Many people want to eat healthy and cook at home but healthy meal planning sounds like such a huge task. When do you find the time to plan meals? How do you know what a healthy meal even looks like? Where do you start?
First, you need to decide how many meals you want to have on hand. Do you want a week's worth of meals, 2 weeks, a month? I recommend starting with 2 weeks worth of meals. Often 14 meals will extend past 2 weeks when you consider leftovers and either eating out or eating at someone else's house.
Next, you need to write down some family favorite meals. Write down as many as you can even if they are not necessarily healthy. If you need more ideas, ask some friends for their healthy meal suggestions. Get some cookbooks from the library if you have to. But start writing down ideas when you have a minute to think. Write down ideas when you are watching TV, waiting for an appointment, talking with friends, or just any moment that a meal idea pops into your head.
Once you have a good list of healthy meals, check off those top 14 meals you feel like you want to make. Write this list down the left side of a piece of paper or on a note app on your phone. As you write down the meal, write down the ingredients you need for that meal that you don't think you have in your cupboard.
Use the right side of the paper as your grocery list. When you come home, post the left side of the paper on your refrigerator. This list is what you will look at each morning when you decide what you are making for dinner that night. You don't have to assign a day to a meal. Just pick the one you're in the mood for that day. Obviously, by the end of the list, you will not have as many choices, but they are still meals that you chose.
For a more complete explanation of each of these steps and my favorite planning sheet, check out my full post at Healthy Meal Planning Ideas for Busy People. I also share how to make this meal plan more flexible, use leftovers, describe different types of meal plans, tips for storing food well, and recipe tips on making healthy recipe swaps.
I hope this has helped you see that making healthy meals can be easier when you have a plan. Plans don't take that long to make when you know they will be easy to implement. Let me know if you have any questions.
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