With our days spent more and more at home, a home-cooked meal is trending more than ever. With our lives more focused on being at home, the opportunity to cook is more accessible. Plan for your week by mapping out your daily meals to create a balanced menu. By planning your meals in advance, you are being proactive in building nutritional well-balanced meals! Here are three easy steps that you can follow each week to help you plan and prep for your week ahead!
Plan Your Meals
Carve some time in your week, maybe even add the time in your calendar, to work on building your menu for the week. I prefer to work based on the activities I have in my calendar and map out my dinners based on what I have time for each night. If I have a busy evening, I’ll add a sheet pan or slow cooker meal — this allows me to prep the night before or for minimal prep time that night.
Be proactive with your recipe planning and utilize a tool to give your planning more success. I love this jOTBLOCK combo planner. Not only does it give me a clean weekly view, but there’s enough space to incorporate other activities, notes, and a to-do list! The weekly view gives you the ability to focus on that particular week, and not get overwhelmed by planning for weeks to come. Bookmark or Pin the recipes you’ve selected so that can you return to them during another week.
Build Your Ingredient List
Your weekly meal plan will now serve as the foundation of your grocery list. Pull all the ingredients from your selected meals to start building your grocery list — most of your list will be a direct copy and paste from those recipe ingredient lists. For a more budget-friendly approach, select recipes that aren’t too complex and aren’t packed with special ingredients.
I’m old fashioned and love a good paper list — something that I can hold in the store and mark up as I toss items into my cart! This jOTBLOCK sketchpad is the perfect place for me to jot my weekly list in a vertical view. The sketchpad comes with a variety pack of pencils so that I can map out my grocery list by sections in the store. By listing the ingredient items by grocery section, you’re able to maximize your time in the store, be efficient with your shopping, and stay focused with that you need!
Prep Your Food
To truly maximize your time during the week, wash and prep your foods to allow for more time to yourself on weeknights! Start with something simple like washing and packaging fruit, or pulling kale from the vine and storing it to allow for more space in your fridge!
One of my favorite prep steps is to add these FreshGlow FreshPaper sheets that keep your produce fresh! You can add them directly to your food container or add them to a produce drawer!
By mapping out your meals for the week, you are giving yourself the comfort of knowing you’ve been proactive in your planning!
