If you are looking forward to making healthy lifestyle choices, I recommend you give meal planning a shot. It will help you cook at home more often, reduce food waste and as a bonus, save you so much money. There are so many meal planning techniques out there, and being a health enthusiast, I have tried most of them; and failed at so many of them. Below are the tips which have worked amazingly well for my family.
Organize your ingredients: A very common problem in most kitchens is too much clutter. There are all sorts of healthy ingredients lying around and a few ones going bad on the backside of the shelf. In order for the meal planning to work, you need your ingredients well-organized and easy to access. If you do not find the correct inventory at the time of its requirement, all your other efforts of shopping and planning correctly will fail.
Plan according to your work schedule: Analyze the days when you are going to be busy and the days you will be spending more time in the kitchen. Let that decide your dishes. I personally make quick recipes on weekdays and keep the more time-consuming ones for weekends. I also try to prep as much as possible for the coming week, on weekends itself. It makes sticking to my plan so much easier.
Start simple: When I first started with the whole meal schedule, I was so excited, I googled all the fancy recipes, put them on the chart and even bought ingredients for them. And then, what happened over the week was a disaster. Some days I would be too tired to experiment, while some days my husband would not be in the mood to try out a new dish after a long day. The next time, I put up familiar dishes on the chart for 6 days a week, and a new dish every Saturday. That worked out quite well. So yes, start with regulars, and gradually introduce new dishes to your list. (for the days you are experimenting, keep some alternate options ready, just in case.)
Make meal-planning a family affair: Let everyone have a say about what they want on the chart for the next week. Not only that, make them a part of the cooking process too. Let your little ones wash the vegetables, go grocery shopping together, and work as a team. The fact that everyone was involved will make sure they stick to and enjoy the pre-decided menu.
Start making notes: Have some leftovers in the fridge? Write it down. Pasta sauce is almost over? Put that down too. That way you will not forget these little things and the notes will come in handy on your next grocery shopping trip.
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