I don’t know how this post is going to go down because I’m sure some of you can’t imagine anything more dull than meal planning. But whenever I post things about what I eat, especially my most recent what I eat in a week, I get a lot of comments talking about how much time I must spend planning such a healthy diet. Guys, it’s really not like that. It probably takes me no more than 10 minutes a week. It’s really easy. And frankly, I don’t know how anyone food shops without a plan so I’m going to explain how I meal plan as a food blogger.
This post is for how I do things normally. Lockdown has been a bit different, but as restrictions are being lifted now, I thought it would make more sense to show you what a regular week looks like.
What do you mean by meal planning?
Hear me out, I know this sounds weird. We all know what a meal plan is. But I feel like the most conventional way is the Monday night is pasta and Tuesday is stir fry method. Set meals for set days. That’s not how I do things, and I’m fairly confident this method is why people fail at meal planning.
My method is a lot more flexible. I plan 5 evening meals a week, just meals, with no days assigned to them. When I decided to eat something can depend on what I feel like, my appetite that day or if something looks like it might go off and need eating sooner. It’s flexible. And, yes, I said 5 meals a week. I didn’t forget the other two days, but this is another way I keep things flexible. The two spare days are set aside in case I end up with leftovers, or eating out etc. I keep a relatively fully stocked pantry, so even if those two things don’t happen, there are always options to do something like simple chili or make a basic pasta sauce or soup.
How I meal plan as a food blogger
First things first, I share recipes and food related content on the internet. So, the structure of how I go about this is likely different to yours.
It’s worth noting that 95% of the time, I order groceries online. I don’t think that makes a huge difference to how I meal plan, but you may find that relevant.
Where I plan it
To plan, I use a note on my phone. There’s no fridge planner or crazy spreadsheet (no judgement if you use either of those, it’s just not me). When recipe ideas crop up throughout the week, or if I’ve preplanned to make a recipe at a certain time, it goes straight on the note.
Recipes to make/ Food Content
So, I post one or two recipes a week usually. And in an average week I make about three meals that are supposed to be recipes further down the line. Obviously, posts like my 10 vegan salad recipes or series like Recipe A Day May take longer, so are prepped in advance. Which is why I make more recipes than I post in an average week. Food content also applies here. For example, my post about Spice Pots on Thursday didn’t include recipes, but I still had to make the food to photograph for the post.
First on the list are the recipes/ food content posts I need to make for the week. If those recipes all happen to be main meals, that’s obviously half of my weekly meal plan done already.
If I have a particular craving for a certain food or recipe, that’s next on the list.
After I’ve figured out my recipes, I look at what I’m already eating that week and think about what I’ve eaten the week before and try to pick out some different foods. If it’s been a lentil heavy week, I’d maybe try to add something lentil or veggie based dishes to mix things up a bit. Sometimes the remaining dishes are my own recipes, sometimes I take some inspiration from something else I’ve seen and try to make it my own.
Now we have the 5 meals planned.
Only main meals?
I don’t meal plan my breakfasts unless I’m making a breakfast dish for an upcoming recipe. Usually, I just make sure I have in the essentials for what I’ve been feeling like lately, whether that be fruit for smoothies or some vegan yoghurt and granola. Oats are always in my basket because I use oat flour a lot in my baking recipes as well as breakfast dishes.
Other food
This is where shopping online comes in, when I book my slot I go straight to my favourites section and add in my weekly items (coffee, Alpro stuff etc) and then I add in things like snacks I might want for the week. But I always add the main meals last. There’s no real reason for this other than that I often book my slot as soon as they become available, before my meal plan is complete.
New stuff? Offers?
Remember I said I do five meals? This comes in handy here too. If they have something new that looks amazing on the free from ‘aisle’, I can add it to my week without totally ruining my plan. The 5 day system gives me wiggle room in my basket if I suddenly decide the new gluten free garlic bread has to be tried when I’m mid-shop.
And that’s pretty much it! Obviously, some weeks don’t go 100% to plan, but this is how I plan an average week in my kitchen.
Do you do meal plans? If so, do you do something like the strict version I mentioned above or are you a bit more flexible with it?
Until next time,
Sophie
I’m not sure if I’ve told you but I’m going Vegan next month and this post has come at the perfect time. I’m going to bookmark this to refer to when I start planning my new diet!
Francisca
Oooh this was really interesting to see, especially because you are a food blogger! I tend to plan a week’s worth of food and it does help a lot but I find that some times work can be super tiring so we end up just having oven food haha…
Thanks for sharing this will be really helpful for me when I go back to uni. I never usually meal plan and it’s something I need to get into the habit of doing 🙂
I love the idea of meal planning! I loosley meal plan in that I have in my mind what I’ll be eating for my main meals for the week. It really helps with grocery shopping and budgeting to meal plan!
I have meal planned in the past, but never really stuck to it. I love the idea of having a set theme for the day like pasta Mondays. I guess that helps be a bit more creative in what you are having rather than just thinking of that one dish if that makes sense?
Might have to try out your tips and see if I can stick to it. I am too indecisive though, so will see!
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
I and My Mum have been meal planning for a few months now and honestly, it makes everything so much easier. We try and put certain meals for certain days but flexible in case we think we wou.d rather have it a different day. Also, we often have leftovers so that always means lunch the next day tends to be sorted too.
