My Meal Planning Strategy

Meal planning: the answer to the dreaded question of “What’s for Breakfast Lunch or Dinner?”. This one strategy is the gift that keeps giving. The once a week action that feeds you (and your family) throughout the week, without any time wasted or guesswork spent.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s ensure we are singing from the same hymnal; what is meal planning? What isn’t meal planning.

What it is not:

• Prepping ALL your food for the whole week and storing it in the fridge/ freezer
• Allowing room for no flexibility
• Everything cooked from scratch

What it is:

• Mapping out what you (and your family) are going to eat and planning ahead. It’s exactly as it sounds!

Whats the benefits?

• Saves time (no figuring out what meals to cook three times a day)
• Saves money (less shopping trips)
• Less wastage of food
• More variety (not settling for pesto pasta daily – this was me!)
• More healthier (no last minute take out trips as your meals are already planned).

Top Tip: Pick meals with similar ingredients so lessen the total of your food bill.

The simplest more effective way to meal plan can be achieved with my 5 simple steps:

1. Monthly: Update Freezer Inventory and Pantry (Cupboard) Inventory. (I can’t tell you how many times I have assumed I have an item and NOT have it and vice versa.
2. Monthly: Complete Monthly Meal Dinner Plan at the start of the month for a rough idea of what the dinner will be.
3. Weekly: Update Fridge Inventory
4. Weekly: Complete Meal Weekly Meal Plan + Shopping List. I usually do this with my recipe ring binder in hand to give me inspiration and ideas. Check inventories to see what you have/ don’t have
5. Weekly/ bi-Weekly: Food shopping (My favourite part!). Once you have the items, get a head start! Your future self will thank you. Getting a head start can mean washing the fruit or veg, chopping to meal meal cooking easier, marinating meat to put into the freezer or fill in the blank.)

Plan on Friday, shop & prep on Saturday

There you have it! If you would like some helps on the transcribing process so your taking up endless notebooks! Try my Meal Planner Toolkit. It’s a clear designed kit which will help you through the meal planning journey easily. Click here!

If you try this strategy, let us know! Leave a comment and don’t forget to tag #theflexiblefridge on instagram, thanks friends!