How to Meal Plan

Picture yourself standing in front of the fridge, door open, and seeing plenty of food but nothing you want to eat.

Sound familiar?

 

You’re not alone when it comes to struggling with meal planning, especially as a parent.

 

Now, we don’t want to act as if every person is the same. I think that’s one of the biggest mistakes we make with meal planning is assuming we have to do it a certain way.

 

Some of us can sit down once a week and make grocery lists based on a list of recipes you found online. Maybe you really thrive on that style!

 

Plenty of us, though, need to make our lives easier by creating meal plans based off of a few ingredients that our family’s just prefer or things that are in the fridge or pantry and need to be eaten. As opposed to constantly coming with new ideas every single week.

 

So your meal plan options really are:

  • Create new recipes every week and plan around leftovers
  • Have a few tried and true recipes you can vary up with what you have or your family prefers
  • Pay someone to create a meal plan/shop the food for you

 

There’s really no “right way” of meal planning but whatever you do has to make sense for your time, family and personality.

 

One thing to try and make life easier (and healthier) is to base meals around your vegetables.

 

Once you have your 3 vegetables for your dinner chosen, it’s much easier to add in the meat and grain. Your vegetables should always be the star of the show and if you create meals this way, you’ll find it can be even easier to make last-minute and flexible meals.

 

Another great way to go about meal planning, is doubling a grain/protein and revolving a few meals around it. For example, make a whole box of quinoa, and plan on having it first with sautéed veggies and your choice of protein, then another meal with a simple vinigrette and chopped veggies, and whatever is left you can mix with a few eggs and whatever veggies and protein you have left, and bake it for a nice crustless pie. Three easy meals with minimal work.
Another example is making chicken soup, and then using the chicken for a chicken salad. Or preparing a few trays of oven-baked veggies and chicken breast, and making different marinades/sauces for a different flavor each day. If you keep the veggies separate from one another, you can choose different ones for different meals, and who knows, maybe you have some of that gorgeous quinoa to go along with it as well 🙂

 

The main idea to keep in mind is how can I make my life easier! If you’d like to find out more about how I help my clients do exactly that, let’s jump on a free discovery call ❤️

 

Were these tips helpful? I’d love to know!

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