A Simple Guide On How To Approach Meal Planning And Prepping

I cook from scratch at least 95% of our meals. This requires me to work with a plan that works for my good; easy and flexible. Well, I have consistently been on this meal-planning journey for close to 3 years.

Has it been easy? No

But as I become more accustomed to this, I find new tricks to simplify the process.

Here are reasons why I love meal planning and prepping;

The flexibility. I can change my meal plans anytime to suit my current season, change of taste buds, change of diet, etc.

It is time-saving. As I mentioned, most of my household’s meals are made from scratch. The planning and prepping process saves me a good chunk of weekly time (hours).

It is cost-saving. Depending on how I plan my cooking, I manage to save good cash each time I replenish my staples and produce.

Waste reduction: Planning my meals well to suit my household’s needs in terms of food ensures there’s minimal to zero food wastage.

What is meal planning and meal prepping?

Meal planning and meal prepping are two concepts that work in sync to help us organize ourselves on meal matters but they serve slightly different purposes.

Here’s a list of some key differences in a few words.

By definition.

• Meal planning is deciding what you will eat in advance typically for a week or longer.
• Meal prepping is the actual preparation of meals in advance.

What each focuses on.

• Meal planning focuses on deciding what to eat as you consider several factors (listed below).
• The main focus in meal prepping is to prepare meals in bulk to simplify consumption throughout the specified duration.

What kind of activities each consists of.

• Meal planning activities include researching recipes, knowing the meal components, organizing meals based on nutrition and dietary needs, and creating a shopping list.
• Meal prepping activities include cooking meals, portioning and packaging, chopping and packaging cooking ingredients, freezing, etc.

What each demands in terms of time commitment.

• Meal planning requires less time commitment upfront compared to meal prepping. This is because most time is spent researching what to cook, the ingredients required, identifying when to cook, creating a grocery list, and shopping.
• On the other hand, meal prepping requires significant time commitment as you will need time to cook or chop ingredients, portion, and store.

Main benefits you are likely to reap from each.

• Meal planning promotes minimal to zero food wastage, saves you time and money, helps you avoid last-minute decisions, and minimizes your chances of settling on unhealthy food choices.
• The major benefit of meal prepping is it saves you a good chunk of time during busy weekdays and ensures there is access to healthy homemade meals.

How flexible is each method?

• Meal planning offers more flexibility regarding meal choices and you can easily adjust accordingly if plans change.
• Meal prepping requires a high commitment to all meals you prepare in advance. While a little flexibility is possible, main dishes are generally fixed once prepped.

Though the two are slightly different, they complement each other.

Tips and hacks for effective meal planning

Be a ‘student’. Yes, the first approach to effective meal planning is doing some learning. And don’t worry if you are starting on this meal planning thing, and you feel you have a lot to play catch up, no, take baby steps. There’s always something new to learn on meal planning, and the good thing is you don’t have to grasp it all. Start by learning the basics and then build on the skill until you get what works for you.

Utilize materials such as online videos, articles, magazines, etc to learn more on meal planning. Also, how about getting some tips from that friend/family who is not so new in this? Truth is, if you want to learn and do meal planning, there are plenty of resources to help you out.

Next, learn about your family’s likes and dislikes and see how you can incorporate their needs into the meal planning.

Consider your schedule. I work well with weekly meal planning. This is because in the season I am, it’s easier that way. Others do weekly or bimonthly. Check your schedule and work around it. For example, you can work with easy recipes for busy nights, and save more elaborate meals for days when you have time.

Set aside time for planning. I love Sundays for coming week schedule planning and this includes meal planning. Starting the week by knowing what my family will feed on that week gives me this sense of calmness to know at least I have that figured out. Dedicate some time each week (or a duration that works for you) to plan your household’s meals.

Plan balanced meals. Purpose to include variety of food groups in each meal to ensure you are getting all the nutrients you need. Examples of these foods include proteins, carbohydrates, vegetables, healthy fats, fruits, etc. Also, do not forget to put your family members’ dietary needs into consideration when meal planning especially if there’s someone on a special diet.

Use hashtags. Truth be told, meal planning may prove to be a bit tasky and can get boring really fast. So, find cool ways to keep it fun and ease into the process. Using hashtags can be just one of the tricks to help you in planning your meals. Plan particular foods for particular days, e.g. #PizzaFridays #MeatMondays #BakedchickenThursdays, etc.

Batch your meals. This is an easy way to start meal planning and, just like the hashtags, you may actually like it and decide to flow with it. Consider preparing large batches of certain dishes that you can portion out and freeze for future meals. This can prove to be helpful during busy days when you don’t have time to cook from scratch.

Batch your work. This may have a similar ring to the preceding point but batching your work when meal planning simply means knowing what to do and when. Schedule meal planning tasks into different days/hours. Decide when to do grocery shopping, meal planning, and cooking.

Plan for leftovers. Oh, I love leftovers! I know I have one or two meals we can do as lunch or dinner. This is also a good way to reduce food wastage and also reduce the time you may spend in your kitchen cooking.

Take advantage of seasonal ingredients. You can choose to plan your meals around seasonal produce as they tend to be affordable, fresh, and tastier. Your creativity around your meals can shine during seasonal produce as you have a lot to work with and at a lower cost.

