How to Make Healthy and Easy Meal Plans

Shop for groceries, cook and prepare meals in a systematic way, in order to save time, money and stress. By planning a meal plan ahead of time, you'll never have to worry about what to cook for dinner.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Collect recipes. You can get them from the internet, books, magazines, friends, family and even behind the labels of foods. Choose recipes that are simple, healthy and flavorful. Save the complicated and/or hedonistic meals for special occasions or holidays. Or you can buy a big recipe book that looks appealing to you, and pick recipes that you like out of it. Recipes that provide calories and nutritional info are a plus.

2. Assemble the recipes in a binder. Include any modifications of the recipes, for future reference. Divide the binder into categories, whatever categories makes the most sense for you and your family. For example, you can divide the recipes based on what time of the day they'll be eaten (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or they can be divided based on what dietary needs each family member requires. The more organized you are, the easier it will be for you to create meal plans.

3. Choose the recipes/meals that you want to make for the following week, on preferably Friday or Saturday. Look through the recipes and list the ingredients that you will need. Check your pantry and refrigerator to make sure that you don't already have the necessary ingredients. You can choose recipes that require less expensive foods/ingredients, if you want to lower your grocery bill. Look through grocery store circulars with your list in hand, to see which items are the cheapest.

4. You can choose to either buy your groceries yourself, or buy them online and have them delivered to you. Some grocery stores offer free delivery as long as you meet a specific minimum purchase (e.g. $65). It's best to do your grocery shopping on Sunday, because store sales begin on Sunday and items that are on sale are still in stock.

5. Try to choose recipes that are versatile. For example, if you make a chicken parmesan dish for dinner, you can save some of the leftovers for the following day, and make chicken parmesan pannini sandwiches with pesto for lunch. You can also make soups, side dishes, breakfast burritos and other meals in advance, by simply freezing them for later. Think creatively and think ahead. Try to maximize one meal into 2 or even 3 meals by altering and modifying them. Another example would be cooking today's dinner, while also quickly assembling a lasagna and refrigerating it for tomorrow's dinner. All you have to do the following day is put the lasagna into the oven.

Tips & Warnings

• Develop a passion for cooking. It's difficult to eat healthy and flavorful meals consistently if you do not appreciate cooking.
• Collect recipes and try 1-2 new recipes every week, for variety.
• Try to avoid grocery shopping spontaneously without a plan or even a list-- you'll buy items on impulse.