Should You Be Planning A Weekly Menu?

Cooking food is a small portion of the effort for dinner. The hardest part of the day is the “What’s for supper?” time. You can take that stress out of your daily schedule when you plan a weekly menu. Most people plan when the weekly sale at their local grocery first appears. They make the menu based on coupons and sales to save money one night, shop for food another, and often cook a week’s worth of meals over the weekend. It has many benefits besides saving money.

It takes the guesswork out of healthy eating.

When you’ve stocked your shelves and refrigerator with healthy options, including healthy snacks, you’ve eliminated one roadblock to maintaining a nutritious diet. That’s especially true of snacks, which are normally easy-to-access foods that don’t require much preparation and don’t make you too full. If you have a bowl of cut-up cantaloupe in the refrigerator and no potato chips in the cupboard, you’ll snack on cantaloupe. If you bring home mixed nuts and package them in individual serving sizes, you’ll be more aware of how much you’re consuming. As for meals, wouldn’t it be nice to have a quick answer to the question “What’s for supper?”

Eat supper before you shop for groceries.

DON’T shop for groceries on an empty stomach—EVER—whether meal planning or not. Always go immediately after supper or your biggest meal of the day. If you don’t, and like most people, when you checkout there will be a food you didn’t intend to buy, like cookies, cake, chips, or other snack food. When you get home or the next day, wash and prepare fruits and vegetables for storage and easy snacking. If veggies, such as celery, carrots, or broccoli, are cleaned and cut and there’s a prepared dip, it’s a healthy snack or side dish ready to happen.

Cook on your day off work.

If you’re working, coming home to prepare supper can be awful. It’s why most people often opt for fast food. Even if you aren’t working outside the home, fixing supper every night is a task. As long as you’re in the kitchen making one meal, make them for a week all at once. A good meal plan uses the same ingredients for many dishes. For instance, baked chicken could be a meal one day, with chicken leftover used for a wrap, salad, soup, or other main dish. Those vegetables and fruits already cleaned and cut are ready for use in salads and soups.

• You can use the oven to cook several main dishes at once. You’ll spend far less time in the kitchen when you prepare meals ahead. Instapots, slow cookers, the oven, and stovetop can all be used to cut kitchen time.
• There’s no waste when you plan meals. Food is packed in individual serving sizes and what’s left can be used for other meals. You can even double your recipe and freeze meals for future weeks.
• Buddha bowls, soups, and salads are great ways to use food not used in other meals. They can be a light dinner or lunch. You can use leftovers for breakfast, too. Veggies like red peppers, spinach, and asparagus combine well with leftover meat and eggs for a breakfast casserole. When you meal plan and precook meals, it saves time and gas, especially if you often opt for carryout. It takes far less time than a drive-through and is far less expensive.

For more information, contact us today at Thrive Fitness!