There are so many incredible benefits of meal planning. In this post, learn my super simple method for making a menu, grocery list and weekly meal plan that will let nothing go to waste. Meal planning saves you not only money and time, but can also improve your health and reduce stress!
Have you seen all the memes about buying a container of spring mix just to throw it in the trash?
It’s kinda funny but also kinda not.
If you’re frustrated with the amount of food that ends up in the trash, you’re in a recipe rut, or overwhelmed with meal planning, I’d love to give you some ideas and inspiration.
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Meal Planning Saves You Time
Taking a small amount of time to make a plan will save you time in the long run.
Whenever you don’t have a flexible plan laid out, you end up using that time and then some to figure out dinner each night. And what’s more, you’re attempting to do this at the end of the day when you’re already tired.
Much of the time you also have to add in multiple trips to the store since you didn’t have a detailed list with everything you needed at once.
Then there’s the amount of time you spend in the store. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t have a list, I waste a lot more time trying to simultaneously scan the aisles, think about what we’re out of, what meals I’d like to make, and what ingredients I’d need for those.
The most efficient way of doing anything is to do it right the first time.
The adage goes, ‘Fail to plan, plan to fail’, and while I think there is plenty of flexibility in how you go about it, having some sort of plan will always save you time.
It Saves You Money
If this seems at all like a stretch, hear me out.
First of all, the more trips you have to make the store the more impulse buys and temptations you face.
It’s way too easy to “go ahead and grab” something that looks yummy or convenient, especially if you’re running out for last-minute ingredients when you’re already hungry.
Secondly, even if you manage to only get what you need, chances are you’re picking up ingredients for specific recipes. Lots of specific ingredients that you only use a little of = higher grocery bills.
Thirdly, if you’re choosing random recipes from Pinterest or elsewhere, you’ll more than likely have to cook every night. Much of the time popular recipes are made with couples and small families in mind.
Meal planning allows you not only to plan for leftovers, but also to use the same ingredients in different ways.
This will save you money every time. Less is going to waste, you’re buying less overall, and you can even buy in bulk.
And it almost goes without saying that you can make your grocery list with your budget in mind. It’s a lot easier to stay on track when you’re listing everything out. If your list is a mile long, you might want to cut some things that aren’t necessary. And you can always make your list on your store’s phone app and it will keep track of all the prices for you!
Meal Planning For Health and Weight Loss
One of the most searched terms in regard to meal planning is ‘weight loss’. It’s a sticky subject and I’m not here to trigger anyone.
I do believe there are times when healthy weight loss is good and necessary. I’m sure your doctor would let you know if that’s you. And if it is, I’m sure she’d also tell you that having a plan is key.
In conjunction with this is health in general. We can all agree that convenience foods are not healthy.
Making things ourselves is more than worth our effort.
Meal planning helps you avoid unwanted ingredients, and shop and cook in a way that will set you up for success. If I don’t stick to my plan we end up making a lot of quesadillas or ordering pizza.
Nothing wrong with that from time to time of course, but without planning it’d bread-and-cheese type meals much of the time. And that’s no good for overall health or weight loss.
Meal Planning Can Reduce Your Stress
I’m sure you can already see where I’m going.
If having a plan is saving you time and money, and improving you physical health, how could it not reduce stress?
But first we have to talk about when meal planning feels overwhelming.
Luke can attest that I used spend a lot of time trying to come up with a detailed meal plan and grocery list. I was always trying to find a way to streamline the process and complaining about how hard it was.
I was doing a couple of things wrong.
First, I wasn’t batching or doubling anything. One meal was pretty much one meal, and I was going for way too much variety. Now, I am NOT one to make a huge batch of something and eat it every day for lunch that week. Can’t do it.
But relying on leftovers or batches of rice used in different ways, for example, is crucial for me now.
Another thing that caused me stress with meal planning was searching for perfectly healthy recipes (my definition at the time, anyway) while also being subconsciously annoyed that my kids probably wouldn’t eat it.
Nowadays I balance this with making things from scratch with quality ingredients instead of a Paleo version of the thing I actually want. Or the vegan version, or low carb, or whatever phases I went through.
And guess what? My kids eat and appreciate a lot more of my meals than they once did.
Below you’ll read about my simple way of meal planning now. I don’t spend hours each week worrying about it and trying to remember what we need at the store.
Having a plan and sticking to it frees up brain space, saves money, can improve your health, and gives you direction and structure. All of this adds up to reduced stress.
Tips For Meal Planning
It’s almost laughable how much less time I spend meal planning and making my list compared to a couple of years ago.
Here are a few tips to get you started, followed by the way I plan everything now and how it helps me avoid food waste.
- Have a few trusted sources for recipes and inspiration. There are so many bloggers creating amazing recipes and giving them to you for free on the internet (*ahem*). Pinterest can be great for inspiration but sometimes it can end up wasting our time, scrolling through the endless options and shiny photos. I have a few favorite recipe blogs that I go to time and time again that align with the way I like to cook (and to eat!). I also subscribe to Jillian Margaret’s Simple Seasons, which does a lot of the work for me. I usually choose a few of her meal ideas, a few of my own recipes, and think up the rest based on what we have (see below).
- Have a rotation you can pull from. This could mean saving previous weeks’ meal plans or having some sort of template in mind. For example, Soup Sundays, Mexican Mondays, Sandwich Tuesdays, and so on. There’s still lots of flexibility with this, so you can utilize what you have on hand, but it also helps quickly narrow your focus.
- Give yourself grace. I don’t like to set in stone which meals I’ll make when, and sometimes I change things up on the fly. If you thrive on having a meticulous schedule, that is fine. Whatever the case, if you deviate from the plan or you do end up ordering a pizza because things went haywire, that’s just life. Your plan is there to help you get back on track and don’t forget to utilize your freezer!
My Simple Method
Are you following along on Instagram yet?
- Grab a piece of paper. It can be any size. You’re going to fold it into thirds so you have three columns.
- At the top of the first column, write ‘Use’. In the second, write ‘Meals’, and in the third write, ‘Need’.
- Before you start coming up with meal ideas, you need to look at what you have. Look through your fridge and cabinets and write down what you have that you need to use up, or that you can utilize in your meal plan.
- Now look at your ‘Use’ list and see what ingredients you could group together in a meal, or what meals come to mind when you look at those ingredients. Write those down as you think of them in the ‘Meals’ column.
- As you do this you’ll probably notice what ingredients you’re missing for those meals. Maybe you have some ground beef, cheese and spices and want to make chili. But you don’t have beans or tomato paste. Jot those ingredients down in the ‘Need’ column and that becomes your grocery list.
- You may need to cross-reference your lists with recipes if you are newer to cooking and aren’t sure what all you’d need for a chili recipe, or whatever you choose. But your on-hand ingredients should trigger ideas, and that’s always where you should start. I like to check off my ‘Use’ list as I think of meals to use them up. The goal is to check all of those off by the time I finish my meal plan.
- When you have everything written down, fold the first and third columns back so that the middle one is showing. That’s your meal plan for the week! Hang it on your fridge and check things off as you go 🙂
Pin it for later!
Thanks so much for reading. I hope this helps make meal planning a little easier. Be sure to grab your free printable lists!
Happy planning,
-Tara
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