Why It Is Worth Meal Planning

…Or Worth Trying Again, Even If You Have Tried and Failed in The Past

“What’s for dinner??”

Does that question cause anyone else’s heart to start racing and a feeling of burden and dread to surface? It definitely used to have that exact effect on me. Coming home after a long day at work; hungry, tired, and then to start thinking about what to prepare for dinner?!

Ugh. No thank you.

At that point, especially if you arrived home late and you’re exhausted and hungry, well-intentioned plans for preparing nutritious meals easily fly right out the window. It’s very difficult to make healthy food choices when your belly is growling in a ravenous and unrelenting manner, ‘feed me now’!

Enter meal planning.

Meal planning can ease this burden of having to think of what to prepare for the meal on the spot (whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner) and can also support the goal of making healthier meal decisions.

For example, planning out and packing your lunches prevents mindless snacking throughout the day (vending machines do not have the healthiest choices) and avoids the urge to indulge in unhealthy food options from the cafeteria or ordering out. Likewise, by planning out dinners, now you know in advance what meal to prepare, you can have all the ingredients on hand, or perhaps you prepared it already over the weekend and all you need to do is thaw and reheat.

Yes! Great! Ready to start meal-planning?

Some people have already tried meal-planning and found it to be overwhelming (where to start?) or may have been a bit over-ambitious with the chosen recipes (ingredients are hard to find or they spoil before getting around to preparing the dish). The enthusiasm for meal-planning therefore quickly gets dashed away. I know because this happened to me p-l-e-n-t-y of times. In fact, I found it so discouraging that I even matter-of-factly would tell people that I didn’t like cooking, an attitude I carried with me for years and was my general approach to preparing meals. My meals suffered as a result, and lacked creativity, diversity of ingredients, and to be truthful, were not very healthy.

But I also knew I needed to make healthier meals, especially since I was counseling the very patients I see on the importance of proper nutrition! And I had to stop using the excuse that, “I have no time”. If I was asking my patients to eat healthier, I had to hold myself to those same expectations. My health depended on it, as did my family’s health. And you know what I didn’t have time for? Poor health. Therefore, I had to make the time. I also needed to take a different approach to meal-planning because if I tried the same strategies from before, I already knew that my meal-planning efforts were doomed to be cut short a week in.

So, here is what I did differently, and I am happy to share these tips with you! I hope you find that it transforms any trepidation or dread you may feel for meal-planning into feelings of excitement and satisfaction!

Tip #1: Give yourself the time to sit down and plan out the week’s meals

For me, I look for recipes on Saturday. When I find a recipe that I want to use, I save it and also add it to my calendar on the day I intend to make it. If I don’t write down what recipes I will be making for the week, then I may add the ingredients to a grocery list and later completely forget which of the saved recipes that ingredient corresponded to. I am embarrassed to admit how often I have done that. So… trust me on this one. It will save you time from looking back over all your saved recipes. Pick a day of the week you plan to make that recipe and write it down in your calendar.

Tip #2: Start with planning meals for three to four days of the week

Ambitiousness is a great quality. Being over-ambitious can also backfire, and this is true for meal-planning. Taking on a task of making 6 different recipes for the week is a lot to take on and let’s not forget that life has a way of tasking us with issues to address that we cannot always anticipate. Therefore, if you had planned on making something every day and something comes up with family, or with work, then your plan for making food for that day may be derailed and impacts the plan for the other days. By starting with planning to make food for 3 or 4 days of the week, it allows you to see the recipes you choose out to completion, allowing for flexibility in the order of when you planned on making or serving them. Also, there may even be leftovers you can use for some of the other days, always a win! Presently, I plan meals for 5 days – since I know that one day we will be using a smorgasbord of leftovers and one day a week we usually grab food from a local eatery.

Tip #3: Write down a list of foods that you like

Okay, remember the overwhelm I described above from not even knowing where to start? This tip addresses specifically this point. By choosing food(s)* that you like, you can then use that food in your search when looking for recipes. For me, I started with quinoa. I love the texture of quinoa, loved that it was a complete protein, and I wanted to see what other ingredients could be added to it to give it that extra ‘wow’ factor. I looked for recipes online and paid special attention to the ones that had several people leave high-star ratings – my quick and simple way of trusting that this was likely a good recipe!

