Make meal planning a part of your routine.
Motivation
- Taking care of yourself and your family is your number one priority and healthy eating is a cornerstone for ensuring a healthy body.
- Cooking is a labour of love. If you are cooking for one, cook things you can share with friends or co-workers.
- Trying new recipes adds variety to your meals.
- Saving money and having a zero-food waste kitchen.
Discipline
- Decide that this is something you are going to do and just do it.
“You won’t always be motivated, that’s why you have to learn to be disciplined.”
~Author unknown
Preparation
- Prepare fresh vegetables ahead of time.
- Repackage large packages of meat into portion sizes before freezing.
- Pre-cook your meat and portion into sizes that works for you.
- Boneless chicken breasts – cook, dice and freeze in two-cup portions to have ready for a variety of meals.
- Steak – cook and freeze whole. Reheat in a hot skillet with butter and slice across the grain. Use on salads or in sandwiches.
- Ground beef – scramble fry before freezing or make into meatballs.
- Cook large batches on the weekends and freeze in individual-sized portions for lunches and weekday meals – chilli, soups and casseroles.
Find these recipes and more meal ideas here.
Monthly meal plan suggestions
- Go through your calendar and mark special events on the meal plan.
- Take a mental inventory of food you have in your freezer and pantry. Also note any leftovers you want to work into your plan.
- Have a daily theme and build around the main dish.
- Monday – salad as a meal
- Tuesday – casserole or pasta
- Wednesday – meat and rice or noodles
- Thursday – leftovers
- Friday – seafood, vegetarian or fun food such as hamburgers, pizza or tacos
- Saturday – batch cooking – chilli, soup, chowder or stew
- Sunday – roast dinner – beef, chicken, ham or pork
- Add variety by trying different ethnic foods or diets.
- Mexican – tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, chili
- Asian – stir-fry, curried chicken, sweet and sour pork
- Italian – spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chicken Alfredo, ravioli with tomato sauce, tortellini with meat sauce
- Vegetarian
- Include salads and side dishes such as cooked vegetables, sauces and condiments on the meal plan.
- Always include a “leftovers” day.
- Make a grocery list of things you need while you create your meal plan.
- Reuse old meal plans.
Here is more information on meal planning:
