Help with Meal Planning

Since you don't cook alot already, you might want to take this slow. Start with breakfast. Easy starts would be healthy cereals with 1% or almond milk, oatmeals, eggo nutrigrain waffles, yogurt, fruit, half a bagel, etc. These things require very little cooking but are good for you. Be sure to measure/weigh your portions to watch calories. Smoothies.

Lunch.
Salad greens with boneless/skinless chicken breast is easy. Boca burgers on a 100 calorie sandwich thin. Healthy choice soups and microwave meals (these tend to be very high in sodium). Tuna. Chili. I have an easy recipe that lasts for a week if you'd like it.

Dinner
salmon, turkey burgers, salad, grilled chicken breasts, brown rices, lots of veggies.


Most of what I prepare for myself has very little prep time. Hopefully this made some sense :-)

That's always been a tough one for me as well. Very busy, two kids and a husband who... well... tries to help? lol
There are some really great cook books out there that specifically deal with creating meals with very few ingredients, some as little as 5. There is also a lot of information you can get on the internet on meal planning, which is where I first go if I want to try something new. It can get pretty boring if I just stick to the things I know are healthy.
I'd love to read if anyone else has other sources.
Good luck!

I am not much of a cook, but I have found epicurious.com has good, easy recipes which help me stay on track with my weight loss. Last night I made the Brazilian fish stew and it was amazingly good! You can also print off shopping lists. Rotisserie chickens are a staple at my house as well. It's easy to make lots of recipes when the chicken is already cooked.

Tacos are really easy. I use 97/3 ground turkey with 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp onion powder instead of the seasoning packet because it's full of unneccesary sodium. I use spinach instead of lettuce (I use kitchen shears to cut it up). Tomato, onion, salsa and whatever else you like. I use corn tortillas instead of flour or taco shells.

Chicken breast with a couple of veggies is super easy too. I try to do at least 2 veggies, different colors. For example, yellow squash and broccoli or carrots and green beans.

Tonight I'm making spaghetti bake. Yum.

I would say, first, plan on going to the grocery store every week. That way you can keep lots of fresh veggies and fruit in the house. I usually don't plan my out all my meals before I go to the grocery store, but I have a few meals in mind that I want to cook that week. I usually buy one or two proteins, like a package of chicken and a package of pork chops. You can also cook enough meat for two meals at once, and if you're short on time, you can cook it in the crock pot while you are doing other things. I also find that cooking blogs (try anepicchange.com and/or http://deliciouslyaustin.wordpress.com/ )and allrecipes.com help for inspiration when I don't know what I want to eat. Good luck!

I have a ton of cookbooks, so I sit down with them every week and plan every dinner. I then write them on the fridge and pick each night what we're in the mood from off of the list. Sometimes I'll go so far as to list what day I will make what, but only if I will be very busy and know that I won't be in the mood to make decisions.

That's exactly how I do it! Although, we do one big grocery shopping trip every two weeks, for meat and the expensive things, and freeze the meat until we use it. Then we run to the store once or twice a week to stock up on fresh produce and things. Plus, planning in advance helps you to save money because you're only buying what you NEED and what you WILL use! Best of luck!

My new "thing" is to use my slow cooker (alot). I have several recipe books for slow cookers and have gone through and marked the recipes that would most please my family. My favorite is to make chicken fajitas on whole wheat tortillas. When I go to the store, I usually buy to large packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I figure out what I am going to use them for, cut them to the recipe, and freeze the individual dinner portions. I also use alot of boneless pork chops (I know, not as healthy as the chicken).

I will make out a list of all of the meals I have in my freezer and decide what to have on which night of the week and hang the list on the fridge.

Hint: When making chili, or any type of sauces, I always make a double batch and freeze half for another meal. Works terrific. The same can be done with most vegetables, including peppers, onions, celery, etc.

Who all actually gathers sale ads and plans their weekly recipes based on what is on sale vs shopping for what you decided you want to eat?

I bought a George Foreman grill and have been grilling chicken and salmon a lot.
I make a fresh salad with just about every meal, nice mixed greens with some tomato, cumcumber and whatever else you like.
Use Balsamic vinigar and Extra virgin olive oil for dressing.
Then cook another veggie....green beans, broccoli, whatever.
If you want more carbs add a little brown rice, couscous, or pasta on the side....that should be a small part of the meal though..about 1/4 of it.

Hello emmaleigh! I cook darn near every single night of the week as well as breakfast and lunch. I do not eat out and just can not justify the money spent on it since I know how to cook and I cook well. If I do not plan it I am at a loss. I shop at my military commissary and the base is about 10 miles out of town so going to the commissary is not something I doseveral times per week but only twice a month centered around paydays. (not to mention I am not fond of grocery shopping) The week before payday, and grocery shopping, I will take the time to plan out how many meals that I need for the next two weeks. I decide what meals that I want to buy groceries for, make a grocery list for all of it, write down all of the meals on a list, and then I keep the list on my refrigerator. On this list it has the meal name and where I can find the recipe. (IE, cookbook, website, flash drive, cutout recipe). Each morning I take a look at the list and decide what it is that I want to make that night. I might add that when I am planning out the meal list I have an even amount of quick/easy recipes and a little harder/longer ones. I like to make sure that if I am having a bad, stressful, or long day I will still have something quick to cook and hopefully not have the urge to just want to pick up something from a fast food restaurant. I do all of this myself. The husband and children do not do any of the cooking, planning, or cleaning up for that matter. The husband does know that he WILL be there to help me get these groceries out of the car and put away, though. I also cook extra in every meal that I cook. I am a huge believer in cook once eat twice and I also like to have things leftover for lunches.

I am going to be starting a blog, with the new year, about my daily meals. I think it is going to be called, "What's for dinner tonight?" or something like that. I will post the recipe that I cook and I will also give any tips or comments that I may have. My hopes are to help people much like yourself over this next year. To me there is a huge sense of fullfilment in cooking and I am very satisfied putting a good meal on the table for my family. Not just meals! I also bake and am very versatile in the kitchen and have been cooking since I could stand up with my mom in the kitchen.

Hope that helps a little bit.