Avoid Confusion, Plan your Meals
Quick Tips For Better Meal Planning
Meal planning can be an excellent way to upgrade your relationship with food. There are some benefits to figuring out (and prepping) what you’ll be eating in advance.
Meal planning can minimize the amount you spend on food shopping. You can buy a bulk ingredient (like chicken) and use it in several meals.
You can also give yourself a clear list of ingredients to follow when you go to the grocery store. This means you’re less likely to go “off-budget” than if you were browsing the aisles.
Plus, meal planning can help you stick to your diet. If you’re trying to cut down on fast food, having your meals already prepared is a great way to get started.
So, where exactly do you get started with meal planning?
Start With Your Go-To Meals
Successful meal planning doesn’t mean you must spend hours scouring a cookbook every night to develop new, affordable recipes. While it helps to look for new ideas occasionally, you can start with some of your favourites.
Pick meals you’ll be happy to eat at any time that are relatively easy to make. It’s also worth focusing on food that doesn’t cost a fortune.
Starting with the meals you already feel comfortable with means you don’t have to learn how to cook something new from scratch.
Find a Designated Place for Recipes
You may stumble across the occasional recipe you want to try. Find a designated place to store those recipes for later reference.
For instance, you might have a folder in your kitchen to turn to when you’re running out of ideas.
You may want to use a Pinterest board to visually browse your options at a glance and see what makes your stomach rumble.
Use Building Blocks
At the beginning of each week, choose a couple of different types of protein, one or two grains, and a vegetable collection. You can prepare all of these foods in advance, then look for ways to incorporate them into different meals as you go.
For instance, if you start with bacon and sweetcorn, you can have a pizza on Monday, wraps on Tuesday, a pasta dish on Wednesday and so on.
This is a fantastic way to reduce your meal prep time. It can also save you some serious cash, as you can buy a selection of items in bulk rather than paying for a wide range of individual ingredients.
Leverage Frozen Ingredients
Frozen ingredients are your friend because they can be easily divided into different meals according to your needs.
For example, you can divide a bag of frozen vegetables between several meals throughout the week and get them prepped in no time.
Not only do frozen products save you time, but they can also save you cash. It’s usually more affordable to buy frozen food than to go fresh every time. You don’t need to stick to frozen for every meal, but you might find it makes meal prepping easier.
Get Input From The Household
When organising meals for the whole family, it’s easy to get hyper-focused and forget about simple things, like asking your loved ones what they want.
Talking to your roommates and family about what they might like to eat will inspire you if you run out of ideas.
You’ll also get the extra benefit of knowing the meals you cook are ones your loved ones will look forward to eating. This can make life much easier if you’re a parent and plan meals for kids.
Schedule a Lazy Day
Meal prepping and planning are great ways to control your budget and time. However, it’s not always easy to follow a schedule. There will be times when you feel your planned meal for the evening isn’t the right choice, given the circumstances.
With that in mind, give yourself the freedom to skip that day and cook whatever you like.
Plan a lazy night every week when you can make whatever you want without worrying about using pre-prepped ingredients and recipes. If you make your pre-prepped meals freezer-friendly, you can always eat them another day without waste.
Remember, meal planning can be an excellent way to upgrade your relationship with food.
Keep a weekly-to-week routine when planning your meals to reduce confusion about what to eat. Planning spells success!
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