Ideas for Weekly Meal Planning

Tap to Read ➤ Ningthoujam Sandhyarani

Meal planning for a week helps in deciding healthy and tasty menu, and at the same time, saves time and money. Here are some valuable guidelines on planning a weekly meal menu in advance.

We are often confused about what to make for our meals. Also, imagine a situation when you start preparing a dish, and realize at the last moment that you don't have one of the required ingredients. Well, to prevent such an unwanted situation, weekly meal planning is a must.

By planning the menu ahead of time, you eat healthy as well as get a sufficient amount of nutrients that your body requires for proper functioning.

Majority of the working women, who have a hectic schedule, rely on this planning. They are of the opinion that, doing so not only saves time, but also makes meal preparation easy.

Ideas and Tips

While planning weekly meals, you can consult your family members, including the kids. Consider their food preferences, likes, and dislikes. Taking their suggestions will help in planning a successful menu for the week.

Doing so will also help you in getting ideas about their favorite dishes. After all, you will prefer cooking food that your family members will enjoy eating. If you are calorie conscious, you can select foods according to their calorie content. Consult a nutritionist for selecting proper foods, if you are aiming for weight loss.

A nutritionist is the best person to provide information about the various food items and alternatives that you can choose for burning calories, without sacrificing the taste. An important tip is to consider food restrictions of any of the family members, while laying out the menu plan.

In order to implement your ideas, you can make use of worksheets. Such charts contain certain columns for days, food recipes, and ingredients. You can fill up the recipes for both, lunch and dinner, which you are planning to prepare in the next 7 days. In the appropriate columns, enter the ingredients required for each of the food recipes.

Do not forget to carry the worksheet while going to the local supermarket or grocery, for purchasing the food items. You can buy the vegetables and other food items that will be required for the entire week.

This way, you will be able to store the foodstuff in bulk beforehand. With such an idea, you will not come across a situation of last minute food buying, or strolling to the neighbors for missing ingredients.

Always include a salad for every main course of the meal. Your salad recipe should consist of fresh fruits and vegetables that are rich in proteins, vitamins, calcium, fiber, and other essential minerals.

It is not necessary to decide on a complex weekly menu plan. You can include any food recipes as per the taste of your family members, provided, the daily nutritional requirements are fulfilled.

Invest time while deciding on these ideas. Then only you can succeed in one week menu planning. If you have more space in the freezer, you can follow the same tips in order to plan meals for two weeks.