Continuing with the topic of meal planning and prep from last week’s blog post, today I want to share with you my top tips for making sure you are successful!
Taking time to meal plan and prep will ensure that you are able to stick with eating a real food-based diet to maintain your health. It will help you to reach any health goal you have set. This also extends these to your family..
Meal planning and prep are great ways to minimize your grocery budget. Since you are only purchasing the food that you will be eating, you will not overspend on unneeded items. This in turn will allow you to purchase more nutrient-dense items, such as organic produce, grass-fed or pastured meats, and unrefined oils. I consider all of these items to be priorities when focusing on improving your diet.
There are so many ways that meal planning and prep can benefit you. But if it is intimidating to you or you do not know where to start or how to organize your prep, it can feel like a hassle and you will not do it.
So to follow-up with last week’s post on the basic concept and the how-to procedure of meal planning and prep, this week I want to share my favorite tips and trick to make the process go smoothly for you.
Before we dig into the tips, let’s do a short recap on the how to.
Recap: How to Meal Plan and Prep
- Pick a day to plan meals, shop, and prep.
- Decide all meals and snacks for the week.
- Make a grocery list.
- Go shopping.
- Decide when and how you will prep
- Prep your food.
Tips for each step of meal planning
Now that we went over the how to, let’s take a closer look at how to do the meal planning portion of this handy tool. And also some tips on shopping.
Pick a day to meal plan and prep
We all have a million things on our to-do list! So it is very important to schedule the time for meal planning and prep.
When you are planning out your week, be certain to schedule a block of time to plan meals, go grocery shopping, and prep ingredients.
You can set a specific time each week to do all of the above. For example, you might meal plan and make your grocery list on Thursday night after dinner. On Saturday, you will hit the farmer’s market or grocery store. Then on Sunday afternoon, you spend a few hours in the kitchen getting all your ingredients ready to go and portioned out.
If you life doesn’t allow for set times each week or you have a extra busy week coming up, you will need to plan out what will fit best into your schedule. We all know what can happen when we do not have a plan…things get overlooked and do not get accomplished, leaving us feeling stressed and out of sorts.
Decide all meal and snacks
When making your meal plan, consult your calendar again for the week you are planning meals for.
The reason for taking this step is that you do not want to plan a meal that takes an hour to cook on a night when you have to work late, have a meeting at school or your kiddo has a sporting event.
You want to make sure that you schedule quick meals, like my Spicy Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe, on those busy nights. Cook meals that take more time on nights when you will be home.
Have a few recipes that you know your family really enjoys. Add them to the menu once a week or bi-weekly. Also, keep those recipe in a spot where you can easily find them.
To make picking meals easy, you can assign a meal to a day of the week. You can have Meatloaf Mondays, Thigh Thursday, and soup on Sunday. To add some variety, season your meatloaf or thighs differently each week and rotate through three or four soup recipes. Mix up the sides you have with the meals to add even more variety.
If you get stuck with planning meals, look through a cookbook that you haven’t in a while. Don’t forget to check your Pinterest boards.
When you find a new recipe, try it on the weekend when you are less busy.
Do not forget to plan the snacks!
This is especially important if you have kids. But it is also important for adults. If you have an especially busy day, you want to have healthy options available to you.
If you do not have one, you may resort to hitting the vending machine for a sugar-filled item. That type of food will spike your blood sugar levels, giving you more energy in the short term. Once your body has processed that surge of sugar, you will feel more tired and hungry.
If you have planned a healthy snack, such as an apple and almonds or veggies and homemade ranch, you will not have the same issue. This type of snack will fuel you while keeping your blood sugar in check.
Make a grocery list from your meal plan
While this is a straightforward job if you are wanting to stick to a grocery budget you want to take some additional steps to make sure you are not overbuying.
First, make your list to include all the ingredients you will need to cook your meals. Be sure to include any spices and oils.
Second, shop your frig, freezer, and pantry. Cross off any of the items that you already have on hand.
Last, organize your grocery list by rewriting it to have all like items grouped. So all your fruits and veggies will be listed together, as will be meats, spices, and so on.
This little act will have you in and out of the grocery store quickly. You will not have to backtrack back while in the store. Yay for more time to do fun things!!
You can find some additional great tips for grocery shopping here.
Go Shopping
Hit your favorite grocery store or farmer’s market and gather all the goodies on you list!
If you have organized you list, this should take you no time at all.
Be open to adjusting your list a little if a different cut of meat or seasonal veggie looks better or is at a better price. For instance, you were planning to have green beans with meatloaf, but the store has brussels that look way fresher. Go ahead, scratch the beans and get the brussels.
For another example, say you hit the farmer’s market to buy some pasture-raised pork chops. When you get to the farmer’s stand, they are running a special on pork steaks. Get yourself some pork steak!
That covers some tips on meal planning and getting your shopping done. And honestly, my tips only scratch the surface of all the great tips that you can find! Follow my meal planning and prep boards on Pinterest to see more. Do not forget to sign up for my newsletter so you do not miss more of my tips and recipes!
