If you have ever stood in front of the fridge at 5:00 pm and thought to yourself “What am I going to make for dinner?!” You are not alone!
Maybe meal planing sounds like something only super-organized mom and influencers do, or maybe it even sounds like make-believe, but here’s the truth.
Meal planning can be simple! Even if you don’t know where to start, how to cook, or what to cook.
This post will help you figure it out!
Keep reading if you feel:
- Overwhelmed every night when it’s time to make a meal
- You don’t have time to scroll and search for recipes or make detailed grocery lists
- You want dinners that are quick and easy not perfect or super fancy
Let’s go through how I meal prep to make it manageable and so it doesn’t take 14 hours a day just to be eating leftovers and reheated food every night!
What is Meal Planning Really?
Meal planning at its core is just deciding what you are going to have and when you are going to have it, before you are hungry and staring in the fridge.
It doesn’t mean you have to cook or prepare everything on Sunday night or stick to a strict schedule you have to plan your life around and cancel plans for. You really can just sit down for a few minutes and make a quick list of what you want to have to eat for the next 3 days or maybe the week if you are feeling ambitious.
When you feel like it you can even decide what you are going to have for lunches for the week. This will help you use up your leftovers and it will keep you away from the vending machine or fast food lane too.
Honestly, when you are busy and tired the biggest win you can have is having a plan!
5 Reasons Why You’ll Love This Simple Approach
- There are no long prep sessions – if you don’t have hours to prep the food and do dishes no worries! You have a plan, you are good to go!
- The steps below works for smaller budgets, you don’t have to spend your life savings every time you get groceries.
- This method is great for real life – it takes minutes and you don’t have to get in the middle of massive prep sessions (unless you want to!) It is a flexible approach so you can do it when you have time.
- Saving money is always a positive and meal planning for beginners is a way to start doing just that! You will also see you will be wasting less food, which is also a huge win!
- We will build your confidence one meal at a time! Start to get comfy in the kitchen with simple easy to prep recipes that use ingredients you can buy anywhere (literally I have seen a lot of the ingredients for several of my recipes even at the gas station, you can grocery shop anywhere for these!)
My 3-Step Beginner’s Meal Planning Method
Here is what I recommend for you if you are just starting to meal plan:
Step 1: Pick 3 Dinner Ideas
Starting small and setting habits is the best way to approach meal planning to avoid overwhelm. Pick just three meals you are going to make this week. That’s it!
- Bonus meal planning tip – make one of the meals something you know your family will eat all the time and already likes. Here are three examples we always make:
Step 2: Plan One Lunch or Breakfast
After you pick three dinner ideas decide on a breakfast or a lunch you can make. Just one!
Don’t overwhelm yourself and start prepping everything. Just pick one thing for lunch or one thing for breakfast.
Breakfast ideas that you can prep once and warm up for the next few days:
- Egg bowls – try a Cheesy Veggie Egg Bowl
- Overnight Oats (no bake/cook recipes) – Lots of variety common ingredients
Lunch ideas to prep once and use for a few days:
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- Easiest meal prep and no cook idea- use leftovers from supper, just package it up into a single serving and add a handful of carrot sticks to the side.
- My favorite containers for using leftovers and putting veggies on the side are these glass dishes with compartments. You can put your leftovers in store the food in the fridge and reheat as needed all in the same dish! They have really simplified meal prep for me, put them in your Amazon cart using this link!
- Chicken salad varieties, these are delicious, require no reheating, and taste just as good on day one as they do on day four. Try one of these 6 recipes.
Step 3: Add 1-2 Quick Snack Ideas
This step is helpful for when you get hangry, or keeps you from getting hangry.
Some low prep snack ideas are:
- No Bake Energy Bites – make once eat all week
- Hard-boiled eggs – no bake eat all week (spice it up with salt, pepper, garlic, taco seasoning, Greek seasoning)
- Cut up veggies and some dip (make the Cottage Cheese Ranch for a quick and easy protein dip or buy some yummy veggie dip for the store!)
Making snacks feel like too much today? No worries! Even just washing the fruit and vegetables and putting it in a clear container is a great start! You can also grab some protein bars or granola bars for quick, easy, no prep snacks.
Tips for Making It Work (Even If You Hate Cooking)
- Keep your meal ideas simple – you don’t have to go crazy, just think about a protein, vegetable, and grain. Easy recipes to include all these are: tacos, pasta meals, skillet meals, or sandwiches.
- Grocery shop with a short grocery list – just make a list for the 3 meals you decided on for supper, the one breakfast or lunch, and the one snack.
- Its okay to repeat meals in the month/week – if your family eats it, go for it! You will save money on groceries buy using up all of the ingredients you buy and you will save brain space because you don’t have to worry!
- Plan around your schedule – Got baseball/football/dance/band practice until 9:00 pm? Same friend, same. Those are the nights for your convenience meals think frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, corn dogs. You can always add a salad to these and bam dinner is done!
Budget-Friendly Meal Planning Tip
Pick only one protein and buy it in bulk. Get the family pack of chicken or the large thing of ground beef. Then use it in more than one meal of your three dinner ideas.
Example:
Monday – Healthy Chicken Fried Rice
Tuesday – One Pot Pasta and Sauteed Chicken Breast – trust me you can do it!
Wednesday – Easy Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas
You can switch your protein next week, but using the same protein throughout the week will save you money and reduce your overall food waste. This also makes it so you can change up the meals and keep variety in your week!
Final Thoughts
Meal planning doesn’t have to be an all or nothing situation. You can start small to build some habits that work for you and your family.
- Start small
- Make a list
- Prep one thing
- Repeat
Every time you are planning a little bit ahead you are making your life way easier later on.
You are proving to yourself that YES you CAN do it! You got this!
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