How to Build the Meal Planning Habit
One of the biggest positive lifestyle changes you can make is to substitute some (or most) of your restaurant/takeout meals out with healthy meals that you cook at home. One of the biggest obstacles to this idea is the mindset that you don’t have the time or experience to do meal planning.
But in this section, we’ll provide a simple, eight-step plan you can use to quickly and easily plan a variety of healthy meals.
Note: One way to simplify this process is to use apps and web resources in conjunction with your meal planning efforts. So we’ve also included a detailed list of meal planning tools.
Let’s talk about how to build a meal planning habit.
Step #1: Pick Your Meal Planning Day
The obvious first step is to set aside one time each week where you can plan out the meal (or meals) that you’ll be preparing for the next seven days.
Most families have some downtime each week. For many people it’s typically Saturday or Sunday. There is usually no work on these days. There may also be no extracurricular activities, and there is typically no homework kids are in a rush to finish.
But you have to pick a night that works for you.
If you have older kids, take their meal planning ideas into consideration. If you have younger kids, wait until they are asleep to start your meal planning.
Whichever night you decide on, just remember to
plan for the meals that you’ll be cooking for the next week.
Step #2: Check Your Calendar for the Week
Whether you’re trying to figure out how to make a meal plan for one, for a couple, or for a family, you need to start with your calendar.
Meal planning ideas are only as good as the time you have to dedicate to them.
For example, if you work late on Tuesdays, you may want to have something that is either:
|
•
|
Already prepped and quick to cook (10 mins or less in the oven or microwave) |
|
•
|
Is good served room temperature/warm or leftover |
If your son is brought home from soccer practice at 5pm and your daughter gets picked up for dance at 5:30pm, that evening’s meal planning maybe should include either:
|
•
|
Something that can maintain its freshness for at least 45 minutes (your daughter eats at 5, you son at 5:15). |
|
•
|
A “make your own” meal planning idea, like turkey tacos! Just have the ingredients on the table and the kids will do all the work. |
With just a quick glance at the upcoming week, you’ll be able to figure out which nights a fancy sit-down meal will work versus the ones where “build your own sandwiches” or leftovers may be in order.
Meal planning ideas are only as good as the time you have to dedicate to them.
But before we get ahead of ourselves…
Now is a good time to make sure your family utilizes a shared calendar.
Whether it be an old-fashioned whiteboard hanging in the kitchen or one of the many calendar phone apps available for IOS and/or Android users, you’ll be wasting your precious meal planning time if you don’t have everybody’s schedules in one place.
Step #3: Schedule Your Shopping and Prep Day for the Week
In order for meal planning to be a success, you need to actually set aside time to shop for and prep the food.
If you’re a busy person, you need to have something on the calendar and plan around it.
Regardless of your situation, making time to get the grocery shopping done and prep your meals ahead of time is the best way to bring your meal planning ideas to fruition.
If you can, try doing everything in one day for a stress-free and enjoyable break from your hectic life. Just crank up some tunes in the kitchen and get chopping!
Step #4: Decide What’s for Dinner
Now that you’ve got a grasp on how to make a meal plan, it’s time to answer the big question…what’s for dinner tomorrow? And the next day? And the next day?
Recipes are everywhere:
|
•
|
In the old recipe box your grandmother left you |
|
•
|
In those cookbooks your mom passed down...or the ones you received as housewarming presents when you got married |
|
•
|
Television and online videos |
Today, there are not only recipes for every type of cuisine, but for every lifestyle choice, diet, and schedule as well: vegan, gluten-free, 30-minute meals, and meals for a whole family. There are entire cookbooks, magazines, cooking shows, and websites dedicated to these things.
You can make healthy, delicious, simple, quick meals for the entire family with just a bit of research and meal planning.
Here is a list of some of the best recipes resources that Steve has come across over the last few years:
If you don’t have a slow cooker, it’s time you invested in one. Slow cookers are a wonderfully convenient way for your meal planning ideas to come to life—even on the busiest of days.
You can add a few ingredients to a slow cooker, turn it on, and leave it for hours at a time. With automatic shut-off and controlled temperature settings, the threat of fire is not really a factor.
If you’re more of a visual person, cooking along with your favorite celebrity chefs on TV (or YouTube, Sling, Hulu, etc.) may be the way to go!
Not everyone has a television in their kitchen, but you can stream almost any program these days onto a laptop or tablet. And if you’re looking for something specific, like quick or kid-friendly meals, then Internet-based shows and tutorials come in handy.
Here are a few popular shows:
Conversely, for those times when you just want a little peace and quiet while you cook, you can venture online and print recipes out from a multitude of websites:
Use cookbooks, watch online cooking shows, and read online resources to help you decide what meals to plan.
Step #5: Get Organized
Now that you’ve learned how to make a meal plan, it’s time to take your meal planning ideas and organize them.
