Tips and Tricks for Meal Planning

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions online about how meal planning is supposed to look and work.

“Plan for the entire week on Sunday”. “Cook all your proteins”. “Prep all of your snacks”. Oof.

Meal planning is a practice designed to save you time and money, not add to your grocery spending and stress level. Depending on a person’s goals and needs, it may also support you in making nutritious choices - and with the amount of nutrition pseudoscience and misinformation online, it’s no wonder that we struggle to plan ahead and feel good about it.

So let’s break things down. I’m a woman who loves simplicity and ease, and this translates to my nutrition practice as well.

First and foremost, take inventory of the ingredients you already have in your kitchen - you probably have a basic stock you keep around including herbs and spices and common ingredients like flour and sugar. Knowing what you have will help you avoid buying duplicate items and ensure that you use up any perishable items before they go bad. Make a list of potential meals that you can make using the ingredients you already have on hand. It might not be a huge list, but that’s okay - you’re not expected to wave a magic wand and have full meals from these ingredients.

Next, consider your schedule for the week and plan your meals accordingly. And be honest with yourself - you cannot do it all, nor are you expected to. If you know that you have a busy week ahead, opt for quick and easy recipes that can be prepared in advance or in a short amount of time. If you have more time on other days, plan to make more elaborate meals that require more preparation. This can even include planning for batch cooking on a more open day so you have meals to use on busier days or for the freezer to warm up again in a pinch.

When planning your meals, try to include a variety of foods. This keeps things interesting when it comes to flavour and enjoyment, and maximizes the nutrient content available. Don’t discount the fast and easy ways to include the different food groups - tofu blocks, eggs, canned beans and rotisserie chickens can be fast proteins, as well as pre-bagged salads and vegetable trays and microwave rice dishes or grains. Meals and snacks can always be “added to” as a way to balance easier cooking and expanding capacity for your own additional prep. My favourite example of this is using a frozen lasagna that you can toss in the oven and then prepare your own garden salad to pair it with - you get fed and you can boost nutrients.

Make a weekly grocery list based on the meals you have planned - I even suggest keeping a running list on the fridge so you can mark when something runs out. This can help save time and money by reducing waste and preventing multiple trips to the store. And if you’re prone to impulse shopping, incorporate this into your list and budget - plan to pick up one to two new or different items so you can have fun and avoid spending more money than you wanted to.

To keep things interesting and prevent boredom, try to incorporate new recipes and flavors into your menu. Look for inspiration from cookbooks, food blogs, or cooking shows and experiment with different cuisines and cooking techniques. This can help expand your culinary skills and keep mealtime exciting. Even if this is only switching up the spices, or trying a new cooking method for a favourite meal combo, you can gradually add to your palette without feeling the pressure to overhaul everything. Do you need to go all-vegan to be healthy and happy? No - but you can definitely experiment with vegan recipes and see if it feels like the right option for you.

Lastly, be flexible with your meal plan and don't be afraid to make adjustments as needed. Life is unpredictable, and things may come up that disrupt your planned meals. It's okay to swap meals around, improvise with ingredients you have on hand, or order takeout if needed. The key is to find a balance between sticking to your plan and being adaptable to changes. The biggest hurdle I see clients experience is the guilt around not “sticking to” their meal plan the way that social media tells them to, and as a result they toss the whole idea out the window and tell themselves they just aren’t cut out for meal planning. You can meal plan, you just don’t have to meal plan the way social media influencers say they do.

Meal planning doesn’t have to be intimidating or overwhelming, despite what you read or see on the Internet. Meal planning is meant to make your life easier - your time and energy is valuable! With a little bit of realistic brainstorming and allowing yourself permission to be a beginner and need practice, you can cut down on the dinner time stress and avoid the lunchtime boredom.