Planning Your Meals A Month Ahead | Meal Planning Monday
Meal planning is a great tool for almost anyone. Whether you're a busy parent who needs to know ahead of time what's for dinner, or a single person living a busy life full of meetings and time with friends, meal planning can help you lead the healthy lifestyle you've always meant to.
By planning out every dinner, possibly even lunch and breakfast if your personality is super organized, you take the stress out of cooking.
You can put the menu on your fridge and rest easy knowing that you won't have to spend your commute wondering what you're going to whip up for dinner.
Reasons to Meal Plan a Month in Advance
Meal planning can seem daunting at first, especially if you've never done it before.
Sitting in front of a blank menu can be hard if you're used to rummaging in your fridge until you find something that looks good every night.
Filling in a week's worth of meals can be tough, let alone a month.
Tough as it may be, however, there are distinct advantages to meal planning a month in advance.
By planning in advance, you'll be able to slash your grocery bills, possibly in half. Stores want you to buy more than what's on your list. They place tantalizing items on display that are hard to resist. The less often you're at the store, the better.
By planning a month in advance, you only need to do a large shopping trip once a month and now that most stores have grocery pick-up, you don’t even need to go inside!
You can stop at a small store every week to restock on produce and milk. Plus, you'll save more because you'll be able to buy in bulk.
It's not as hard as you think. By setting up a meal rotation, you can easily set up a month of dinners. This will save tons of time, leaving you free to cook and enjoy your meals.
Meal planning can help make being healthy easier. Not only will it help relieve stress, it will let you plan your meals exactly, down to their macros. If you're following a certain diet, meal planning is the only realistic way to stick with it.
By planning far in advance, you'll lower costs, be able to shop in bulk, and will save time. In a world that never stops running, it can feel refreshing to have a little time to rest.
Tips for Meal Planning a Month at a Time
In most respects, planning out your meals a month ahead of time is the same as a weekly meal plan. There are just a few things to consider.
When and where to grocery shop. Just because you are planning a months’ worth of meals, doesn’t mean you are prepping and cooking them all at the beginning of the month. You may want to split this up into weekly or bi-weekly grocery trips so your food doesn’t spoil.
Whether or not to prepare them ahead of time. This is a really important decision to make, and one that will determine what types of meals you make. If you like freezer meals, you can definitely make more of them at once, as opposed to salads you put in jars, which won’t last nearly as long.
Factoring in changes to your schedule. You probably know what is going on in the next week but what about in the next month? Maybe not. This is why it’s good to have backup ideas for at least a few days out of the month when things may not go exactly according to plan.
Quick Start Meal Planning Tips and Tricks
By cooking and prepping your meals for the week, you eliminate many of the worries that revolve around eating healthy during the day. In order to help you achieve your health goals, here are some tips and tricks for a more efficient meal planning strategy.
TAKE INVENTORY
Before you start planning, you need to know what you already have for a few different reasons. First of all, many leftovers can be used for different dishes, so you don’t have to waste them. It is also a good idea to take stock so you can plan meals based on certain ingredients you have. And lastly, it saves you time and money by not having to buy duplicate items.
START WITH YOUR FAVORITE MEALS
Many people make the mistake of trying to cook something new every day. When you're focusing on getting healthier, the nutrients within the meal are much more important than the appearance or taste of the dish.
Instead of focusing on creating something that would make Betty Crocker happy, you should stick with what makes you happy. Sticking with simple meals will make the preparation process much quicker and easier. You can always swap out a recipe or two every week.
Make sure you not only list the meals you are planning, but also the ingredients, and how much of each item you will need.
For example, if you’re having more than one chicken dish, look at the amount you need for each and get enough chicken for both meals. Use what you need for the first dish and then freeze the rest of the chicken until you’re ready. This is going to prevent multiple trips to the store in the middle of the week.
USE LEFTOVERS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
Not every meal needs to be cooked from scratch. Instead, you should always take a look in the refrigerator to see what's available.
Using items already in the fridge will accomplish a few goals. First and foremost, you'll save a lot of time that would have been spent cooking or baking from scratch. Secondly, you won't end up having a fridge full of random food items. Tomorrow's meals should start from the leftovers you have laying around.
WORK ON YOUR GROCERY LIST
This one is completely up to you, but it does help to organize your shopping list.
You know the way you shop in the grocery store, whether you start in produce or head to the meat section first, so that should be how your list is written.
This is going to make shopping the fastest possible, and also avoid aisles with foods you don’t need, but are often tempting to you. Don’t need snacks? You can avoid that aisle completely by having an organized list.
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