Meal Planning 101: How-To For Newbies

Meal planning is all about simplicity, flexibility and fun, and it’s easier than you may think.

Are you:

• Overwhelmed by the “what to make for dinner” question?

• Unprepared (with available groceries) to make meals at home?

• Resorting to takeout more than you’d like?

• Resenting money spent on eating out when cooking at home is more cost friendly?

• Believing your diet could be healthier if you cooked more?

• Making several trips to the grocery store in a week?

If you answered YES to any of the above, meal planning would benefit you!

Unfortunately, diet culture has placed a stigma around the practice of meal planning, and often has us associating meal plans with restriction, portion control, measurements and rigidity. My goal is to help separate meal planning from rules and restrictions, so it can be a useful and flexible tool to help keep you organized and reduce stress during our busiest seasons of life. Going into the week with a general idea of what you’ll be having throughout the day AND having the ingredients on hand to create those meals/snacks can bring such a significant sense of relief.

As a soon-to-be registered dietitian, I am a big proponent of meal planning and truly believe in the statement “healthy eating does not happen by accident”. Prioritizing your nutrition and approaching it with some sort of plan (a little or a lot) will help set you up for success.

To a newbie, this might sound intimidating. But I can assure you that learning the tips you need to expertly meal plan can be done! Like most things, start small and build with practice. So let’s walk through my 4 simple steps to get you started with meal planning. Hopefully these tips will increase your confidence in the kitchen and help you feel excited to partake in meal planning!

1. Build a go-to meal list with your family.

The most common complaint I get from meal planning newbies is coming up with meal ideas. We often get bored of eating food from home when we are trapped cooking the same meals over and over. My biggest piece of advice here is to create a go-to meal list in advance and continue to add to it as you discover new favorite recipes.

I recommend taking a few minutes by yourself, or with family members to brainstorm all the meals that you have made and enjoyed in the past, or those you would like to try making in the future! You can separate this list based on categories such as : breakfast, lunches (those you can make to pack to take with you to school/work), dinners, and snacks/desserts.

Once you have your master list of meals, check to see if each of them are balanced, meaning they incorporate a protein-rich food, carbohydrates, and a healthy fat source. For example, if you have pasta listed as a dinner, I might suggest changing that to chicken pesto pasta to incorporate more protein and vegetables into the dish. Or if you have avocado toast as a breakfast option, I might alter it by adding eggs or pumpkin seeds/hemp seeds to incorporate more protein.

Have this list readily available either printed out in a binder, written on a whiteboard near the kitchen, or easily accessible on your phone/computer. This will make it super easy to pull it out whenever you want to plan out your meals for the week. I want to reiterate that this doesn’t have to be a master chef’s cookbook collection, but rather keep everything simple and enjoyable! Every once in a while consider updating the list by adding new meal ideas that you come across or delete those that weren’t as feasible.

2. Start by planning out only one meal per day for the week.

If the idea of planning out every single meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner) ahead of time is too overwhelming or time consuming, that is 100% okay! You’re not alone. I suggest starting out with the one meal that you think needs the most improvement when it comes to preparation.

For example, if you’re typically running short on time in the morning, breakfast could be a great one to start with. Using your go-to meal list in the breakfast category, plan out a week’s worth of breakfast and add the ingredients needed onto your grocery list. Or if you find yourself eating out everyday because you aren’t prepared with a packed lunch– start there! Once you feel more comfortable prepping this one meal and it’s becoming a part of your routine, you can progress to planning out additional meals during your day.

One of my favorite “hacks” for saving time and money is batch cooking my dinners so that the extra portions can be packed as leftovers for the next day’s lunch or even used as dinner again. If you don’t have enough leftovers for a standalone meal, you can still repurpose your leftovers into another meal. This can look like adding your cooked veggies into a frittata, using leftover taco meat to make a taco salad, or add shredded rotisserie chicken into a bone broth noodle soup.

3. Incorporate social events, take-out food and leftovers into your meal plan.

I’m speaking from experience when I say that we sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves to have home-cooked, colorful, family style meals every single night. In reality, that’s just not realistic. Some days you just don’t have the time or energy despite planning ahead. I preach the concept of BALANCE in all areas of your life, especially nutrition, because it’s important to incorporate things that bring us joy and prioritizing memories made. Dining out is a fun, social experience, so we shouldn’t neglect these things from our weekly planning. When creating your plan for the week, start by writing in any social events or meals that are already planned out. Whether this is a BBQ at a friend’s house, Friday date night at your favorite restaurant, or a Sunday family brunch– these can all have a space within your life!

4. Sticking to a strict meal plan is not necessary.

As previously mentioned, “strict” and “rigid” have no place within your meal planning experience. Life is oftentimes crazy, hectic, and unpredictable. So sticking to a specific, set-in-stone plan is unnecessary and frankly takes the fun moments away. If you take away one piece of advice from this entire thing, let it be that you should embrace the process and give yourself grace along the way. Take time to learn what parts of meal planning you enjoy the most, and be flexible in your approach so it fits into your lifestyle.

Don’t worry too much about being too specific about what you plan to eat every meal, rather consider it as more of a general guideline that can also change on the fly. Specifics can (and will) vary depending on what you’re craving or what ingredients need to be used up. Feel free to switch up the type of fruit that goes in your yogurt or use a different protein in your pasta dish. The MAIN purpose of planning meals ahead of time is simply to reduce the stress that comes with deciding what to make and provide more organization to grocery shopping and food costs.

As you come up with your weekly meals, be sure to put the ingredients needed on a grocery list at the bottom of your plan! This way you can easily go to the grocery store and buy ONLY what you need to execute the meals.

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If you think meal planning could be beneficial to you, try it out for a week or two and see how it goes! Consider the following steps:

• Create your “go-to” meal list

• Review schedules and time available to cook

• Fill in your meals for the week (breakfast/ lunch/ dinner)

• Compile a grocery list based on what you have and ingredients that are needed

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