If you end up answering the "what's for dinner" question by heating up a pre-packaged frozen dinner or grabbing the phone to order take-out, meal planning can help you eat healthier. By stocking your kitchen with staples and amassing a few favorite recipes that use basic ingredients, you can create healthy, well-balanced meals that often take less time to prepare than a run through the window of your favorite fast food joint.
Significance
Planning well-balanced, quick home-cooked meals instead of relying on pre-packaged convenience foods and fast food meals can help you limit the sugar, unhealthy fats, salt and refined grains in your diet. It can also save you time by eliminating frequent, last minute trips to the grocery store to grab an item or two. Creating a monthly or weekly plan can also decrease the time you spend standing in front of the refrigerator wondering what to cook.
Types
Although monthly meal planning might initially require more time and organization, it can ultimately save time. It can also help you stick to a food budget. If you prefer some spontaneity in your dinner choices or if you want to choose meals depending upon what is on sale at your grocery store, you might want to stick with weekly planning.
Whether you plan out meals on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis, you will usually need to grocery shop on a weekly basis because quick, healthy meal plans usually depend upon fresh fruits and vegetables, and minimally processed foods.
Considerations
MayoClinic.com suggests considering the season when planning your meals. Seasonal fruits and vegetables often taste better and tend to be less expensive than out-of-season ones. The season of the year can also help you decide whether you want to include salads and grilled proteins, or vegetables, stews, soups.
Picture your dinner plate when planning meals to make sure they include appropriate portions of each food group. The ideal plate, according to MayoClinic.com, consists of half fruits and vegetables, and a quarter each of lean proteins and whole grains.
Misconceptions
Most people don't need to plan out seven meals each week. Planning four or five meals for each week usually works since many people eat leftovers one or two nights a week and might also splurge by eating out one night a week. When developing your plan, take leftovers into account. If you plan to grill chicken breasts for dinner, you might want to grill a few extra and use them in a salad the next night.
Other time-saving tips--offered by Meals Matter, a nonprofit site operated by the California Dairy Association--include cooking and freezing extra rice, grating extra cheese and browning a double batch of meat.
Prevention/Solution
Simplify the meal planning process and avoid waste by over-purchasing by evaluating the contents of your kitchen cabinets, refrigerator and freezer before starting your meal plan. Throw out any expired foods or highly processed junk foods. Make a note of the foods you have so you can use them in your meal plans. Stock your kitchen with fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, canned beans, whole-wheat tortillas and breads, dried herbs and spices, brown rice and whole grain pastas.
When shopping for foods, make preparation even simpler by buying fruits and vegetables pre-chopped when possible. A trip to your grocery store's salad bar often yields a bounty of pre-chopped veggies that you can use in your recipes.
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