Whether you’re cooking for a family or just yourself, when you plan a few meals and prep for them you’re making it easier to enjoy good food that won’t break the bank. Follow these simple steps to meal planning and meal prepping for the beginner.
Shopping the kitchen and using up leftovers will take you even further in saving money and avoiding food waste. Plus, you’ll eat well and can stop eating out.
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You’ve heard it before: Meal planning and prepping can help you so much in the kitchen. But, really, how? Let me count the ways…
- You avoid a last-minute trip to the store.
- You bypass the Golden Arches on the way home at rush hour.
- You have an answer when a hangry child (or adult!) asks, “What’s for dinner?”
- And for yourself, you come home to a plan and ready ingredients so that dinner is just minutes away.
It sounds great, but where to begin?! Isn’t spontaneity so much more fun?
Well, honey, a spontaneous half hour spent in the “quick” check line with hungry, crying toddlers is really not that much fun at all, is it?
There’s a much better way, and it’s not hard!
Why Do This
It’s not hard! Meal planning and meal prepping for the beginner is pretty simple. It requires no special equipment, provided you have a kitchen and basic kitchen tools.
It can save you money. When you plan and prep your meals, you’re more likely to save money versus spending cash on take-out or convenience items.
It can save you time. Knowing what’s for dinner and having a few items already prepped will save you all kinds of time and decision fatigue.
It can help you eat more nutritious meals. I love fast food as much as anyone, but too much and I start to feel ill. Home cooked meals are generally more healthful.
Step-by-Step Instructions
So, here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to meal plan and meal prep for beinggers. Ready? You can totally do this. Promise.
Decide how you’ll track your plans.
You can track your plans with pen and paper or do it digitally in an app, spreadsheet, or note on your device. Some folks like to use their calendar app so that they can drag and drop different menus and have more flexibility.
If you’re planning for a family, it can be helpful to have some kind of posted menu so everyone knows what to expect.
Check your calendar.
Consult your calendar and fill in any events that will affect your mealtimes.
Do you have a soccer game on Monday? Write that down. Do you have a late meeting on Wednesday? Fill that in.
Identifying busy nights directly on your meal plan will give you a needed head’s up to plan easy or even on-the-go meals for those nights.
Choose your meals for the next few days.
Meal planning for a whole month can help you batch task, but it may feel overwhelming if you’re a beginner meal planner and prepper. Focus on planning for just a few days to start and then build from there as you see success.
Check out what you have in your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer so that you can use what you have. Shopping the kitchen is a great way to save time and money.
Jot down meals that you know you can make with what you have. Then fill in the blanks with meals that will work with your schedule and workflow this coming week.
Be sure to review these 30-minute meals for inspiration!
Create a meal prep checklist.
Once you’ve decided on meals for the next few days, start a list of meal prepping tasks.
- What can you prep in advance? This might be ingredients like chopped onions or components like taco meat.
- Make enough to help you out, but not more than you can use up in 4 days. That’s how long prepped food is good under refrigeration.
- For longer storage think about what could be prepped and frozen.
Get in the kitchen.
The best-laid plans come to naught if you don’t make them happen. Once you’ve got a plan and a prep checklist, head to the kitchen and start prepping.
You don’t need to spend hours and hours. Even 30 minutes can give you a good head start on the meals you’ve planned. Whether you Meal Prep Vegetables for the Whole Week or do a Lunchtime Meal Prep, you’re bound to save yourself some time and stress later in the week.
FAQs
Feel like you’re committing your life to this meal plan? Don’t. The plan is there to serve you, to help you. You don’t have to follow the plan, but it’s there to guide you when you can’t think straight and need direction. Write it out in pencil and give your permission to erase or alter the plan as circumstances change.
Prepared food is good for up to 4 days, refrigerated. Some items may diminish in taste and texture by the 4th day, so plan accordingly. For longer storage, place the food in the freezer.
Meal prepping for the beginner should start slow. Plan for up to 3 days. Once you build confidence and see success, you can plan for longer periods of time.
