This meal plan features meals with an ideal mix of carbohydrates, fats and proteins – such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy or fortified soy products.
Create enough of these recipes to enjoy for leftovers during the week or freeze for later, on an unhurried day of your choosing. Set aside enough time for this project.
Plan Your Meals
Planning meals ahead can help eliminate decision fatigue. By having healthy meals prepared to go during the week, planning means less chance of dining out or picking something quick from drive-through windows.
Registered dietitians recommend setting aside one or two days each week to draft your meal plan and create your shopping list. Mia Syn, owner of Nutrition by Mia in Charleston, South Carolina recommends this practice to reduce food waste as well as ensure you’re purchasing exactly what is necessary instead of impulse purchases which may lead to waste later.
Begin by searching through your refrigerator, freezer and pantry to assess what already exists on hand – this will reduce your shopping bill significantly! Create a list of ingredients needed for meals during the coming week as well as any that have near-expiration dates that need using up quickly.
Prep Your Food
Meal prep gives you complete control over what ingredients go into your food, giving you complete power over weight loss, managing health or saving money goals. Meal preparation will help you reach all of these objectives.
Setting aside enough time each week to prepare food is essential, but don’t make the task more ambitious than possible. Doing too much may leave you with leftovers that go uneaten or frozen dinners that expire without ever getting eaten.
Make it easier with an app for meal planning and shopping: the AnyList app makes creating and sharing lists easier by letting you create, share, and suggest items based on what’s already in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer – iOS and Android compatible! Alternatively, PlateJoy helps plan and prep healthy meals with videos, grocery lists and prep tips all available online.
Make a Grocery List
If handwriting your grocery list is becoming cumbersome and illegible, there are apps to help create digital shopping lists that sync across devices – a much easier and convenient way of keeping track of everything that needs to be purchased while also eliminating worries over losing or forgetting it at home.
Before creating your grocery list, take an inventory of what is already in your pantry and refrigerator. Doing this will save money by eliminating duplicate purchases. It is also beneficial to make note of staple items that are running low so you can plan to replenish them on future trips.
As a way to help, I’ve put together a weekly meal plan for breakfast and lunch (Monday-Friday), complete with all of the ingredients needed to create each healthy recipe. Just click on each link below and copy into your computer!
Make Leftovers a Part of Your Plan
Repurposing leftovers from your meal plan is an efficient and cost-cutting way to cut food waste, save time, and money. When purchasing food to prepare a dish that won’t get eaten, that food ends up going into waste – either the trash can or freezer.
Most people find that leftover foods don’t taste quite as appetizing after two or three days; but with some planning and prepping, leftover foods can still make for tasty meals! Repurpose vegetables into soup; roast chicken into sandwiches; and rice into stir fry dishes for delicious healthful meals from your leftovers.
Meal prep days can also be used to cook extra portions and store them for later, giving you access to healthy, quick meals whenever the urge hits! Be sure to label and date all of the frozen items so that you know exactly what is inside; consider joining a dinner swap group or event in order to reduce food waste.