Think meal planning is only for large families who cook everything from scratch? Think again. We can all benefit from planning out our meals, whether you’re single and trying to cut back on eating out, or a mama with mouths to feed. Meal planning doesn’t have to be complicated, either. In fact, when it comes to meal planning, I say the simpler, the better! Who has time to devote hours each week to plan out each and every meal? Not me! Here are some of my favorite tips for simple meal planning for beginners.
PS. I’ll also give you a free printable to help you get started!
First of all, why should you even bother with meal planning? I’m so glad you asked! Planning your meals will help you:
And so much more!
As with everything else in life, I recommend keeping your meal planning as simple as humanly possible. Here are my top tips for simple meal planning for beginners.
When you’re first starting out, don’t even bother trying to plan out three meals per day (every day) plus snacks. Trust me, doing this is a ‘recipe’ for failure! If you put the first couple of meals (plus snacks) on autopilot, it will be much easier to focus your attention on creating a viable plan for a week/month’s worth of dinners.
For example, in our home, breakfast almost always consists of one of the following:
Boring, I know, but no one in our family has starved yet!
The good news is, there’s absolutely no need to come up with 30 separate meal ideas for the month! That would be enough to make anyone throw in the towel on meal planning! I mean, really, can you imagine having to do such a thing?
Cook larger portions and eat leftovers the following night. If your family is anti-leftovers, you can still go ahead and cook extra, freeze the leftovers, and serve them later on in the month.
A good example of cooking once, eating twice is to cook up a large batch of ground beef (or turkey); eat tacos one night, sloppy joes the next, and freeze leftover meat to be used in cabbage pockets later on in the month.
You could sit down with the latest edition of Taste of Home and eagerly fill in your meal plan with recipes like Zucchini Pizza Casserole, Spinach Crab Chicken, or Dijon-Crusted Fish. However, if your family is anything like mine, serving these meals is a good way to start a rebellion!
Stick to tried and true favorites at first, and add new, more adventurous recipes in sparingly.
I just can’t say enough good things about my Instant Pot! It has saved us so many trips through the fast food drive-thru.
If you have a slow cooker (or Instant Pot), you can just put the ingredients in before you head out for work in the morning (even if they’re still frozen), and have a hot meal waiting for you when you walk in the door at night.
Rather than saying, “On Monday we will have meatloaf. Tuesday we will have tacos…” I find it’s best to have a list of flexible meals to choose from. Because your family (or you) might just randomly decide to have tacos on Monday instead of Tuesday. This sudden change of plans shouldn’t throw your entire meal plan off course.
Who says you have to eliminate eating out from your meal plan? Not me!
In fact, depending on your family’s schedule, sometimes it makes more sense to eat out rather than at home. The beauty of a meal plan is that you get to choose what works for your family, and ignore the rest!
In fact, I happen to know a woman who hates cooking (no, it’s not me…although it certainly could be). This particular woman’s meal plan consists mostly of a list of the days when the kids can eat free (or almost free) at local restaurants. She has a chalkboard posted in her kitchen filled in with:
They make sure to eat healthy when dining out, (I’ve never seen kids that eat soup and salad like hers do), everyone drinks water, and she claims to save more money by planning her meals this way than cooking everything at home.
If this method appeals to you, be sure to check out the Krazy Coupon Lady’s Guide to Kids Eat Free.
However, if your number one goal for meal planning is to stop eating out as much, my friend’s plan may not be for you.
Instead, to ensure your meal plan’s success, you should always make sure you have a plan B. I like to always keep a handful of quick-cooking foods on hand for those rare occasions when I forget to go grocery shopping, fail to take meat out to thaw in the morning, or don’t look up from my keyboard until 5 PM.
*True story: As I was writing this post, my stomach started growling. Sure enough, I looked up at the clock and it was almost 5 PM! Good thing I planned on having leftovers tonight!
Keep the “plan” in meal plan with these simple tips.
Doing this one thing will save you from waiting until 5 PM to decide what’s for dinner.
I have a master list of our family’s favorite meals. Whenever I’m stuck on meal planning ideas, I know I can pull this sheet out for tried and true dinners. It helps make meal planning for our family a no-brainer.
Before you make your meal plan for the week (or month) take inventory of the food you already have on hand in your pantry and refrigerator. Then, search for recipes which use those ingredients.
To avoid food waste, make sure you have a plan to use up leftovers. I absolutely LOVE leftover day because it means I don’t have to cook! Also, I try and schedule our family’s leftover meal so it falls on a day when we are either out of the house for most of the day or involved in a DIY project.
If meal planning is not your cup of tea, why not use a meal planning service instead? You’ll still save tons of money (and time) while eating healthy food.
I recently started using a meal planning service called $5 Meal Plan. Mostly because I was tired of cooking the same meals day in and day out. But, $5 Meal Plan offers so much more than just a ton of recipes and free shopping lists. In fact, you don’t even have to use the menus they send you…you can use their easy-to-use Meal Plan Builder to create your own menus, instead. $5 Meal Plan will still create your shopping list for you.
You made it to the end of the post! Here’s your reward! To download your free meal planning printables, click on the image or the text below it.
