Meal Planning 101

Meal planning can be an effective tool in organizing your life and week. It is more than just making a list of the items you want to eat. Meal planning can save you precious time and money. The following steps can help you successfully meal plan.

Create Your Menu

The first step in meal planning is to identify the meals you want to prepare for the week. Consider planning a variety of items if you tend to get tired of eating the same things often. An ideal meal plan includes your favorite recipes, fast meals, and a possible new meal. When meal planning, don’t forget to plan for your snacks and drinks. Don’t forget to plan for the days you will have leftovers. You should also review your schedule to properly prepare your menu. For example, on your late days, you may want to prepare an easy and fast meal. On a day you may have more time to cook, you may plan a more detailed meal that may take longer to prepare.

Identify Your Ingredients

During this step, you are going to identify the ingredients needed for each meal of your meal plan. Do an inventory of the items you already have in your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. You should definitely try to utilize those items first. This will save you money when grocery shopping and also eliminate the need to throw away expired or unused food.

Periodically take inventory of the items in your freezer and pantry. Look for expired or spoiled items to discard. Consider only purchasing items you plan to prepare within a fixed time frame. Click To Tweet

Shopping For Your Meal Plan

After you have created your meal plan and identified the items you need to purchase, it’s time to shop. I typically grocery shop by one of three methods. 1. Take my shopping list to the grocery store to purchase the necessary items. 2. Purchase my items online and select “store pick-up”. 3. Use a grocery delivery service such as Amazon Fresh. Amazon Fresh is a service provided to Amazon Prime customers which delivers same day grocery items for free. It makes meal planning from your home super easy and convenient.

Grouping Items By Meals

Before putting away your groceries, consider grouping the items by meals. This will save time and make it easy when you are ready to prepare your meals. Consider using plastic containers or large paper bags to keep everything together. For example, you can include your ground beef, taco seasoning, tomato, lettuce, cheese, and taco sauce in a container or bag. You can designate a shelf in your refrigerator for your meal prep ingredients. You can also designate a section in your pantry for your grouped dry goods.

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Meal Planning vs Meal Prepping

There is a big difference between meal planning and meal prepping. Meal planning does not require meal prepping. Prepping is the process of actually preparing your meals ahead of time. It is not for everyone. It can be great if you absolutely have no time to cook dinner each night. All you have to do is reheat your plate. I recommend meal prep containers with 3 compartments. You can always use the same compartment for the same thing if necessary. The EZ Prepa Meal Prep Containers are an excellent choice. They keep your food separated, sealed, and fresh.

Consider a Meal Subscription Service

Meal subscription box services such as Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and Home Chef takes the hard work out of the meal planning process. All you have to do is simply create an account, purchase your items, and wait to receive your meal boxes. I have personally used Hello Fresh. The meals were delicious and the recipes were easy to follow. Check out my Hello Fresh unboxing video below. If you are interested in Hello Fresh, click HERE to receive $40.00 off your first meal box.

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I hope you found these tips helpful. Please let me know in the comment sections if you are a meal planner and/or meal prepper. What are some of your must have tips?

As always, if you need help getting your home and life organized, register for my free “5 Days to an Organized Home & Life” email course. Each day you will receive strategies for keeping your home & life organized and having a “company ready” home at all time. You can register for the free course at www.decoratorsvoice.com/free5daycourse.

For information about my Full Home & Life Organizational Strategies course, please visit www.decoratorsvoice.com/homestrategiescourse. In this course, you’ll receive tons of useful information, a one on one private consultation, access to my private Facebook group, and a physical organizational kit.

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