Life Prerequisites: Meal Planning and Preparation

Meal planning and prepping aren’t new concepts, but we’re guessing you’ve seen more about them on your newsfeed in the past few years. These strategies can help prioritize your healthy eating goals while saving you time and money! 

Set a Goal

And make it attainable! If you currently eat out five days a week, begin with committing to cook just one or two of those meals at home. Habits are easier to change if you start small. 

• Pro Tip: Increase the number of new recipes you try each week until you find a routine that works with your schedule. 

Review Your Schedule

Find a few open slots in your schedule that you’ll have the time and energy to meal prep. Some people prepare a week’s worth of meals at a time; others like to set aside 15 minutes per day to chop and prep. Do what works for you.

• Pro Tip: If you schedule time on your calendar to meal prep, you’re more likely to actually do it! 

Inventory Your Kitchen

Before browsing recipe sites, take a look at what you already have on hand. Scan your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry to see if any meal ideas come to mind. This initial step will help reduce food waste. 

• Pro Tip: Check out MyFridgeFood, a website that allows you to input ingredients you have on-hand to come up with meal ideas.

Plan Your Meals

What resonates with you and your schedule? Quick weeknight meals, slow cooker recipes, one-pot creations, meals with lots of leftovers that you can eat for days? Figure out what works and then search specifically for recipes that suit your needs. 

• Pro Tip: Create different themes to help plan the week. A popular weekly menu is: Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Wings Wednesday, Takeout/Fakeout Thursday, Fish Friday, Slow Cooker Saturday, and Soup & Salad Sunday. 

Shop

Grocery shopping isn’t high on many people’s list of favorite activities, but this is where you save money. If it works with your budget, consider using Instacart, Misfits Market, Shipt, or your local grocery store’s order-ahead service to save you even more time.

• Pro Tip: As you keep meal planning, you’ll develop your own go-to list of recipes. Keep a list of the meals, as well as ingredients, to make planning and shopping that much easier!

Enjoy! 

As with many things in life, the effort you put in now will save you time and money in the long run. Each week will get easier, so keep planning and prepping – you’ve got this!