What you’ll need:
|
•
|
Easy access to the recipes you’ve selected |
|
•
|
A list you can take to the grocery store |
Where you keep this list is up to you. Steve typically uses a good old-fashioned handwritten grocery list.
But in this fast-paced, high-tech, app-riddled world of ours, there are so many ways to get your act together and save time, it would be a shame not to take advantage of such things. Here are a few free and premium apps you can use to help with shopping (and your meal planning efforts):
|
•
|
Cozi
recipe box and dinner planner
|
|
•
|
Yummly
recipes and shopping list
|
All of these apps offer their own recipes and will automatically create lists for the ones you’ve selected.
The Cozi app even syncs the recipes into your family calendar, so everybody knows what’s for dinner that night!
And if you are using recipes from a cookbook, some of these apps, like CookBook (
and a handful of others
), offer page scanning directly into the phone.
It’s the perfect marriage of old school and high-tech.
Also, if you are loyal to a particular grocery store, check out their app! Many of them (
like Wegmans
) offer a shopping list creator, automatically sorted by aisle, as well as recipes that will sync to a list as well.
Step #6: Save Time With Multi-Ingredient Prep
When cooking for the week, you will notice early on that many recipes call for the same ingredients.
Fresh herbs and spices in particular play a big role in meal planning. Herbs are often sold in bunches and will perish quickly if not used. Learning proper storage techniques is an essential part of meal planning, but we will get to that in a bit.
For now, as you’re getting ready to chop and slice and dice for the week, review all the recipes and see how much of each ingredient you’ll need. Taking care of it all at once is a huge time saver. Then, separate the portions into meal prep containers or small storage bags and you’re ready to rock!
As for getting the meal oven, grill, or slow cooker ready, marinating is always a good idea. Doing so makes meats and fish more flavorful.
Regardless of whether you’re marinating or just doing a dry rub or seasoning, you can get the hearty ingredients ready ahead of time as well.
There are tons of meal prep containers to choose from on Amazon. So many, in fact, that it can be daunting. In the meantime, baggies will work just fine. Preparing ingredients ahead of time helps you cook your meals faster so you can enjoy more time with your family.
Step #7: Complete What You Can
While not all of your meal planning ideas will be fully oven-ready on your designated prep day, it is a good idea to get them as close to it as possible.
Recipes like
meatloaf
,
veggie lasagna
, and
chicken Milanese
, for example, can all be mixed and put together in a casserole dish ahead of time, leaving very little to do for dinner besides preheating the oven.
Step #8: Educate Yourself on Proper Food Storage
Meal planning ideas can go south fast if the ingredients are not stored properly. This can lead to spoiling, which can make you sick.
The Internet is crawling with
food safety tips
, so definitely be sure to check them out if you’re uncertain.
As for weekly meal planning, here’s a quick guide:
|
•
|
Uncooked meats, poultry, and seafood generally last in the refrigerator for
one to five days
, depending on the type.
|
|
•
|
Some fresh vegetables will
last for days
, while others will last weeks, provided they are stored properly.
|
|
•
|
Not all vegetables or herbs need to be refrigerated. It can actually accelerate spoiling. |
Make sure you’re up to speed on this.
Nothing would be more frustrating than to have all of your hard work and meal planning go to waste over something so easily avoidable.
And yes, there’s an app for that!
FoodKeeper
, an app available through FoodSafety.gov, is a collaboration between various government agencies on food storage and safety. It is compatible with
iOS
and
Android
devices.
Meal planning can save your family time and money in the long run. But it is not an exact science. And it is not always the most convenient thing to do when you’re busy.
However, the pros certainly outweigh the cons. With meal planning you’re:
|
•
|
Serving home-cooked, fresh meals daily |
|
•
|
Being as healthy as you want (if dietary restriction are a priority) |
|
•
|
Controlling your portions (if weight loss is an incentive) |
|
•
|
Cooking “in bulk” (so to speak), saving money by using the same ingredients for multiple meals |
|
•
|
Cooking once a week (theoretically) |
|
•
|
More likely to eat as a family |
|
•
|
Enjoying yourself in the kitchen (hopefully) |
You should also know—and this is important—that it is perfectly acceptable to work one “takeout” night into meal planning for the week. Maybe not every week, but it can certainly be a nice treat, and a welcome reprieve from kitchen and dish duty once in a while.
In a fast-paced world, meal planning is a time saver, regardless of how many meals you choose to plan. Americans in particular spend a ridiculous amount of hours each year asking themselves the question, “What should we eat?”
In a fun little study published in the
New York Post
last year, it was revealed that U.S. couples spend an average of 5.5 days a year deciding what to eat.
That’s 5.5 more days you could have spent with your loved ones, at the gym, catching up on house projects, visiting a museum, or on an airplane flying to some place exotic. Life is too short to spend it being indecisive.