A Guide to Meal Planning and Prepping

I frequently get asked for tips about meal planning and prepping, both generally and when trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Around six years ago when I changed my diet for health reasons, I found that planning our meals ahead of time (and making most ourselves) was key for me to feeling well, physically and mentally. For me, planning means less stress and ultimately has saved us a lot of time, energy (and money!).

At this point, we have a system that works for us that we stick to week after week: we review our schedule, pick our recipes, SHOP ONCE, cook three times and keep essentials on hand. It’s a system that works extremely well for us and allows for flexibility, too! In this post, I’m going to break it down for you so hopefully you walk away with some tips, tricks and strategies for starting (or enhancing!) your own system.

I’m a big believer that the best system for planning and prepping your meals is one that you will stick to! I’ve tried lots of methods and ultimately found that a note on my phone with our weekly schedule, recipes and grocery list is pretty much foolproof. I love the idea of a notebook or cute notepad, and believe me, I’ve tried them! To be honest, I found running around the grocery store with a notebook to be very impractical and almost always forgot a pen or even the pad. The phone system works great because I always have my phone on me, and by keeping my list digital I can add things as needed throughout the week and incorporate new items. Here’s a snapshot of what the note looks like:

As you can see, all the headings stay the same and the rest gets updated every Saturday night or Sunday morning. Here’s a play by play on how it works in our house:

REVIEW THE SCHEDULE Before I even think about food, C and I look at the week to see how much we’ll be cooking. Typically, this is done on Saturday and then we do the shopping on Sunday morning. Once I see how many nights we’ll be home (typically most) and what meals we need to make (typically all of them) I can pick the recipes. On the average week, we need to make breakfast for me, lunch for both of us (C picks his own and I typically make one meal that I eat all week) and dinner for both of us (we usually cook 3x and have leftovers every other night). We also add in snacks as needed and have certain staples in the pantry and freezer for emergencies!

PICK RECIPES (AND KEEP TRACK!) Hands down my favorite recipe resource is Pinterest! I use keywords to search and keep recipes I want to try sorted by protein type, with a separate board for WHOLE30. Once I’ve tried a recipe and love it, it gets moved to either my DINNER STAPLES or LUNCH STAPLES board and added to my phone note so I can easily reference either one when I’m short on time. I also have a treasure trove of cookbooks (a few favorites pictured), since some of my favorite chefs (Danielle Walker) mainly publish in print and have a bookmark on my computer with my favorite food blogs.

ORGANIZE THE GROCERY LIST After I pick my recipes I go through them and add the ingredients to my note, which is sorted by grocery store and food type. Any staples we are low on are incorporated throughout the week, too! My categories: DRY GOODS, FROZEN, DAIRY, PRODUCE and MEAT. PRO-TIP: organize your categories by department and walk the same route every week. It makes the shopping experience so much easier. Which brings me to my next point…

SHOP SMART

On WHERE to shop: We LOVE Trader Joes and get a lot of dry goods on Thrive Market and fresh produce at the Farmer’s Market. Finding a store you that love and getting familiar with it is KEY. Depending on our list, we’ll occasionally pop into the local supermarket or Whole Foods but do our best to go to as few places as possible. Doing so has helped decrease my stress tremendously! I also love Amazon/WholeFoods delivery, but find the pricing at Trader Joes to be better for us right now. *A Note on Trader Joe’s: I love their prices and selection but don’t love all the plastic! We do our best to get a balance from the Farmer’s Market but sometimes convenience wins.

On HOW to shop: Shopping once a week has greatly decreased our food budget. Those one off grocery store visits add up! We also (almost) always STICK TO OUR LIST. The whole point of meal planning is to eliminate stress when it comes to shopping, cooking and clutter! Anything NOT on the list is likely unnecessary and will just take up room in the fridge. Also, eat before you shop. Going to the grocery store hungry is NEVER a good idea 🙂

ONLY COOK WHEN YOU NEED TO I love to cook, but I can’t do it every night. For me, the beauty in meal planning and prepping is that we pick the meals in advance based on our schedule which means we only cook around 3x a week max. The other nights? We have leftovers of those meals that we rotate. I know a lot of people who batch cook on Sunday and portion out meals for the week – and if that works for you, power to ya!

KEEP ESSENTIALS ON HAND There are certain things we ALWAYS have in our pantry, fridge and freezer. Plans change, and we always want to have (mostly) healthy options! Stay tuned for an upcoming post on this.

That’s all, folks! Hopefully this helps you plan and prep with confidence and ease.