Meal planning makes your life easier in sooo many ways! Taking 10 minutes to plan for the following week saves time, reduces stress, allows you and the family to eat healthier, reduces waste and it saves you money.
Take 5 minutes out the week before to meal plan and look towards the week ahead. What nights are you going to be home and how many nights will you need to make dinner?Â
Look through the fridge first to see what you need to use up. There’s nothing worse than having to throw away ingredients. Take it as a challenge to figure out a meal that uses a lot of those ingredients, or better yet, have recipes in mind that are useful for using up the ingredients left in your fridge such as a fish curry, a stew or a vegetable lasagne.
Cook dishes that can be turned into multiple. If you’re cooking a marinated butterflied chicken on the BBQ, you can use that chicken to top a grain salad for lunch the next day or shred it for your kids sandwich.
Have some easy go-to meals in your mid-week repertoire. These will be saviours for when you know you’re working late. It’s ok to buy meals that are half done for you, don’t feel guilty about it! Try our easy Kofta recipe, Meatballs, or Chicken Parma.
Invest in some kitchen gadgets that ensure your cooks are a breeze. We love to use a meat thermometer so that you remove the guess work, as well as a slow cooker, so you can set and forget. Â
Choose recipes that freeze well so that you can make more than one batch. Think soups, stews, casseroles, lasagne. They’ll be your saviours when you need a quick dinner. Keep them portioned so that you can just defrost what you need. Try our kid-friendly Butter Chicken, or Chicken Soup.
When cooking for 1, choose recipes that are just as good reheated. You don’t want to be microwaving steak or chicken breast the next night, so purchase steaks that come in 1 portion such as out Scotch Fillet.
