Meal Planning and Meal Prep can help you in so many ways!
Meal planning, in its simplest form, is taking some time to plan a particular number of meals.
- You might plan a few days at a time or a few weeks.
- You might plan to cook meals or perhaps to eat out.
- Perhaps you will plan your lunches so you aren’t tempted to purchase takeout.
- You might plan your dinners so you can come home to something prepared.
A meal plan can be any of these things.
Meal planning can help to save you time and money!
Imaging not having to start every meal from scratch.
What would meal time be like if you didn’t have to get home from a long work day and begin the whole process of cooking a meal?
How nice would it be to get home and know that you simply had to put a few ingredients into a pot for your meal?
Imagine coming home to a delicious crockpot meal waiting for you to dig into?
What about the time saved on all of those unplanned grocery store purchases?
I don’t know about you but every time I make a last minute stop at the grocery store to pick up one or two items I end up with several bags of unplanned items. A few unplanned trips each month and I’m a couple of hundred dollars over budget.
Besides saving money on making fewer unplanned grocery store trips you can also save money on buy purchasing less take out and fast food. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average family spends over $3,000 per year on take out and food away from their home! Imagine, just a few minutes of planning each week could save you $3,000!
Why not get started on meal planning today! Begin by clicking on one of the pictures below to download one of these printable meal planners. Print it out and start planning your weekly meals.
If you use a note taking app such as Noteshelf, Evernote, Apple note or other apps on your mobile device or tablet then you can download the files and fill them in by writing with your stylus.
Want to download these meal planners as documents that can be filled out on by typing on your computer, mobile device or tablet? Then download these files below:
Weekly Meal Planner 1 Fillable Document
Weekly Meal Planner 2 Fillable Document
MOBILE DEVICE TIP:
Open the file in Microsoft Office and you will be able to type text right into the planner. Just click into each box and begin typing.
Then check out these 6 reasons to plan your meals or pick from one of the meal planning and meal prep methods below.
Meal Planning and Meal Prep Methods
There are a number of meal planning and meal prep methods that you can use. Planning out your meals using one of these methods can help you by cutting down on meal prep time, saving you money by putting leftovers to good use and keeping you sane because you won’t be scrambling around at the last minute trying to figure out what to cook.
While you can simply pick out a variety of recipes to use in your meal plan I personally prefer several methods that allow me to cook once and eat twice. This means that I look for recipes in which I can double a part of the recipe that is time consuming and use it in a second recipe or when I’m prepping ingredients for the first recipe I am also prepping them for a second one.
Cook Once, Eat Twice meal planning can take several forms, such as these:
- Grouping similar themed meals together
- Recipes to use up leftovers
- Planning a freezer meal
- Big batch cooking (cooking 2 or more of the same dish)
Grouping similar themed meals together:
Take a look at the recipes you are interested in making. Are there recipes that call for similarly prepped items?
Here’s an example of how to put this meal prep tips into action:
During a week that I plan to make tacos I also plan another meal that will use browned beef. Rather than wait each night to brown the ground beef I cook up twice as much. I make the first meal with half of the ground beef and then keep the other portion for the next meal. This will help to cut down on the prep time needed for the second dish.
Here’s a great recipe for Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken which can then be used to make these delicious Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps.
Cook them all up at the same time and store the extra in the refrigerator until you make the next recipe.
You can also meal prep vegetables as well.
If you know that you have several recipes with diced onions then cut up as many as you will need. Use some for the current meal and then store the extras in the refrigerator until you need them.
Recipes to use up leftovers
Plan on using leftover ingredients in other recipes.
Left over taco meat from one night become taco salad for lunch the next day.
Left over roasted vegetables can be turned into a black bean and roasted vegetable quesadilla the next day or turn them into a delicious vegetable soup.
Mashed potatoes can be mixed with tuna or salmon to make fish cake patties.
Bake chicken and turn the leftovers into chicken soup.
There’s an endless number of ways that you can creatively use up leftovers.
Planning a freezer meal
You can approach freezer meals one of two ways:
- You can simply plan a freezer meal, gather the ingredients, put it together and then freeze it.
- You can make a double or triple batch of a recipe and freeze the extras. The meals do not need to be cooked.
I often double or triple the batch when making things such as meatloaf, marinated chicken or steak tips, Barbacoa Beef, Pork Carnitas and breakfast sausage. I place the uncooked items in a freeze bag. When I need them it’s easy enough to take them out, thaw and cook.
My family loves this method because the food is not a “leftover” and I love it because it saves me a ton of time.
Big batch cooking
For this method you simply make a bigger batch of something with the intention of having leftovers to eat later in the week.
Make a big batch of pancakes and enjoy them for breakfast all week.
Big batch of burgers and you’ve got lunch the next day.
Why not make a bit batch of cauliflower potatoes (or baked potatoes for non keto family members) to go with a baked chicken dish one day. Then, later in the week, top the left over potatoes with chili.
Big batch of your favorite soup to be enjoyed one night and then used for lunch meals all week.
Think about your favorite recipes to see if any of them might work as a big batch meal.
You can also make big batch recipes to freeze as discussed above. You can mix and match which ever meal planning technique works best for you and the types of meals that your family likes to eat.
There are some basic meal planning steps to follow to make meal planning faster and easier.
- Review your schedule
- Choose your recipes or meals style
- Decide which recipes to make based on your schedule
- Make a grocery list based on recipes/meals
- Shop for groceries
- Prep/prepare meals
Stop by this page for more information about these meal planning steps.
Meal planning can be anything from planning for one day or one meal up to planning all three meals for each day of the week. How you plan is up to you. No matter how many meals you plan it will pay off in the end.
If you would like to get started on meal planning and meal prep why not check out our meal planner and meal prep course.
This course can teach you how to quickly and easily create a weekly meal plan AND shopping list all at once. Use your favorite recipes. No need to get stuck using a meal planning system filled with recipes you don’t like or have never tried.
Why not check out some of these links below for more great recipes, ideas and meal plans to help you today.
Find all the recipes by category here
Find all the Meal Plans here
Find all the Freezer Meal Tips/Recipes here
Find all the Crockpot Recipes here
Want to get new recipes sent directly to your inbox? Then subscribe to our newsletter (see below) and be the first to know when we post a new recipe as well as get weekly shopping, cooking and meal planning tips. Follow me on Pinterest where you can find links to our recipes as well as other recipes you and your family will enjoy.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy. If you click on the banner below you will be taken directly to my Etsy shop to see the digital items currently listed.