Check Out Our Free Meal Plans
Got questions?
Do you have a meal plan or prep challenge you need help with? Let us know in the comments!
This post was originally published on June 13, 2010. It has been updated for content and clarity.
molly
I’m a huge fan of putting my meal plan directly on my google calendar. Then I can shuffle around as we have more leftovers than expected, or some veggies look great at the market one week, or I want to share the plan with my family. My downfall is not having a great idea of how much we’re going to make and eat, so I need to remember to plan for leftover nights (with a backup plan of “eat something from the freezer”).
Kim Wysong
I especially like the suggestion about consulting your calendar. My downfall is that I plan, get groceries and then they go bad because I don’t eat dinner at home for example. Thanks for the tips.
Shannon
I have successfully meal planned in the, passed and I know it saves money, wasted food, and lowers stress, but for some reason I just have not been able to make myself write down the weeks plan for the last year. I’ve been triing to make my “plan” more broad, it is still meal planning even if I don’t write it down. I have taken the make due approach. I work on stocking my pantry with family favorites, and making it work. If I keep some meal basic’s at all times, then I have my all time 5 easiest meals ready to go when I need them, from there I plan as I shop, not normally recommended, but this way I can plan based on non advertised prices, buying based on what is the lowest cost at the store, I have a mental $ amount per lb that I stick to for meat and for produce. This also makes it less stressfull if I can’t make my normal shopping day, I have a stock pile we can eat from until I can make it back to the store.
Caroline
My problem is not eating out too much or last minute grocery runs (we’re 20+ min from a store). It’s things like Sharon mentioned above with not knowing what the weather’s going to do. We definitely try to grill more in the summer but I don’t want to plan on Sunday to grill Thursday and then have it rain. I’m weirdly neurotic like that…I’d rather not plan ahead at all than plan ahead and have it get messed up. But it’s getting really old when I ask my husband what he wants for dinner the next night and he replies that he doesn’t care. So it’s always up to me to come up with the menu! I’m happy to do all the cooking (minus the grilling) but I’d love his input on what to have! I guess what I’m saying is, I’d like to meal plan but despite the helpful hints I’ve read here and other places, I still have a hard time planning out a week’s worth of meals.
Jessica Colvin
@Caroline, I suffer with this as well. The man in my life will eat lots of things, but NEVER knows what he wants to eat at the time. Period. More than half the time, he ends up eating a bowl of cereal, and I am left fending for myself (cereal fall backs arent an option for me with my diabetes). I am a decent cook, but there are only about 3 meals that he will actually say he wants again. SO FRUSTRATING So, I have been contemplating the freezer cooking method, and meal planning myself, just havent gotten to it yet. I think that it might work to at least ease my own stress in that I know there will already be some “pre-made” meals that we can have our choice of during the week. We just don’t have to necessarily have spaghetti on Monday. If it doesn’t sound good, we could always eat it on Thursday instead.
Maybe it will help to at least have some of the meals on hand. If you find something else that works in this situation, please share!
FoodontheTable
Planning prevents a lot of stress. It saves the one-off trips to the grocery store and the 4 o’clock panic! Your week looks great!
Michelle Burgess
Jessie, you are one organised girl. Do you do this weekly?
Jessica Fisher
Plan meals? Or post about it? Yes on both counts. 😉
AllieZirkle
What do you make to go ON the meatballs and mashed potatoes? Some sort of sauce or gravy? I have meatballs but only use red sauce as I’m “new” in the kitchen 🙂
Allie
Shannon
@AllieZirkle, I love cream of mushroom soup on my meatballs. Yumm! Dh not so much, he doesn’t do mushrooms calls them a fungus(well he is right) and won’t touch them even in soup, any “cream of xxx”would work if you like it without the meatballs you’ll probably like it with them, including a basic white cream gravy or brown gravy.
Jessica Fisher
@AllieZirkle, sorry that I missed your question. I posted the gravy recipe on GCE: https://www.goodcheapeats.com/2010/06/meatballs-mashed-potatoes-and-gravy.html Bon appetit!
