5 Simple Steps to Making a Meal Plan That Works for You
Disclosure: In our articles, we independently choose products and services to feature that we think you'll find useful. This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of our links, we may earn a small commission.Ready to cut down the stress making meals? Want to lower cost of eating and cooking by making a meal plan? Meal planning may be easier than you might think! These five easy steps show you how to make the perfect meal plan for you and your family.
Step 1: Make a Schedule
No matter the size of your family, you should start making your meal plan by creating a basic schedule. First create a table with eight columns and at least seven rows. You can do this on your computer, on a piece of paper, a journal, a white board or a chalk board. Whatever works for you. Just make sure you keep it in a place where you can easily refer to it.
The Weekly Meal Planner combines most of the above elements (it’s neither a chalkboard nor a whiteboard) into one simple journal/calendar/planner.
SAMPLE MEAL PLAN
| Day | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Breakfast | Pancakes w/ Eggs | Cereal | Oatmeal | Cereal | Cheesy Omelet | Cereal | Waffles |
| Notes | Buy gluten-free batter | Frozen, Thaw in Toaster | |||||
| Lunch | Turkey Sandwich (add tomato & lettuce) with celery sticks, peaches and hard-boiled egg | Caesar Salad with almonds and extra pumpkin seeds and pears on the side | Tomato Soup w/ crackers and grapes, carrots and cheese on the side | PB&J sandwich w/ carrots, celery, apples, cheese slices and pretzels | Leftover Chicken Parmesan and veggies | Asian-Fusion Chicken Salad Sandwich with side of Miso Soup, Edamame and Rice | Leftover Potluck (from fridge & freezer) |
| Notes | In thermos | Use sun butter for Jake because they don’t allow peanut butter at his school. | Reheat at Work | Reheat at Work | |||
| Dinner | Beef and Veggie Stew with French Bread | Spaghetti with Meatballs, Italian Bread, Steamed Asparagus | Chicken Parmesan with squash and tomatoes | Baked Potatoes with baked beans and salad | Turkey Tetrazzini with side of green beans | Veggie Lasagna with Italian bread and tiramisu | Visiting Neighbors – bring a pie |
| Notes | Freeze Leftovers | Freeze Leftovers | Refrigerate Leftovers | Freeze Leftovers | Refrigerate Leftovers |
Of course, you can make yours different. If you have kids with different allergies or different needs, you might add specific rows for specific members of the family (Jake can’t eat gluten, and Abby hates lettuce). You may need to make separate plans for the kids to consider the lunches they can take to school.
You may also add the ingredients into the notes section of your meal plan. That way, whenever you go grocery shopping, you can have a quick handy reference. Later move them onto a standard paper or phone shopping list if you prefer to shop with a list rather than a chart.
Plan for times that you won’t cook. If you’re going out to dinner, or you don’t have the time to rewarm or cook something before work, then put in your schedule that you’re not eating at home.
Step 2: Set a Day for Planning
Set a day to plan your meals for the next week, and then set a different day to cook them. Find a day when no one has anything important going on so that you might plan with your family. If someone has something going on, plan for it. If someone has to eat dinner for work reasons, or eat at a friends house, don’t make dinner for them at home.
Tip: Don’t freeze fried foods. After rewarming they come out soggy (unless you add very specific preservatives to them), as do breaded products.
Step 3: Go Shopping
Map out the shortest route to the grocery stores you’ll need to go to, and get your shopping for them all done. If multiple grocery stores sell the same item, or you have access to food delivery services (such as Amazon), choose the cheapest and best quality. That may take some planning, and it could change if one store puts a product on sale.
Step 4: Make the Meals
Making the meals in advance takes a lot of time and effort, but it pays off on those stressful days when you don’t feel like making anything. You’ll want to set a day each week for making meals, as this will allow you to make them all well in advance.
Tip: For meals that take less than 15 minutes to make, don’t bother making them in advance. Things that would fall into this category include cereal, oatmeal, TV dinners, omelets (mostly), waffles, pancakes, etc.
After you have set aside the day, and cooked the meals, freeze them (or refrigerate them). Certain items require refrigeration, while others need freezing. Decide for your items.
Step 5: Warm Up And Eat
Step five is the easiest of the steps. Just warm up your food, and eat it. Make sure to cook your food thoroughly. Some foods should get warmed up in a toaster, others in a toaster oven, in a microwave oven, on a stove, or in a convection oven. Any way, you should stick a thermometer in your food to make sure it killed all the germs.
If you liked this article on meal plans, check out the other ones at planandorganize.com. We have articles on things ranging from birds to gardening. Have fun!
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Kyle is a staff writer at Plan and Organize™ as well as our marketing coordinator. An undergraduate student at the University of Florida, Kyle enjoys writing about business, education, DIY, history, astronomy, and other science topics. In his free time, Kyle enjoys chess, astronomy, bird-watching and sci-fi.
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