Use this step-by-step guide to meal planning for beginners to eliminate the overwhelm of getting started with weekly menu planning.
Weekly menu planning, also known as meal planning, can ultimately save you a ton of time and money. You’ll avoid eating out regularly, stop buying groceries you never use and avoid the frustration of not knowing what to cook for dinner.
So, what is menu planning or meal planning?
It’s the act of scheduling and preparing dishes for a set period of time. So, instead of asking, “what’s for dinner?” every single day, you only do it once per week and then make a note of the answers.
It may seem too good to be true but I promise you creating a meal plan is easy. If you are new to this technique, follow this meal planning guide to learn how to plan your meals in a straightforward manner.
Meal Planning For Beginners
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How To Meal Plan: A Step-By-Step Approach
If you’re a beginner, meal planning may seem overwhelming. But, all you need to do is break it down into baby steps and you’ll be fine.
Here are my best meal planning tips to get you started:
- Examine your weekly schedule and take note of your busiest days. Select quick and easy recipes. Save crock pot and freezer meals for these days to make life a bit easier.
- Create a meal planning calendar and write down what you will eat each day of the week.
- As you list the order in which you will cook meals. Be sure to place those that use fresh ingredients at the beginning of the week to avoid groceries going bad.
- List the recipe source. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a recipe on Pinterest and didn’t take note of the source. Then, when I wanted to try the recipe, I couldn’t find it on my board. Learn from my mistakes. You can even create a secret board on Pinterest where you store the recipes you will use in the upcoming week. After you have tried them, remove them from the board and start fresh the following week.
- Write down the groceries you need to cook the dishes you have planned. Make sure to check your pantry first so you don’t buy duplicates of anything you already have. Check quantities required so you know if you have enough or how much you need to purchase. There’s nothing more frustrating than cooking a meal, only to run out of an ingredient. Also, be sure to check expiration dates of ingredients you have at home. You don’t want to be cooking with food past its due date. When it’s time to purchase groceries, take your shopping list with you so you don’t forget anything.
Click here to grab this free Weekly Meal Plan and Grocery List printable.
Menu Planning Ideas
Slow Cooker Recipes
The slow cooker is one of the greatest kitchen tools ever when you live a busy life but still want to enjoy wholesome home-cooked meals. They cook ingredients at low temperatures throughout the day. The result is tender and flavorful food that required very little preparation.
Pare these dishes with a simple side or enjoy them alone. Either way you will have a satisfying meal at the end of a long day.
Freezer Meals
You can take time out to meal plan and prep entire meals or just the ingredients and then freeze them. But, my favorite way to do this kind of cooking is to make extra of a dish I am cooking. It takes pretty the same time to cook double or even triple of a meal as it does to make one.
This option is perfect for casseroles. Place the extra one(s) in a foil baking pan so you don’t tie up all your dishes in the freezer. The baking pans are easy to stack and they make cleaning up easy.
Freezer To Slow Cooker Meals
This method is sometimes referred to as Dump cooking, which is not the most appealing name. Freezer to slow cooker meals are great for those who have little time for prep.
Simply place the ingredients in a Ziploc bag and freeze them. Lay them flat in the freezer until the contents have completely frozen and then, stand them upright in a basket for easy storage. Make sure you label the Ziploc bag with the name of the recipe and the use-by date.
The night before you are ready to cook the meals, defrost the ingredients in your refrigerator. Dump the food into the slow cooker the next morning and, hey presto! A lovely meal is served!
15-30 Minute Recipes
When you’re short on time, quick meals that take no longer than 30 minutes to cook are essential. Convenient, pre-packaged foods like frozen pizzas and salads are great for this.
There are also meals that you can cook in no time at all. I love pasta dishes for this reason. Simply cook the pasta according to the directions, add pre-cooked chicken (this can be leftover from earlier in the week) and a jar of sauce. Dinner will be on the table, steaming and ready-to-eat quickly.
You can find a bunch of 15-minute meal ideas here.
Eat Out
Eating fast food is not a bad thing as long as you plan and budget for it. The occasional meal out can save your sanity on the busiest days.
Be sure not to overdo eating out as it is the most costly option and it can be hard to find healthy choices.
Meal Planning Tips
Shop Your Pantry First
If you have a ton of meat or other ingredients at home that you bought on sale or in bulk, include those in your meal plan before you go buy new foods. This ensures that you avoid wastage and saves you time and money.
Create A Routine
Everything seems challenging when it’s new. When you first start meal planning, set aside time on your calendar every week to do it. After a while, it will come naturally and you won’t think twice about sitting down to plan your meals.
Meal Planning Made Easy
If you are used to eating out regularly every week, include simple meals that require very little prep time and ingredients. Don’t attempt to cook huge complicated meals because you will just be setting yourself up for failure.
Easy menu planning for beginners is all about keeping it simple until meal planning and prep become a habit (especially if you’re not fond of cooking).
Store Go-To Ingredients
Keep ingredients at home that require no prep at all. These will come in handy on those days when you forgot to defrost your meat or didn’t go grocery shopping. Life happens and sometimes, unexpected things get in the way of your plans. Don’t let this derail your progress.
Items like bread, nut butters, frozen convenience meals and canned soups are ideal options to store in your pantry. Then, you won’t be tempted to buy food.
Create A List of Recipes
Pinterest is a great source of menu planning ideas as there are tons of recipes you can try. If you do create a secret board for recipes in your weekly meal plan like I mentioned above, transfer the ones you attempted and liked onto a Permanent Recipe Board. Delete any that weren’t crowd-pleasers.
Print recipes or write them down and store in a binder. Again, only keep ones that you absolutely love.
Having a list of tried and true recipes is an awesome source of inspiration when it comes time to planning meals. You’ll have a list of favorites that you can pick from. Swapping out meals regularly will keep you and your family from getting bored. You’ll look forward to home-cooked meals because you actually enjoy them.
So, now you have my step-by-step meal planning for beginners guide. It doesn’t seem that bad, right? You can totally do this!
A meal plan really is a lifesaver. The more you do it, the more comfortable you will become with the whole process until it’s like second nature to you. And, after you’ve done it for a while, you’ll see for yourself just how much time and money it saves you. Then, you definitely won’t want to stop!
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