Christa
Can I just copy yours? haha!
Diane
It’s just me and my 20 y/o daughter to feed. She recently became a Vegetarian. That threw a wrench in my meal plans as far as variety? I used to cook with a lot of beef and pork to cook Italian meals but now I feel like chicken is my only option.
I want to honor my daughter’s choice and eat better myself so I would love suggestions on any variety I can do?
Jessica Fisher
I think I would plan hearty side dishes that work for both of you, like roasted vegetables, quinoa, etc. I’d also do some freezer cooking for your protein portions. You can add for yourself without feeling like it will go to waste.
JessieLeigh
I always meal plan… I’m kind of nutty about it. I plan all 21 meals each week and very rarely stray from it! That being said, I always tell all my friends who are just starting out… just pick a few meals to start. Figure out, say, five meals you want to make and be sure you have what you need to make it happen. Most people will find that there’s so much less stress with that that they want to plan more rather than less! Also, when you’re starting out, just remember that it gets so much easier. Once you have a few menu plans under your belt, it becomes a lot of rotation and repetition, quite frankly. 🙂
Kelly Hess
My meal plan is up with 2 new recipes I am trying this week!
http://spendless2savemore.blogspot.com/2010/06/menu-plan-monday-week-of-61410.html
tracy
Ok I feel like I am on a steps to organised living. I have taken the first step and saved the weekl template to my desktop.phew deep breath. now I need to Think Look and Plan, but first I have to eat breakfast shower and head of to work.
Now half 1lb ground beef out want to make 2 meals as there are only two of us here any ideas greatfully accepted
Have a great day God Bless
Tracy
Sharon @ UnfinishedMom
@tracy, A lb of ground beef can be cooked with some chopped onion. Then use it in tacos, enchiladas, sloppy joes, spaghetti sauce or chili. Lots of possibilities – depending on your preferences.
Lynn
Meal planning is a must for me. I’ve been doing it for so long I feel lost without a plan. Even now in our empty nest years, I still need to have my plan. It just makes the week go more smoothly when you have at least your dinner meal planned out.
Susie's Homemade
I can’t wait to get home and start cooking:-)
Erika Felt
THIS I think I’ll actually give a try at.
I operate an in-home preschool and you would think that I would’ve done meal planning years ago but for some reason I have just found it intimidating.
Seeing this done as a “just this week” thing lol makes me not as nervous.
Today is Sunday so perfect day to start.
THANKS!
Jessica Fisher
Now, that’s the spirit! 😉
Sharon @ UnfinishedMom
There is one step I would add to this – consult the weather report. You’re not likely to want to roast a chicken in the oven when it’s 90+ degrees outside and your A/C is already on overload. At the same time I don’t want to plan a grilled meal on a day when we’re expecting torrential thunderstorms!
Meal planning definitely helps me stay in my budget and sane! I am so grateful to the many suggestions I’ve seen here (and at a few other favorite sites) for meal planning .
Jessica Fisher
@Sharon @ UnfinishedMom, thanks for your kind words as well as a great reminder re: weather. We don’t have either of those extremes in San Diego, though we did have them in Kansas, so I know what you’re talking about. Excellent point!
jacinda walker
I am trying a meal plan this week- it’s just my hubby and me, and he has to take his lunch- which can be hard to plan for because he travels during the day and has no fridge or microwave, so it has to be something that’s good room temp. He gets sick of soggy sandwiches 😉
but other than that, I have freezer meals ready. I made the meatloaf on here, but not sure how to cook it??!! It also seems to take some time for my meals to defrost, so I may have to set them in the fridge more than 1 day ahead to be ready in time.
Jessica Fisher
@jacinda walker, sorry about the lack of meatloaf baking directions. I’ll go edit that. In the meantime, I usually use 45 minutes as my starting time at 350 and then check with a meat thermometer. Should be 160 degrees internal temp.
jacinda walker
@Jessica Fisher, Thank you so much- I am very excited for the meatloaf 🙂