Learn the steps to simple meal planning for beginners and start creating your own healthy, nutritious meals without spending hours in the kitchen and without overspending!
This post contains affiliate links: I am grateful to be of service and bring you content free of charge. In order to do this, please note that when you click links and purchase items; in some (but not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to keep blogging to help you start homesteading and it doesn’t cost you a penny extra!
See Disclosure, Terms and Conditions for more information. Thank you for supporting Misfit Gardening.
Join over 50,000 gardeners and homesteaders and listen to the popular Homesteading & Gardening In The Suburbs Podcast or read on to learn more!
Meal Planning For Beginners
I know how stressful it is trying to get out of the house and to work on time, let alone trying to juggle kids, after school activities, the garden, the chickens, the dogs, family time, remodeling the house, social life, and finding time to cook from scratch every night after you have worked 10 hours. You are a superhero tackling any of that in a given week let alone in a day!
Meal planning is a great way to know ahead of time what is for dinner but also can help to tame your grocery budget too. Meal planning and batch cooking often go hand in hand and as a busy homesteader, you will want to batch cook at some point on your homesteading journey.
My Mum is a freaking wizard with meal planning. She has it down for months at a time with a rotating meal plan. This is exactly how I managed my time at college and working. Now, this comes in handy because I eat a different menu to my family because of food allergies and I went vegetarian.
You don’t need to go to those kinds of lengths that my Mum goes to with meal planning. You can try to plan for 2 weeks or maybe 4 weeks. Start meal planning for dinners. It will be the easiest for you to try and work into your budget and schedule.
Simple Meal Planning For Beginners Step By Step
- Set aside some time to plan. Try to do it with a clear mind! Sunday morning over brunch works on this homestead but you will need to find some time to sit and plan. The time you need will depend on how long you are planning for. If you are planning for 6 weeks then you are going to take longer to meal plan than for a 2-week meal plan. Give yourself at least an hour to start with.
- Write the days of the week on a sheet of paper, or make yourself a table on a spreadsheet that you can print with the days of the week and space to write. Or write in a notebook or diary. My mum has a big paper clip of scrap paper in a handy note size that she writes out the days of the week. Do what works for you. I like a spreadsheet that I can print.
- Look at your schedule. Mark off days on your days of the week paper or spreadsheet that you know you are going to be busy on and you will need an easy dinner option. So let’s say on Wednesday, you have a late meeting at work that’s running to 6.30 at night and you won’t be home until 7 and you are planning on mowing the lawn and planting beans that night too. Mark those any way you need to on the days of the week paper. Mum underlined the days, I color-coded them in my spreadsheet. You could use a highlighter or mark an X next to the day.
- Choose your dinners and write them on the days of the week that you want to have that meal. Easy peasy lemon squeezy right?
Those busy days that you marked are perfect for something that is fast and easy. I’ve seen so many 15 minute meals on Pinterest and the internet. This is good if you still want to cook on those days. I’ll be totally honest with you. After a busy day, cooking, even for 15 mins is the last thing on my mind. Batch cooking something in a slow cookerslow cooker. This is how I manage the busy days especially mid-week.
My tip for this is to search for recipes and meals you want to try. I love that you can search the internet for recipes of ingredients you have already on hand too!
Make sure you add the time it takes to prep and cook the meal on your plan. This helps you to stick with it and add some flexibility if you are running behind one night, rather than grab dinner out you can swap it for another day’s meal with a shorter cook and prep time for example or swap for leftovers. - Write what you need to buy. With your meals planned out, on a separate piece of paper or spreadsheet, write out the items that you need to create those meals. I find that I will list items out for one recipe and if I need it in another meal, I will put a tally mark next to it so I can get the right number of that item I need.
For example, let’s say I’m cooking eggplant parm, lasagne and lentil and butter bean stew. I need canned tomatoes in each of those recipes so I write canned tomatoes on my grocery list for my meal plan and put 3 tally marks because I need 3 of them, one for each recipe. This means I can go to the store and only buy the things on the list. Or better yet, order online for pick up and avoid all the temptation to overspend at the store!
Tips For Successful Meal Planning
To have success with meal planning you need to use your ingredients wisely. Use the fresh veggies and other perishable ingredients at the beginning of the week so they don’t go bad. If your garden is growing well, see about planning meals to use what’s fresh from the garden maybe a fresh spring salad for example.
Start small with your first meal planning to build confidence and to tweak your plan so it fits your scheduling. I do a lot of batch cooking of soups, vegan chili, or posole and Italian pasta that I portion out into containers for lunches and dinners so I’m pulling something from the freezer that I made from scratch. I also love beans and rice or the English favorite of beans on toast. Your tastes and schedule will be different than mine so work to your schedule and to your tastes!
What’s your favorite batch cooking tip or super fast mid-week dinner? Let me know in the facebook group
Liked this post? Share the love and pin it for later!
Always ensure to operate safely. All projects are purely “at your own risk” and are for information purposes only. As with any project, unfamiliarity with the tools, animals, plants, and processes can be dangerous. Posts, podcasts, and videos should be read and interpreted as theoretical advice only and are not a substitute for advice from a fully licensed professional.
As remuneration for running this blog, this post contains affiliate links. Misfit Gardening is a participant in Affiliate or Associate’s programs. An affiliate advertising program is designed to provide a means for this website/blog to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to websites offering products described in the blog post. It does not cost you the Reader anything extra. See Disclosures, Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more information about use of this website.
Share this:
