How to Make a Meal Plan
- Julie Hill
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
Like the saying goes, "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail", this applies to eating nourishing food that fills you up and keeps your body working at its best.
In many cases, food takes a back step in our ever-busy lives. Appearing as an afterthought in which we end up searching for ingredients in the fridge or give in and buy a premade meal. On the surface buying premade meals achieves the goal of quickly and easily finding food to fill you up; so that you can carry on with the rest of your day, but there are disadvantages. In most cases buying ready-made meals are more expensive than buying ingredients to make meals from scratch. The reason for this is that you are paying someone to make the meal for you. This leads to the second point. If you are handing over your hard-earned money, you want the food to taste delicious. This will in most cases lead to restaurants/cafes/pubs focusing on making food that tastes good and, in the process, can compromise on nutrition.
So, to ensure that you get nourishing meals you will need to think ahead, and this is where making a meal plan comes in. The most common plans focus on what to have for dinner (evening meal) +/- lunch (midday meal) as most of us generally have 1-3 breakfast options that go on repeat. To start making a meal plan follow the steps below.
Steps to creating a meal plan
Set aside around 1 hour each week to sit down and do meal planning.
Check what you have at home first (fridge, freezer and pantry). Food in the fridge generally needs to be used up sooner (e.g. fresh meat or vegetables) so think about recipes that include these foods.
Check what specials are on at the supermarket and what fresh fruit and veg are in season. Be mindful that some foods on special are not necessarily nourishing and instead treats. Just because it's half price does not mean you need to buy the chocolate biscuits.
Read through your recipe file, books or online to get inspiration. Think about different cooking techniques such as slow cooker meals which are set and forget until dinner time or one pot/pan dishes which have less time spent washing up afterwards.
Websites which have healthy recipes include the following:
Easy Healthy Recipes On A Budget | No Money No Time
Healthy Recipes: Thousands of perfect meals from Healthy Food Guide
Remember to have your meals follow the principle of the healthy plate (pictured below).
Plan quick recipes for busy days and more complex ones for days when you have more time. Cooking in large batches to have leftovers on another day also helps to spend less time in the kitchen.
Write down your meal plan.
Make your shopping list.
Refer to your plan throughout the week, make adjustments if needed, such as swapping dishes around if last minute events come up.
To help you get started, access the Meal Planning Template below. Remember, you can keep these plans and re use them in the future.
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