Meal Planning

Always feel you have no food in the house and that you should be entitled to shares in the corner shop? Well, meal planning may sound dull but planning a weeks worth of meals in advance can really help, as it means you know exactly what to buy at the supermarket and you don’t end up dwindling down each aisle when you’re there. You can finally enjoy the feeling of having fully stocked cupboards!

Apart from the practicalities of getting your food, making a meal planning template can also help if you enjoy cooking from scratch, or even if you’re trying to lose weight.

Creating your meal plan

When it’s time for the food shop, sit down in front of your computer/recipe books and get yourself a pen and paper. Write down how many days you’re doing your shopping for and how many meals you need for each day. E.g.

Add the total number of meals up and use this as your starting point. So here, I know I need 18 meals for the next 7 days.

Read through your recipe books and on the internet for some mealtime inspiration. For each meal you decide upon, on your piece of paper, write down the recipe name, where you found it, the number of servings and the ingredients for it. Do this for each dinner you choose. Add up the number of servings for all the dinners you chose, then when you hit the number of servings you need, you're sorted!

Doing the shopping

I'm a great fan of doing my food shopping online. If you're not a fan, maybe it's because you're not used to having a detailed list of food you need to buy when you're at the supermarket. But if you've made a meal plan, trust me, it's a God-send. Simply shop for everything in your meal planning template, then your usuals, and get it delivered. If I'm experimenting with lots of different recipes in my meal plan, I know I'd much rather someone else shop around for all the ingredients than me!

So with all that in mind, having a meal planning template is a great way to make your shopping experience quicker, easier, and generally more hassle free. And wondering what you're going to cook each night will be one less thing to think about during the week. And if you're worried about cooking in bulk and having leftovers, check out my freezing and re-heating guides so you can save any leftovers for another night.

Image courtesy of kaythaney