If you know me at all, you know that I am all about productivity and organization. This extends beyond the work I do for my clients and into my own kitchen! Yep, I’m talking about meal prep.
Every Sunday night, I prepare for the week ahead by responding to emails, reviewing what needs to get done for the week (I even plan out my exercises) and of course, meal prepping.
I recently sent out an email to my subscribers about how I believe that nutrition and productivity go hand in hand. A lot of people replied and wanted to hear more about how I prep my meals for the week, so I decided to do a blog post about it.
I believe that planning your meals ahead of time is a great way to use your organization skills to get a head start on the week and set yourself up for success.
It also prevents you from wandering the grocery store, which can end up costing you more money in the long run. In addition to saving money, there are other benefits to meal planning, I promise. 🙂
Meal Planning Benefits
- Happier – This is a big one because it eliminates the standing in front of the fridge at 5 PM every evening wondering what is for dinner. It is one less decision you need to make at the end of the day. Instead, you can prepare for it the night before or even before you start work for the day.
- Healthier – With meal planning and cooking at home, you may even enjoy trying new foods or different ways of cooking that you once thought you wouldn’t enjoy. You may slowly realize that cooking at home isn’t as hard as you once imagined it to be and your meals are healthier!
- Harmony – While everyone doesn’t have the same tastes, cooking at home and planning ahead allows you to get everyone involved. Everyone in the family can have a say in the meals that are planned. There’s even research suggesting that kids who help plan and prepare meals are more likely to actually eat the meals. Don’t be shy, give it a try!
- Togetherness – Meal planning reduces the impromptu dining out and promotes more eating together around the table.
Now that you know the key benefits of meal planning, let’s chat about how to keep meal planning simple – especially if you are new to it.
Planning Made Simple
If you’re new to menu planning, start by planning one week of meals on a day when everyone’s home and you have time to go shopping. Once you master that, you may want to plan for 2 weeks or even a month so you can take advantage of buying bulk, prepping meals ahead of time.
To get started, simply grab a pen and a piece of paper. Once you have this down pat, you may decide to use a more robust system or process. I use Plan to Eat and absolutely love it, but more on that later.
Pick a Planning Method
Now that you are staring at a blank piece of paper, you’re probably wondering how do I get started. Well, I know all too well that when there are too many options, that slows people down. So, my suggestion for you is to pick a method for your planning … to get you started. You may not always plan this way, but it’s at least a place to begin. Choose one of these options:
- Themed meals – each day of the week has a theme. We like to stick to meatless Mondays, and taco Tuesdays. Sometimes in the summer, we’ll do pizza Fridays. You could have soup one day and pasta another. You get the idea.
- 20 core meals – this is where you pick 20 meals that you know your family will eat and you can prepare with ease and just rotate them in.
- One ingredient for several meals – brainstorm foods that you can use for several meals throughout the week (e.g. whole chicken as the ingredient and use if for chicken breasts, chicken salad, chicken stock, etc.) instead of new foods each day. This option will definitely save you time and cooking efforts each week.
Planning the Week Ahead
From there, the process is a little easier!
- Create a list of meals/recipes based on the option you selected above.
- Plan the week’s meals (don’t forget snacks!).
- Make the grocery list.
- Now, it’s time to go shopping!
Bonus!
I’m also sharing some of my go-to meal planning recipes in case you want to join me next week and do the same!
Blueberry Overnight Oats
I am obsessed with oatmeal. I love how healthy and soul-filling it is, and I also love that you can easily change up the flavors by adding in things like fruit, nuts, seeds, spices, or little indulgences like maple syrup and chocolate chips.
If I’m feeding the family, I just do some plain quick oats and I sneak in some extra protein so the kids stay fuller longer. However, the recipe I use most is this one for Blueberry Overnight Oats. I love that I can prepare it the night before so I can just wake up, eat my breakfast, and get right to work.
Black Bean Corn and Quinoa Salad
One thing I love to do on Sunday evenings is make a big bowl of salad that I can put in the fridge and eat for lunch all week long. My absolute favorite is this corn and black bean quinoa salad. I always keep quinoa in my pantry because it’s an amazing plant-based protein source which means it will keep you full without that gross heavy feeling. It’s also super versatile. When I make this salad, I often pair it with one of my favorite soups — another food I like to prep on Sunday nights.
Hard-Boiled Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs are one of the simplest meal prep items you can make and I never get sick of them. Personally, I just like to cut them in half and sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper on them. If you have a pressure cooker, you can get perfect hard-boiled eggs every single time using the 5-5-5 method. I will often do this while I’m prepping something else, which is so much easier than watching over a pot of boiling water to make sure the eggs don’t get overcooked.
Energy Balls
Meal prep isn’t just about making lunches, it’s also about making snacks. Energy balls are my favorite healthy snack and you can find TONS of different recipes on Pinterest. There are chocolate brownie ones, banana bread ones, Nutella ones, and pumpkin ones! I will usually do something with peanut butter and oats (like this one) because I like how much protein they have. Plus, they only have five ingredients and there’s no baking required. How much easier could it be?!
So there you have it. Did anything sound good to you? If you have any favorite recipes you think I should try, feel free to drop them in the comments below or send to me directly. I am ALWAYS looking for new ideas … and Happy Planning!
Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.