How to meal plan

Meal planning is such an important part of the week in our house. We shop weekly now because we try to eat lots more fresh fruit and vegetables but with Sam's shifts and my 9-5 job its hard for us both to get to the shops together so we spend an hour or so every week planning out our meals for the week. 

We only plan our evening meals as Sam eats the same thing every day for lunch and breakfast and Harry will pretty much eat whatever. I take a pack up to work so usually, I take leftovers from the night before. 

I thought meal planning was something everyone did but when I was speaking to friends, I realised it wasn't and thought that maybe this post would help others who don't, start

Why meal plan?

Why should you meal plan? Meal planning is a great way to be organised, help you try new things, prevent food waste and save money on your weekly shopping every month!

Where to start

Starting to meal plan honestly couldn't be easier! Everyone has different ideas for meal planning and the more you get into it you will find your own way of doing it, however, I always start with looking at our cookbooks and recipes that we have found that we want to try. I also like to have a constant list of favourite meals to pull ideas from. 

Once you have your inspiration, you need to think about how many days you need to have food for, how many meals in total and how many people you will be feeding on those days. Meal planning doesn't mean you cant have those days where you just cannot be bothered with cooking or really just fancy beans on toast for your evening meal, it just gives you a guide with your meals. 

Once you know who you are cooking for and you have some ideas about meals you can start assigning meals to days. 

Here is an example of our weekly meal plan;

Monday: Spaghetti bolognese

Tuesday: Pizza

Wednesday: Lamb meatball curry

Thursday: Fajitas

Friday: Fish and chips

Saturday: Chorizo pesto pasta

Sunday: Cottage pie

Obviously, this is not the same every week, and on weeks where we don't have much planned or no one come over to eat we can move meals around if we don't fancy what we have planned. 

Once we have our meal plan we can then write our shopping list. Once shopping is done you are done and can start again next week!