Meal Planning Main Page

Meal Planning Ideas:
Low Effort
Medium Effort
Big Effort (but big pay-off)
3-Night Plan Example

Meal Planning Tools: Grocery Lists
Blank Menus

 

Meal Planning - Medium Effort Solutions

1. Grill or roast a bunch of veggies, and "harvest" them over the next few days for on-the-spot sandwiches, salads, and pasta dishes. Throw some chicken breast in there as well for protein.

2. Associate certain nights with certain types of foods (kind of like "Wednesday night is spaghetti night"):

  • Quesadilla night
  • Stew night (left-overs can be work-lunches the next day, or you can freeze them in individual microwave-proof containers for later use - you can use these frozen "stew-cubes" as your refrigerant in your insulated lunch bag)
  • Salad night
  • Vegetarian night
  • Sandwich night
  • Roast Day (chicken, pot roast, or pork roast) - leftovers can be followed up the next night on top of salad or in quesadillas - see how one night can lead to the next?)

Some more ideas:

Vegetarian Nights:
  • Lentil Burgers or Uber Burgers
  • Pasta with red peppers, calamata olives, broccoli rabe, lemon juice, and feta
  • Stir-fry with tempeh, broccoli and shiitake mushrooms over brown rice
  • Individual vegetable pot pies that you made with mashed potatoes and leftover veggies from "grilled veggie" night. - thick slices (1/2 inch thick) of zucchini, summer squash and tomato, interlaced with fresh basil, mozzarella, and bread crumbs, baked, and topped in the last 15 minutes with more breadcrumbs and parmesan.
Pasta Nights:
  • Stewed tomatoes, fennel, and saffron (if you have it) in a large sautee pan, topped with white fish - simmer the sauce first, place the fish on top, and continue simmering, covered, until fish is cooked - serve over pasta or rice.
  • Lasagna - make a large batch, refrigerate, then portion into individual serving containers and freeze.
  • Orzo salad with diced cucumbers, lemon juice, mint, parsley, tomatoes, and a quick splash of soy.
Stew/Soup Nights: (most of these can be frozen for a great bring-to-work lunch)
  • Chili
  • Chicken Vegetable stew with store-bought cooked chicken added at the end
  • Lamb Stew - easy to make - 5/6 ingredients - and tastes great
  • Lentil Stew with roasted sausage and veggies
  • Miso with seaweed, tofu, and shiitake mushrooms
Salad Nights/Appetizer Nights:
  • "Make Your Own Salad Night" - prep greens, fresh veggies, cold cuts, cheese, pepperoncinis, roasted red peppers, olives, steamed asparagus, and any other ingredients you might want. Everyone makes their own salad. Leftovers go to the fridge in sealed containers. (You could buy an inexpensive plastic container with separate bins and a lid that covers each bin separately. You prep once and lay it out once, but you can grab the container out of the fridge at any time for a ready-to-go salad bar!)
  • "Appetizer Night" - I love doing this one - lay out pita bread, carrot sticks, olives, greens, and toasted french bread rounds with a few store-bought items - hummus, eggplant appetizer, bruschetta topping, and tabouleh. Then watch your guests swoop in like seagulls fighting over a french-fry in a McDonald's parking lot.
Roast: (chicken, beef, pork)

Being organized doesn't mean you always have to eat quick, on-the-go food. Doing a Sunday pot roast, or a roasted chicken on Saturday night is more along the lines of "slow food".(Check out Slow Food USA.) It is really important in this crazy hectic life to stop and smell the roses (and the roast), and enjoy some time with family and friends. Make this a special time - something your family and/or friends know they can count on. My partner grew up in a family who knew that Sunday there was going to be a roast, and another night was spaghetti and meatballs, etc. No matter what else was going on, everyone could count on that time together. Its funny how, when you are young, it is easy to take these moments for granted. Now that I'm older I long for those moments again, and I cherish any time family and friends can stop by and share whatever is on the table while we enjoy each other's company. Woops! Got a little off-track - now back to the roasts.

One of the great advantages of making a big meal is the leftovers. A leftover roast of any kind is fodder for sandwiches, soup, salad, casseroles, stock, and the list goes on. Try a traditional roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and either a salad or some just-barely-cooked crunch green veggies for texture (edamame beans, brussel sprouts, swiss chard, cabbage, spinach, green beans, etc.)

Grilled Vegetables:
  1. Cut and brush these vegetables with olive oil and grill: eggplant, red peppers, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes (plum, cut in half lengthwise), bok choi, portabello mushrooms, and even butternut squash (par-boil it for a few minutes first, then finish it on the grill)
  2. Grill enough for 3 servings per person
  3. That night - serve on a whole wheat sub roll with mozzarella and olive oil
  4. Night 2 - Cut the grilled veggies and toss into cooked pasta with feta calamata olives, lemon juice and olive oil
  5. Night 3 - Vegetable Soup - Heat chicken or vegetable stock in a pot.  Add a little barley and cook until barley is almost done.  Chop leftover vegetables into bite-size pieces and add to soup.  (Optional: you know those whole roasted chickens you can get at the grocery store that are hot?  Cut up the meat from one of those and add to the soup for tons of flavor and added protein.  Remove the skin first to reduce the amount of fat going into your soup.)
Quesadillas:
- My favorite way of making these is with two medium-sized non-stick pans. 
1. Lay an uncooked tortilla on a lightly oiled hot pan and top with a small amount of cheese, followed by toppings, followed by another small amount of cheese, and another tortilla on top. 
2. Press the top tortilla down to compact the ingredients slightly.
3. Once the quesadilla has heated enough to partially melt the cheese, place the other oiled non-stick pan over the top and flip.
4. Cook on the other side until done.
5. Flip the quesadilla onto a cutting board and cut into wedges.  Serve with light sour cream and salsa.  (Some low-fat or fat-free products taste terrible to me, but if there are a lot of flavors and textures going on, as in this case, even a fat-free sour cream would work).
Combination ideas:
- Chicken, avocado, tomato, spinach, pepper jack cheese
- Cooked burger seasoned with cumin and chili powder, thinly sliced romaine, green pepper, red onion, and cheddar
- Shrimp (partially cooked just before making quesadilla, then completely cooked in quesadilla), artichoke hearts, yellow pepper, cheddar

 

3. Meal planning for the week (and "eye-balling" the nutritional value). When you see it on paper, it is easier to assess, at least at a high level, questions like "Am I getting enough fruits and vegetables?".

On the left side of the screen, under "Meal Planning Tools, you will see "Blank Menus". Here you will find both an Excel version, and a jpeg version (for those without Excel). These are templates for you to use for your menu planning. Print a few off and take a first pass at filling in the blank menu grid, with the snacks and meals that you want. For those "crazy" times of the week when you know you won't have any time to prepare meals, leave them blank. Remember, keep this plan realistic and feasible. Next, look at each day's plan individually. Do you see any trends? Does it help you meet your nutritional goals? Is there too much fat in your menu that day? Is there enough fruit? Is there anything you can tweak to make it just a little bit better? Then, look at the whole week overall. Are you taking advantage of left-overs (cook once and eat 2 or 3 times)? Left-overs are the easy way out of not having to cook every meal.

Once you are satisfied with your weekly plan, the next step is to make a shopping list. I prefer to do the "big shop" on Sundays, with a
follow-up visit to the store on Wednesday or Thursday for fresh produce and meat. I start by making a list in the order of my menu plan. The next step might seem like extra work, but it will save you time in the store. Using that first list, I make a second list according to the order of the sections of my grocery store.

First is produce. I scour my first list and add all the produce items. Then I add the bakery items, then the natural foods section items, then the deli, etc. It pains me to see people in the grocery store acting like balls in a pinball machine - back and forth - "oh, I forgot the onions"... (Having an organized list also keeps you focused on your mission, and may help prevent impulse purchases.)

In the meal-planning grid, I've also added a box at the bottom of each day labelled "Prep". If you are so inclined, I find it helpful to write
out what, if anything, I need to do each day to prepare for upcoming meals and snacks. If you live with someone else they can read this box
and help "share the burden" of meal preparation.

Try the grid. Don't forget to leave some gaps. It would be easy to get overwhelmed with 7 days worth of meals and snacks that you're not ready to prep (and it would be expensive to let any of that food go to waste!). Do what makes sense with your schedule, in a way that will
help you get the nutritious food you need. You'll get better at it as time goes on. I've also included a box for each day labelled
"Exercise". You can use it however you want/need - as a Yes/No box or a way to write what your plan is (a walk, strength training, cardio).
Again, do what makes sense for you.

If you'd like to see an example of a 3 day dinner plan, click on "3-Night Plan Example".

© 2008 Paul Gagne, All Rights Reserved
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