Start Each Week With A Meal Plan
Tip #19 – Start each week with a meal plan
Meal planning may sound like too much work already AT THE TIME. Imagine if everyday, you knew exactly what you were going to have, what you needed to do to make it, and actually had all of the ingredients you needed? That is what meal planning can do. Keep your breakfasts and lunches/dinners simple, so that you really only need to plan for 5 meals. Why only 5? The 6th meal, you can eat leftovers and the 7th, allows for nights you may not be home. And if you are? Make something simply like breakfast for supper. Take the time!
Kristin’s Action Plan: Meal planning has actually saved us MONEY on our grocery bill because I am not just buying this and that. I know each week what I need for the meals, so I only buy those items. There is something to be said about coming home from work and not stressing about what to make!
This is one thing that I have started doing this year as a "goal for 2014." I did this years ago and it truly does save money, and the frustration of staring into the pantry and frig wondering what in the heck you were going to eat. Thanks for your little tips. We all need little reminders.
Im slowly getting into the habit of batch cooking for my work lunches at the weekend (this week its courgette/zuchini and feta fritters and carrot and coriander soup), which Im quite proud of, I did meal plan years back when I was dieting and got kind of obsessive about it, so am still a bit reluctant to go down that route again. I know I should, but Im not quite ready yet.
Meal planning does take time and emotional energy! I think being purposeful in what we eat is most important. too often I can go to the fridge because I am bored – not because I am actually hungry. It's that instant gratification syndrome :). That is why meal planning has become good for us – still working on it, but I LOVE having freezer meals to pull out in a pinch!