First Steps: Planning Meals

How to avoid making hangry food choices

We all have lots of reasons for not cooking more, and many of them come directly from not planning to cook.

The scenario is familiar: we worked late, we’re driving home hungry, the people we have to feed are probably hungry, and we’re wondering what we have to eat that’s easy and quick and satisfying. A few mental calculations later we’re dining out or ordering in, and most likely eating something unhealthy, not because we chose to, but because it was convenient. (I wrote about the “efficiency calculation” that leads to fast food here.)

One of the biggest enemies to cooking is Not Planning. The solution, of course, is Planning, which takes some effort, but I can assure you won’t take much time. You just need to plan for it. (Sorry…)

So sometime on Saturday or Sunday, or whenever you usually do your grocery shopping, take a half hour and make a plan. Certainly there are apps and special forms you can print, but you really just need a piece of paper and a pen. This needn’t be complicated.

Write down the days of the week (weeks conveniently come with seven days, but you might have a unique approach). If you write the day/menu list on the bottom of the page, you can keep the grocery list on top.

This specific weekly meal plan may have been re-created and edited for this post. ;-)

Then take a look at your schedule for the week. What nights are you home? What does everyone else in the house have on their schedule? Who else in the house will take an evening to make a meal? (This can complicate things a bit, because you’re counting on someone else to make a plan, too.)

Now you know which nights you have plenty of time to make something, and when you’ll need to be quick about it. Then put some menus items next to your days, and your meal plan will start taking shape. And don’t forget about the side dishes!

Here’s where I turn to my cookbook collection (which is too big, and has too many books with too many sticky notes marking recipes I plan to make) and find something new, that maybe will take more time. I might also plug in some standards, one of those dishes I can make anytime. For the quick-turnaround nights, I might plan for something easy and awesome (future post!), maybe even using one of those jars in the pantry (another future post!). You might also prepare a large quantity of something, as I did with the pork on Thursday, so I could use it as an ingredient on Friday (this is meal prepping, and yet another future post!). Planning, again.

When you’ve got a meal for each day, then create your shopping list, and write that on the top part of the page. You should also include the staples that need restocking. This is where I get up and check the fridge and pantry to make sure I have enough mayo or cream cheese or ketchup. Don’t assume you have enough oregano in the spice cabinet — check it.

If you’re super clever, you can build your shopping list like the store itself, and group the fresh vegetables separate from the dairy, meat, and dry goods.

Now you’re ready for the grocery store, which is full of opportunity, which is what we call it when you see chicken on sale, or the fennel doesn’t look very fresh. And of course you’re also shopping at the farmers market, which is ripe with these types of opportunity meals (future post!).

It’s okay to change your menu plan. As someone once said, no plan is good that cannot be changed. But if you start with a plan, you can more easily adjust it when you need, without getting into that hangry situation.

By taking some time to plan ahead, you’ll know what you’re going to eat that night because you’ve already planned to make it (I think this is a future post, too, yes?). You won’t make bad eating choices because you’ve already made the better choice to plan ahead. Planning to cook is the solution.

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What tips do you have for meal planning? Or what obstacles get in the way?

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