Please keep it simple and flexible. Do not be fixated on certain meals and how to make them 100%. Start simple and keep it that way unless once in a while when you want to try a new recipe that’s more elaborate. Most recipes are easy to learn and master, so I would advise a beginner to work with straightforward recipes with minimal ingredients and minimal preparation steps.

Meal Prepping

I’ll keep the definition of meal prepping short and sweet: It is a strategy where we prepare meals or ingredients ahead of time to streamline our eating habits for days to come, e.g. a week.

Meal prep comes after meal planning in most cases and this is the simplest and seamless way to hack the whole process; plan then prepare. I believe you have planned your meals for the duration that suits you and ready to prepare those meals.

At this point you know what you want in terms of meals, an estimate of how long the meals should serve you, what’s needed in terms of ingredients, when is your best day to cook, and how.

Alright, here enters the actual preparation of the planned meals.

I usually associate meal prepping with 3 important aspects; preparation of ingredients, actual cooking, and storage. You can work with the first two as individual ways to prep your meals or do both at once.

Let me explain.

Depending on my schedule for the following week, I can cut, chop, and store ingredients to ease my cooking process for the planned meals. For example, I will chop squash, marinate meat, chop mixed vegetables, boil grains, etc, and refrigerate/freeze waiting for cooking.

Alternatively, there are times I go through the whole cooking process and store ready-to-eat meals and just reheat them.

I love both ways of meal prepping and they make my work easy and manageable.

Essential tools and gadgets

Here’s a list of some of the tools I use;

1. A meal planner. I work well with pen and paper so I find it easy to write down what’s on my menu for the next week. You can use this too or a digital meal planner. They both do a good job of helping you stay organized.
2. A kitchen scale. Some meals require you to measure the ingredients accurately and this is where a kitchen scale comes in handy. I mostly use mine when measuring baking ingredients or home-ground spices for storage.
3. Food storage containers. Of course, if meal prepping you’ll need places to store your meals. Plastic and glass food storage work just fine but each has pros and cons, so work with what suits your needs.
4. A set of good knives. This helps you to prep your meals easily and smoothly.
5. Cutting boards. It is advisable to have several cutting boards each for specific tasks like one for meats only, one for vegetables, another for fruits, etc to avoid cross-contamination. Well, if you can achieve this, well and good. If you have a one-for-all kind of cutting board, wash it well, especially when switching between different types of meals.
6. Sizeable pots and pans. These are essential when cooking in bulk.
7. Sheet pans. These are good and essential tools especially when baking and roasting vegetables and proteins.
8. Slow cooker and/or an instant pot. This is an awesome gadget to have in your household to slow cook or pressure cook your meals. Fortunately, you can get one that can perform both functions or buy either depending on how you love your soups and stews.
9. A food processor or blender. One thing I love about a food processor is that it reduces my prepping time significantly. Within a few minutes, I have several ingredients minced or sliced.
10. Stock your pantry with sufficient ingredients. Having a well-stocked pantry with staples you are likely to use more often ensures you are set to prepare a handful of complete meals that can serve you and your family for several days.

A few tips and tricks on meal prepping

• Stretch your ingredients to do more than one meal. This saves you money and reduces food wastage.
• Before doing a fresh grocery haul for your next meal prep, assess your pantry and fridge and use what’s in stock first. If what’s in stock is not enough, you’ll know what to add and what quantities. Again, no waste!
• I will mention this again; make good use of your leftovers.
• Love and use your crockpots more often. I love my crockpot! It is a lifesaver especially when I have other pressing tasks to attend to. Assemble your ingredients in one pot and put a timer. Let your meal slow cook as you attend to other duties.
• Label your food storage and do it neatly especially noting the specific date meals are prepared. This ensures you use the first-in-first-out method effectively.
• Always start by cooking meals that take the longest, e.g. in the oven or stove. As this particular meal is stewing/baking/steaming, etc, you can prep other meals. It is time-saving.
• Should I mention you should clean as you go, or in this case, clean up as you cook? Well, I just did. You don’t want to spend an hour or more preparing meals for the week and use another hour cleaning dishes. This is a good kitchen hack to do more often.
• Learn the different methods of meal prepping and know when to use a specific method and why. You can also combine more than one method depending on what’s on your menu and your schedule. Examples of meal-prepping methods include batch freezing, cooking meals to refrigerate and reheat later, ingredients prepping to make fresh meals, etc.
• Keep your pantry organized! When this section is neat and well labeled, meal prepping becomes easier and fun. Trust me, the opposite is just chaotic.

What matters most…

Meal planning and prepping are important tasks when it comes to meals in our households and when done well they can prove to be one of the best practices to uphold in your home. However, these two tasks can also be overwhelming if not done right.

So, to summarize the two in a few words, it’s best to answer these questions before you begin.

What can we eat? (Menu planning)

How to do it? (Research and learning)

What is needed? (Budgeting and stocking)

When to do it? (Scheduling and time management)

And most importantly,
Why am I doing this? (Understanding the reason). I think if you answer this, you can figure out the rest without much stress.