Batch Cook
Try batch cooking whenever possible. This means cooking double the amount you need and freezing the extra portions for another day when you have less time to cook. My favourite meals to batch-cook are casseroles, bolognese sauce, soups and curries.
Love your leftovers!
Many dishes are great as leftovers for lunch the following day, saving you the effort of cooking again.
Don’t be too ambitious.
It can be tempting to pick a load of recipes you’ve never tried and then find yourself overwhelmed and trying to cook meals that don’t fit your needs. You don’t need to try loads of different recipes each week. Base your meals around tried and tested dishes and if you fancy something new try a different recipe once in a while.
What about meal prepping?
If you’re just starting out I’d focus on getting your meal plans sorted first or start small and prep one or two things and see how it works for you. Meal prepping refers to spending some spare time (usually an hour or two on a weekend) preparing as much of the week’s food as possible. This might mean chopping and storing vegetables, marinating meat, preparing salads, prepping the slow cooker pot etc.
To get you started take a look at this great balanced 7-day meal plan, including snacks from the British Nutrition Foundation.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by it all just remember that meal planning takes practice. Don’t give up if it doesn’t go right in the first week. It’s an evolving process and you get better at it the more you do it!
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