In this fast-paced world, we often lean towards what’s convenient, especially when it comes to our nutrition. This could lead to bad eating habits where we can’t even track what we feed ourselves. The cost also racks up quickly where you’ll realize that you’ve been spending more than what’s necessary. Preparing your own food can be a very good alternative. Not only can you use meal planning to save money, but you can also make meals that are fit for your lifestyle and diet. Read on to see how to plan a week’s worth of meals in no time at all.
Basics of Balancing Nutrition in Your Meals
When you are working on your meal planning, you want each meal to have a good balance of nutrients. Your 7 day menu planner should contain enough carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats.
Depending on the diet you follow or dietary restrictions, it might include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, dairy, and many other options. It is good to aim for a colorful plate, as that ensures you are getting a wide range of vitamins and minerals.
How to Plan a Week’s Worth of Meals: Experiment With Different Cooking Methods
Experiment with different cooking methods.
The temperature that you choose to cook can change the chemistry of the food. For example, cooking a tomato can increase its concentration of folate and antioxidants.
Changing how you cook can also help with the meal prep process. For example, you can have multiple appliances going at once to cook different parts of your meals, such as potatoes in the air fryer, chicken breasts in the pressure cooker, and chili in the slow cooker.
This frees up your oven and stove for other things, or you can skip the oven altogether and avoid getting your house too hot from all the cooking.
How to Meal Plan For a Family: Start With Family Favorites
When it comes to meal planning ideas for families, always stick with what your family likes and is familiar with. You already know the ingredients and cooking process, so this is going to make it easy.
This can also allow you to cook in bulk which can save you time and costs for ingredients.
This can give you a less stressful time preparing because you’ve already pushed some worries out of the way like preferences, doing it right, and portioning.
Use Current Ingredients
Don’t buy all new ingredients!
Meal planning is easier and more cost-effective when you can work from what you already have, whether that is herbs or seasonings, meat in the freezer, or milk and butter in the fridge. You can even use some leftovers for different types of meals.
You can also bulk buy to save time. Buy the proper quantities when you have a one week meal plan for two, for you, or the whole family. Plan your menu ahead so you know what to use and when to use them.
These are just some tips on how to plan a week’s worth of meals.
As you ease yourself into the process, you’ll find ways to make food tastier, more nutritious, and most of all, convenient. Try this out for yourself and tell us what you think!