Easy Meal Planning For Beginners
Compile a Detailed List of Dinners for the Week Ahead
The secrets to fun and effective meal planning are revealed in this guide for cooks.
Few moments in the day are more loaded with unnecessary stress than the moments spent toward the end of the day standing in front of the pantry door or refrigerator, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. Spending a half hour on the weekend planning meals for the week ahead will ensure the hours of four to six o’clock in the evening are relatively stress-free.
Getting Organized
Set aside a half an hour to an hour over your weekend to plan your dinner meals for the week ahead. Organize an area in your home for storing cookbooks and recipes. If possible, set this area up in your kitchen or dining room for easy access to the pantry while you’re planning.
Ensuring Variety
If you want to be sure your meals have wide variety, start out by assigning a category to each night of the week. For example, Mondays could be pasta night, Tuesdays sandwich night, or Fridays crock-pot night. Start with a piece of paper and write the names of the days of the week down, leaving plenty of space for writing in the meal plan under each day.
Once you’ve plotted out the days of the week, pencil in any other activities taking place that week in your household that could affect the dinner hour, such as children’s sporting events, a planned night out at a restaurant or evening classes.
Selecting Meals
Refer to your personal collection of recipes, search the internet, or simply brainstorm a different meal for each night of the week, writing it out beneath each day's heading. Everyday Food and Simply Recipes are excellent websites for finding recipes online. Keep in mind any fresh ingredients that you already have in your refrigerator that need to be used up. Write down all of the ingredients that will be needed to make each night’s meal.
Listing Ingredients
When you’ve made up your meal plan, complete with your ingredient list, take the list to your kitchen and double-check for items you already have in your cupboards, fridge or freezer. Cross off any items that are deemed unnecessary. Post a copy of the week’s meal plan on your fridge door for quick reference throughout the week.
Stocking up on Grocery Items
Compile the list of groceries you’ll need to cook the five meals you’ve planned for the week. In addition, consider if there are any standard items such as milk, bread, or toiletries your household will need during the upcoming week. If you want to be super-organized, write up your list according to grocery store aisles and sections. For example, group dairy items together, meat and poultry, bread and canned goods. This will save time when you’re shopping for the week’s groceries. Shop Sunday evening, or, if possible, the less hectic Monday morning for the week’s groceries.
Each morning, refer to your posted meal plan to see if you need to defrost any meat for that evening’s meal.
You’ll be comforted by the routine of knowing exactly what you and your family will be having for dinner each night of the week. Investing in an hour or so on the weekend will save hours of your valuable time throughout the week, time you’ll be able to spend in the company of those you love instead of in front of the open refrigerator door!