*if part of the goal is to be healthier, please make sure that the food you choose is a healthy food 😊

Tip #4: When looking at the recipes, review the ingredients

The pictures of some of the meals are so incredibly delicious. And the recipe may have thousands of 5-star ratings. Wow, this recipe is a real winner! Before clicking save on the recipe, I would highly recommend reviewing the ingredients on the list. Many of the ingredients may be ones that you can easily get from the grocery store. But sometimes, there is an essential ingredient that is not so easy to get, one where you have to go to a specialty store to get. That’s not a bad thing, by any means; but again, if you did not consider that that may be the case and when you go to make it, find out that you are missing an important ingredient and you can’t easily get it, then you likely will not make that recipe. Or, you will make it without the ingredient and it may not come out tasting the way it was supposed to. Making sure all the listed ingredients are ones you like and ones you can get is important to meal-planning success.

Tip #5: Buy produce in amounts that won’t spoil

Part of meal-planning is hopefully looking for recipes that will improve nutrition choices. As part of that, I also hope that you consider recipes that incorporate fresh produce. Produce is an excellent way to get important fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients. When buying produce, make note of how much you will be using for your recipe and buy it in quantities in as close to those that match what the recipe calls for. Making the recipes soon after getting the fresh ingredients is recommended as well, so that you can ensure that your produce will not spoil. Produce that is starting to wilt can alter the flavor of the recipe or worse, if completely spoiled by the time you get around to making it, has to be thrown away and then you can’t make the recipe.

Tip #6: Consider ordering your groceries online (if it’s not farmer’s market season 😉)

I love farmer’s markets. Love, love, love, farmer’s markets. So – if you have access to a farmer’s market, please go check it out – support local and just see all the splendid foods they have there. It really is such a joy going there to shop for food.

However, sometimes we need to grocery shop on a day when the farmer’s market is not available -OR- you may live in a part of the world where farmer’s markets are not available year-round (like me). If so, one of my time-saving tips is to buy my groceries from my local grocer, online. It helps me stay focused on the ingredients I need, saves me a lot of time as well. You can decide to have them delivered or pick them up at your convenience. I have really enjoyed having an online option.

I will also add here that I do still really enjoy going into grocery stores. I especially like going an hour prior to them closing, to avoid the crowds. The benefits of grocery shopping in person is that you control which produce you buy – or if they are out of something, you have the luxury of exploring other options and not limited to someone else’s best suggestion. Also, you may see something there that you never considered getting and think, ‘why not’?

Explore your options, do a bit of each. I just think it is worth mentioning that having an online option to select groceries has been something that I really have loved and has saved me a lot of time!

Tip #7: Batch cook and freeze – even get a friend involved!

Batch cooking is wonderful. What this means is that you prepare a recipe in larger quantities and then you can store it in the portions you would like and either keep them in the fridge for use later that week or put in the freezer to use several weeks later. It’s a great way to use up the ingredients you purchase and also saves you time later on since all you need to do is reheat down the road. When you exploring different recipes, there is usually a note at the bottom that will let you know whether freezing is an option. So once you find a recipe that you and/or your family really enjoys – put a star next to the recipe and this is one you can consider batch cooking in the future.  

Tip #8: Explore meal prep services in your area

Another great option is exploring what meal preparation services are available for you. There are several meal prep services, you have likely received adds and coupons to try them out. So if you are curious, go ahead and try. I also encourage you to put in a search for local businesses that also do meal preparation. The benefits of these more local services is, one: you’re supporting a local business, and who doesn’t love that? Second, frequently you do not have to commit to a subscription of a certain number of months. There is more flexibility with local services and when viewing the menu if you see there is something you like for that week, you can purchase the meals for that week without having to lock in a commitment for other weeks where you may not be as enthused with the menu. A third reason for looking for more local options is that the ingredients are more likely to be fresh, which also enhances the flavor of the meal you prepare.

So there you have it, my tips on making meal-planning a success for you! As with any intention in setting a new routine, getting started takes the most time, but if you know to expect this, it will not be as frustrating. And also as with any new routine, the more you do it, the more efficient you become with it. I now look forward to meal planning and preparing foods, since I get to look through recipes and pick out ones that seem doable and delicious at the same time. Which brings up another point - it is helpful to also set expectations that as you explore new recipes, some will be amazing, while others may not excite your taste buds as much. This is normal. But as you figure out which ones are a hit with you and your loved ones, make sure to highlight or bank the recipe so that you can make sure to come back to it later, knowing that it will be a success!

Best of luck with your meal-planning and I am confident that you will see how much better you feel knowing that you put in the thought and effort to feed yourself (and others) nutritious food. You will save time with meal-planning and free yourself from the burdensome question – “what’s for dinner?”