Ever since last summer, I've become a pro at meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking healthy dinners. It's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it so I put together a simple guide of how anyone can start meal planning and making the most of their grocery budget and kitchen!
|1| Find Recipes You Like
I have a selection of healthy and delicious recipes you can choose from or you can peruse the web. It may take a week or so of looking but once you find at least 20 different recipes to choose from you'll have a good selection that you can rotate over the course of a month. I keep mine in a binder I made.
|2| Make a Calendar
I like to do things from scratch because I tend to stick to them more so I took a notebook and made gridlines for a calendar of each month. I write in pencil (so I can easily make changes) and I keep this calendar in my recipe drawer so it's easily accessible.
|3| Decide on Meals
This is the easy part, well sort of. Go through all of your recipes and select the next 7-14 dinners. If you know you are going out to eat on a certain day you can put a big X on that day in your calendar.
|4| Make A Grocery List
This makes shopping super easy. Write down all the ingredients you'll need to buy for the next week of meals and then make up your grocery list. The beauty of this is you'll always have what you need because you'll use your recipes to make up your grocery lists.
|5| Edit As You Go
It's okay if you end up not enjoying some recipes. If you want to get rid of them then do so, but if you really like them than put them back in your recipe collection to use in another couple of weeks.
I have a selection of healthy and delicious recipes you can choose from or you can peruse the web. It may take a week or so of looking but once you find at least 20 different recipes to choose from you'll have a good selection that you can rotate over the course of a month. I keep mine in a binder I made.
I like to do things from scratch because I tend to stick to them more so I took a notebook and made gridlines for a calendar of each month. I write in pencil (so I can easily make changes) and I keep this calendar in my recipe drawer so it's easily accessible.
|3| Decide on Meals
This is the easy part, well sort of. Go through all of your recipes and select the next 7-14 dinners. If you know you are going out to eat on a certain day you can put a big X on that day in your calendar.
This makes shopping super easy. Write down all the ingredients you'll need to buy for the next week of meals and then make up your grocery list. The beauty of this is you'll always have what you need because you'll use your recipes to make up your grocery lists.
|5| Edit As You Go
It's okay if you end up not enjoying some recipes. If you want to get rid of them then do so, but if you really like them than put them back in your recipe collection to use in another couple of weeks.
Another
great option to simplify meal planning is something I've started doing
lately. I have been collaborating with a company called Just Meats,
where you can choose the meats you want delivered to you and they arrive
fully cooked and packaged with delicious flavor options and all you
have to do is put it in a pan on your stove to heat it up. If you use coupon code ELLEN37466 at Just Meats you can get $20 off!
So there you have it. Within a few weeks you'll be on a roll with this whole meal planning routine! Good luck!
So there you have it. Within a few weeks you'll be on a roll with this whole meal planning routine! Good luck!
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I like the idea of having a few go-to recipes to lean on when you want to make it easy on yourself! And I love how you organized your recipe binder! Thanks for the tips
ReplyDeleteyoure welcome!!!
DeleteVery helpful pointers. Cooking for me has always just been another art form. Usually I will check out what's locally sourced at the market and plan my recipes around that. But certainly having a list and game plan like you suggest is an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your visit, I enjoyed your sweet comment.
and thank you for YOUR visit :)
DeleteGreat tips, Ellen!! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletexo - Brenda // ChattingOverChocolate.com
You are very welcome :)
DeleteI so need to start doing this again.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amysfashionblog.com/blog-home/
I have been meal planning for the last couple of weeks and it has changed my life! Your tips are great. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteyou're so welcome! And yes, it makes everything SO much easier!
DeleteGreat tips, Ellen - pinned!! xo
ReplyDeleteAw thank you so much!
DeleteWonderful tips! I have a master list of recipes our family enjoys as well, and it does make meal times so much easier! Enjoyed this article, is always fun to see how other people meal plan :)
ReplyDeleteYea i love seeing how others do it too and sometimes it inspires me to adapt a new method into my current one!
Delete