Meal planning is more than just staying on track with your nutrition. It helps with time management, helps us be more agile when life happens and saves us money. We spend less time wondering the isles of the supermarkets, more time doing the things you love. Less impulse buying after a long day at work, and more eating delicious meals.
We created a super simple planning tool and tested it over hundreds of shops, to keep it as simple as possible, while ensuring we still get a balanced diet. The best part is it can be easily adjusted based on your schedule, how many people you are feeding and the meals that you enjoy!
Meal Planning
Step 1: Setting up your page, using a notepad, whiteboard or phone write each day down the left hand side. Monday to Sunday, or the days that you shop for, making sure you have a full week covered. Add your protein, carbohydrate, fats and vegetable headings along the top.
Step 2: Start with protein, list each day alternating the types of protein you get throughout the week. This strategy can be used for all diets, and ensures that we get a range of vitamins and minerals. As a rule the more varied the better!
Step 3: Match your protein with a recipe or meal that you enjoy eating. The key thing here is to look at your week ahead and plan for any upcoming special occasions, late nights or family commitments add those as a note near the day, and make meals that support your schedule, quick meals for when you get home late and longer meals when you have more time.
For example pairing Mince Beef with a Zoodle Bolognese (a more fiddly meal), or Salmon Fillets with Homemade Fish and Chips (quick meal).
Step 4: Once you have all of you’re delicious meals and proteins, pair your recipes with carbohydrates that match. Potatoes can be made a thousand ways, eat more pumpkin, beetroot and fruit over gluten based or processed carbohydrates.
Step 5: Build out the remainder of your week, including fats that match your meals, low fat meals add a thumb of healthy fat, such as nuts and seeds, avocado, nut butters and coconut oil. A variety of vegetables that you and your family enjoy, this can be flexible but also necessary to get all of the nutrients that we need.
Step 6; Shopping list. Decide how many time you want to go or have time to go to the supermarket. Consider the ingredients you will need to get and then going through each meal write the ingredients. Adding a tally for ingredients that are needed in more then one meal, ensuring that you done under or over buy. Reducing waste and unnecessary spending.
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