All the meals in this post look so yummy! I love the idea of meal planning with your phone, that seems so much more simpler than crazy spreadsheets.
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
I don’t necessarily follow a meal plan but I can definitely see the benefits of it, as being a diabetic like you, I do take care of my sugar intake so I suppose that’s kind of meal planning! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
This is all so helpful. As someone who is currently trying to eat a little healthier and lose a few pounds, meal planning is pretty much vital for me staying on track. Thanks for the advice!
Kate
This is so great! I love the idea of meal planning; so great to be prepared and ready! I’m a organised creature of habit so would love to meal plan – thank you for sharing your tips! x
Paige // Paige Eades
This is super helpful! I try to meal plan but im not very good at it, im going to try and just focus on 5 main meals and see how i get on!
It’s interesting to see how you meal plan! the virus and no longer shopping in grocery stores has changed the way I meal plan – I don’t just wander the aisles looking for specials to make meals out of, haha! Our grocery store has a big section of food massively reduced that’s about to go off so we might have chicken from there that has to be eaten that night or frozen, or maybe a lasagna…but since I can’t do that since I’m ordering it all online I get some freezer based stuff and then order stuff for 5-6 dinners. I try not be too worried about variety as I don’t get to check the expiry dates before I buy and so I might buy spaghetti and meatballs and mince for a pasta bake but because of the expiry dates on the packages I need to cook them one night after the other, haha. I let the expiry dates dictate what we have each night 😉 We always have pizza on Saturday night so that’s stocjed in the freezer, along with everything we need for stir fries and a few leftover meals in there too for nights I just don’t want to cook! i think batch cooking and having leftovers constantly ready really helps, it’s so adaptable!
Hope you had a great weekend! 🙂
This is actually a really helpful way to prepare meals. I’ve been in and out of meal planning but I’ve never tried this method before. I think that I’ll try this and see how it goes. Thanks for the idea.
Really love your tips and insights, Sophie! Never realized how flexibility actually helps you, I always thought meal plans had to be set in stone. I’m not the main shopper in my household and when I was I just bought what I felt like eating for the week, not necessarily what I had planned? But your post really gave some great tips for staying on plan while not being strict!
Really super helpful. I don’t plan and sometimes I think I really should!! x
This was such an interesting post for reading. At your blog every time I learn something new. I also have meal plan for week and when I go in shop bought only grocery that I need.
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Ahh love the insights! I definitely find that ordering online makes all the difference especially when I try to meal plan – it means I stick to my lists and don’t just pile in all the snacks and random food.
Claudia x
this is so helpful! i’ve recently started on a bit of a fitness journey & soon i’m going to address my eating because it’s something i struggle with a lot. i think a meal plan like this would be really helpful for me. i’m going to try it out! thanks so much for sharing xx
mich. x
simplymich.com
My hubby always says we should meal plan, but we kinda never do. He is better at meal planning than I am, but he likes the same meals over and over. I do not. At all. During lockdown this hasn’t mattered a ton as we are always home to cook but when things change, we might need to re-look at this. Great post!
I loved this ! I plan my meals weekly on a Sunday, it helps me stay more organized and actually eat more healthily because I already know what I want to eat instead of eating anything I can get my hands on.
Great post
Great post! Thank you for sharing this! It is very useful for me as I need to start planning my meals.
Great tips! We also plan our meals out on our phones – usually adding to our shared grocery list over the week and then writing down everything we need for meals. And it does help to just have breakfast staples and snacks around so you don’t have to plan those.
I loved getting a look at how you plan your meals! Having a plan is a great way to avoid a ‘what to have for dinner’ last minute craze, and setting aside two days is a wonderful idea, since leftovers otherwise love to pile up.
On a side note, those Naked bars look so good!
This is a really helpful post. I love meal planning so that I know what food I’ve got to look forward to each day.
I like the sound of how you meal plan with having different dishes to make but not assigning days to them. That’s why I don’t meal plan because I’m very much a “eat what I fancy” kinda person and if I meal planned a specific meal for a specific day and didn’t fancy it, I’d get the right hump
I’ve only tried fully meal planning once and it didn’t work for me although I like to have vegetables and ingredients prepped ready to cook when I want them x
This is so helpful! I try to plan our meals each week so I know exactly what I need in our weekly shop but I’ve not been sticking to them as well as usual recently. Thanks for sharing your tips! x
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
I would like to meal plan a bit more, I was really good at it before lockdown and then when I struggled to get online slots it was a struggle because I could only really go to my co-op next to me and you can’t get a great amount of things in there! But I do tend to do what you do as well where I plan 5 main meals and I don’t assign any days, I just decide on the day what meal I’m going to make! It’s interesting to see how others meal plan though.
Chloe xx
I’m trying to get my kiddo to eat more veggies so I started to really sit down and meal prep, it’s not going that well but I’m just starting! These are great tips!
I need to start planning my meals! I love nakd bars xxx
I loved reading this post because I consider myself a bit of a planning freak, so I’m always interested to learn how other people plan things, whether that’s meal plans, daily plans, weekly to-do lists etc. Planning 5 meals a week is a great idea! I always end up with leftovers, so this is a great tip and will help me reduce waste. I’m definitely someone who does a full-on meal plan each week as I enjoy cooking, but being a bit more flexible would definitely do me some favours. Thanks so much for sharing x