Meal Planning 101: Learn the Dos and Don’ts | House of G&K Recipes (2024)

Every morning we have breakfast, we chat, we battle toddler appetite shifts and as soon as we’re finished, I ask “What do you want for dinner?”. Every day Kyle looks at me like I’m a crazy person. I remember that look, I used to give that look to my mom when she would ask the same thing. “How can you possibly think about dinner after we just finished breakfast!?”, I would think.

Cooking inspiration comes to me out of nowhere sometimes, often so fast I can’t keep up with my own ideas. Those are the good weeks. Other weeks, the thought of food in general makes me cringe and the fact that I have four humans to feed is more than overwhelming. I remember my mom telling me once that she used to love to cook and then it became a chore. Now she would be perfectly happy to never cook again.

Well, I love to cook (most days) and I definitely don’t want to let life get in the way of that. A little while ago I started meal planning and it changed my life. There were some kinks to work out week by week as I figured out what works best for me, but with every week I got better and better.

Here are some of my tips for efficient meal planning:

Start a list of your favourite recipes before you begin meal planning

DO:

• Start your menus by only completing three or four days out of the week as you start building up your inventory of meals.
• Add recipes to a list gradually as you think of them. You might think you don’t have many recipes, but as you add to the list you will surprise yourself with the number of ideas you come up with. Once you have enough for a couple of weeks then you can start planning full week menus.
• Think about the ingredients you use most and you’re likely to come up with an initial list very quickly.

DON’T:

• Do not fill this list with recipes with obscure ingredients, that you always wanted to make but never got around to making. This will just make you frustrated during the week, when you don’t have the right ingredients or are left figuring out new and potentially complex directions at the eleventh hour.
• Do not pull every recipe that sounds good off of Pinterest and add it to the list. Think about whether or not you can actually make the recipe, if your family will like it, if you have all the required equipment, etc.
• Do not rush it! Your first plan should be very basic and with only a few meals on it. As you observe your shopping and cooking habits you will start finding trends in your preferences that translate into a menu that works best for you and your family.

Use a calendar or weekly planner

DO:

• Find a format that is easy for you to read and one that has enough space for you to fill in the meals legibly. I use Microsoft Word or Excel as typing it out is not only easier, but you can also fit more clear writing in less space.
• Use the template above to get started. Then see what you like and don’t like about it and adjust as needed.Don’t forget to share your suggestions for changes in the comments below.

DON’T:

• Do not throw out previously printed/filled-in menus. After 6-8 weeks you will have easy pre-made menus that you can reuse without giving it much thought.

Fill in your menu strategically

DO:

• Consider which ingredients last longer and which spoil faster and plan meals throughout the week accordingly.
• Think about produce that will need some time to ripen, like bananas or avocados, and plan those meals later in the week.
• Leverage leftovers whenever possible. If you make mashed potatoes one night, plan to make extra so the next night you can make potato dumplings. Make extra chicken one night to use leftovers in wraps or on salads the next day.
• Mockup your menu in pencil (typing it out makes this easier) so that you can move meals around if you find you have too much repetition.
• Consider kids’ daycare meals, packed lunches, late workdays, and early start days to make sure you have planned for quick meals when you need them.
• For meals later in the week, plan to use pantry items to make sure you don’t get stuck without required ingredients that may have gone bad or been used up during the week. Think about canned tuna, chickpeas, passata, frozen or canned veggies, etc.
• Combine simpler meals with more complex ones each day, or just make them all simple, otherwise, you might feel like you’re spending your whole day in the kitchen. In fact, leave the more labour-intensive recipes for the weekend when you might have a little more control over your time (unless you have kids because of course there is no such thing as “your time”).
• Chop extra ingredients today that you will need a few days from now to save on prep time in the future. If you need onions and carrots today and on Thursday, chop extra today and store them in the fridge.

DON’T:

• Do not plan too many meals with the same ingredients unless you are sure you’ve considered total quantities in your shopping list. You may find yourself missing ingredients at the end of the week.
• Do not assume you can pull off a five-course meal on a Wednesday evening. Keep it simple and prep whenever you can.
• Don’t overthink it. The first few weeks won’t go exactly as planned which will just help you figure out what you’re flexible with and what must be rigid. The weeks that actually work best for me are the ones where I stick to the schedule as planned. It’s when I deviate that I end up with waste and frustration. That might not be the case for you!
• Don’t feel like you have to complete the whole calendar (i.e. fill in every single meal, every single day). Leaving some blanks gives you the option to use up leftovers, use remainders of produce from other meals, get take-out, or eat cereal for dinner.

Sometimes I meal prep, sometimes I don’t. Either way, I find that if I have a meal plan for the week and I use it to build my shopping list, I rarely dread cooking. There are still things I need to work on, like time management and remembering to take the meat out of the freezer to defrost. The beauty of the meal plan is that I can easily pivot and move meals around when I need to in order to make up for my shortcomings.

Do you plan your meals for the week? Do you have any go-to tips for making your meal planning easier?Please share in the comments below. I am always looking for ways to make my process better.