Meal Planning

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Sheymarie417
Sheymarie417 Posts: 40 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Does anyone have any helpful tips for food planning? I've been attempting to plan my meals ahead but I always fail. I don't know where to start. Help?

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  • jourdanerin
    jourdanerin Posts: 69
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    Think simple meals!

    I do a lot of "finger foods" when pre-packing lunches (grapes, carrots, celery, snap peas, string cheese, etc.) so I have them all pre-measured into single servings and I can just grab a couple Tupperware containers and be on my way. Salads can be prepared early if sealed in the fridge without dressing. ( I like salads with low-fat sliced turkey, sunflower kernels, a low-fat cheese, and pears or apples).

    For dinner -- I'm not a big planner... I do easy stuff. Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken Breast with Steam-in-a-Bag veggies and fruit.
    Or if planning a week of meals... I'll do turkey tacos one night and save any leftovers for a taco salad the next day for lunch. I try to make whole-wheat pasta with grilled chicken, then use leftover sauce for a homemade pizza the next day. ETC.

    If I'm going out to eat, I always check the restaurant website for the nutrition menus so I can pre-plan a low-cal meal.
  • Laurelthequeen
    Laurelthequeen Posts: 78
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    For meal planning, it's just me and my husband, so I count on making 4 servings of dinners, which gets us lunch the next day. I keep a onenote or google doc that contains a list of recipes (descriptions and links usually) that I either want to try or have made before and liked. Then once a week or so, I'll spend a couple hours on pinterest looking for new ideas and adding them to the list.

    Monday or tuesday, I'll sift through the pile of ideas and pick a few that I like, and come up with 5-6 meals I'd like to make (breakfasts are usually a few variations on the same few things, so that only requires prepping things that need prepping), make a list, and do my grocery shopping. I usually keep an eye out for what's on sale that week and pick recipes high in those ingredients. Grocery night I generally make a low-mess and low-time-commitment dinner, then spend the rest of the evening prepping things that take a little while, like roasting beets, deveining kale, chopping veggies, etc. That allows me to spend a lot less time on meals the rest of the week, which sets me up for success.

    Last night a friend came over and had dinner with us, so we only had 1 spare serving of leftovers for lunch today. I left them for my husband and defrosted some soup that I had made a huge pot of previously and frozen.
  • lmfujishima
    lmfujishima Posts: 16 Member
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    Pepperplate is a great site for recipe saving and meal planning. It's online and also syncs up with your iPhone if you have one (not sure if it's on Android). You just copy and paste the link from a popular recipe site (epicurious, foodnetwork, etc.) onto their site and it imports all the ingredients, directions, and photo. You can also manually enter your own recipe.

    Another time saving tip is to make ahead salad in jars. You can layer salad ingredients (dressing on bottom so greens don't get soggy) in mason jars and then just shake and eat when you're ready. Here's a link to some examples:

    http://backtoherroots.com/2013/04/09/salad-in-a-jar-101/

    Frozen food! I love frozen veggies and fruit. I always have problems with produce going bad before I have a chance to eat it. I usually get the premixed frozen veggies from Costo and broil some with some olive oil and salt for a quick side. I use the fruit to make breakfast smoothies which I... freeze in mason jars. Haha I'm a little obsessed with mason jars right now.

    I love buying premarinated meats for dinner, not sure if you have any markets near you that have them: carne/pollo asado, korean marinated meat, etc. Also, if you happen to live near a sprouts they have a lot of prepared foods that you just need to pan fry / throw into the oven (stuffed chicken breast, kebabs, etc)

    And, like another user said, double up on dinner so you have lunch for the next day.

    Good luck!

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