đ˛ How To Meal Plan
Meet your new sanity-saving secret weapon, perfect for when we're all eating at home more than ever.
đIntro
The truth about meal planning is that it doesnât have to be much more than a souped-up grocery list with a little thought behind it. We cover why you should meal plan, how youâre already (halfway at least) doing it, and a few easy tips and tools for making it a breeze. Then we break down three options for meal planning that you can make your own.
đ§ Meal Planning 101
Meals with (a little or a lot) of forethought. Meal planning is looking into the near future and identifying a few things youâd like to make and eat, and then assembling the ingredients for those meals. Basically, if youâve been to the grocery store with a recipe in mind, youâre a meal planner.Â
Three main steps: Meal Idea + Ingredients + Prepare. This is the basic concept again in math form. :)
The work is done ahead of time. Meal planning takes a little more work upfront, especially when you are getting started and figuring out what system works best for you, but you should get that time back when you start working off of your weekly plan (especially never answering âwhatâs for dinnerâ).
Do the work on the weekend, the cooking on the weekday. Ideally you do the planning, shopping, and a little ingredient prep on the weekend (or during your familyâs off time). With the menu set and shopped for, and some ingredients prepped, the weekâs meals should come together quickly.
The best meal plan: Itâs the one that works for you. You can go deep and find new recipes and flavors to keep your daily dinners exciting, or you can keep things really simple and map out a handful of eternal family favorites youâll make that week.The key is to be able to answer the eternal question of whatâs for dinner long before 5 pm.
Less food waste, healthier and a money saver. After meal planning for even a week or two, youâll find youâre using up more of the food you bought (because you only buy what youâll be need), and youâre ordering out less. That means more money saved (both because youâre not buying extra groceries that go to waste plus fewer take-out bills) and generally eating healthier because itâll be fresh and you can control what goes into it.
⨠The Overview:
The high-level process:
Plan around the week: look at the schedule and notice what nights have activities that conflict with the dinner hour. For any evenings there is later work meetings or evening kids activities, choose to keep dinner simple - takeout, simple reheating or tossing something together.
Inventory time: Do a quick inventory of what you have on hand - in your pantry and in your fridge/freezer; including staples like butter, soy sauce, ketchup, olive oil etc.
Family favs: Make a list of your familyâs go-to meals and just general types of food everyone enjoys.
Pick an approach and pick your meals: Choose your planning option from the choices below. A quick rule of thumb is aim for 3-4 nights of family tried and trues and then plan on adding 1-2 nights of newness - either a recipe youâve been wanting to try out, take-out or a meal kit.
Grocery list: Make a list based on the extra ingredients youâll need. If possible plan meals that can use certain ingredients in multiple recipes, to minimize waste (eg. cilantro for both Taco Tuesday but also Asian Noodles on Thursday)
Make it central. Write down the weekâs meals (including lunches and snacks if youâd like) in a central place. It can be as simple as a whiteboard post or an email to yourself. Milo users can simply input the meal plan into their Dash, for everyone to easily access.
(Want access to Milo? Weâve just started sending invites to our waitlist last week. Get yours here: hellomilo.io)
𧰠The Options:
Here are 3 ways you can tackle the weekly level of planning. The focus here is for dinners, but you can also choose to apply a similar process to (school) lunches and snacks.
đŽTheme Nights: This is the Goldilocks of meal planning - not too time consuming and not too vague. For each day, pick a high level type of meal - eg. Pasta Mondays, Tacos/Mexican Tuesdays, Asian/Noodles Wednesdays, Seafood Thursday, BBQ Friday etc.
The goal is to have a general meal type locked by day, but leave flexibility for what you actually make based on what youâre in the mood for, while allowing for variety week to week. Eg. For Mondays: Spaghetti, Shrimp Scampi, Pesto Pasta; for Tuesdays: Tacos, Quesidillas, Loaded Nachos etc.
Hereâs a starter list of ideas to form your base themes:
Pasta, Salad, Chicken, Rice, Vegetarian, Stir-Fry, Sandwich, Soup/Stew, Pizza, Slow-Cooker, Breakfast for Dinner, Seafood, Burger, Leftovers, Middle Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Spanish, Mexican ⌠(oh the possibilities are endless)đ Staples with assisted variety: This option is perfect for the âno fuss, no mussâ families. Pick the ~3-4 meals that are weekly go-tos in your house and then fill in the other 3-4 days with either planned takeout or meal kit delivery through a service like Blue Apron, Gobble, Freshly, HomeChef or Sunbasket. They handle the menu and ingredients gathering, and you get to make an ever-changing menu of home-cooked meals. Itâs a mix of home-cooked and preplanned convenience.
đŠđťâđłThe works - This is a great option if cooking and family meals are central for your family, you really enjoy trying out different recipes and you enjoy the cooking process. The goal here is to reserve 2-3 nights where you can really get into cooking and trying out new things. On the weekend, pull out the cookbooks or pull up your fav cooking sites (NYT Cooking, Serious Eats, Milk Street, and Delish are easy but delicious) to find a couple recipes you want to try. A trick here is to pre-think and pre-prep some of the more detailed parts to get them out of the way, to make the actual cooking easier on a weeknight. This approach keeps food an important part of family life but in a doable way.
And voila! Try it out for a week or two with different approaches as you get the hang of what works best for you family.