Last year this time I shared with you a meal planning boot camp I participated in that helped me get back on track with the healthy habit of meal planning. I did this over a course of posts here on the blog. As I will be repeating them again this year myself, I thought I would take a little time to share with you those steps again in one easy-to-follow post.
I don’t suggest trying to do these all in one week but to spread it out unless you are 100% dedicated to meal planning otherwise it might feel a bit overwhelming (just like a real boot camp might!). Also, you might not need all the steps and one may stand out as one you are ready to tackle right now. Feel free to do so!
Each of these steps gives you the basics and then you can click on the heading for each step for the original post with more details and actual pictures. The great thing about this meal planning boot camp is that you can tailor it to fit your own lifestyle and diet. I follow a paleo and nightshade free diet and spend a lot of time backpacking but you may not. Feel free to use your own recipes and think about the activities that keep you busy when going through the steps.
Preparation: Tidy Up Your Kitchen
This wasn’t part of the original meal planning boot camp steps but I knew that doing this first was going to give me a head start. Clutter leads to feeling overwhelmed and a clean kitchen makes you feel good about wanting to cook and spend time time in it. You don’t have to do a whole Marie Kondo, Konmari kind of thing, just clear off counters and put away appliances you don’t normally use. Do all the dishes and sort containers you store your meals in. You will be all ready to go!
Step 1 Discover Your Planning Personality and Set Aside Time For Planning
How do you like to keep track of things? Do you use a Google calendar? Write in a Bullet Journal? Have a notepad on your phone? Think of which method you want to keep track of your meals and weekly menus. Have fun with it. Name your calendar something fun and encouraging or buy a special journal just for meal planning.
When will you take time to do your meal planning? Is Sunday morning best? Tuesday evening? Schedule a time once a week where you know you will be able to sit down and spend the time needed for meal planning. For some this might be 30 minutes, some might need an hour. You can adjust after you have been doing this awhile as you learn how much time it will take. Odds are you will need less time later on than now when you are first starting.
If you are a backpacker like me, take a minute to think about how many trips you plan to take this year and how many meals you might need for those trips. Take count of how many breakfasts, lunches and dinners that will look like. This will come in handy later in the boot camp!
Step 2 Inventory Your Fridge and Pantry and Make A List Of Your Favorite 14 Meals
Take some time to go through your refrigerator, freezer and pantry shelves and assess what foods you already have. Write them all down in a list! Toss out bottles and bags that are expired or you just know you won’t ever use. Again, clutter makes you feel overwhelmed and you don’t want to be stuck trying to use that old jar of special sauce that turned out to not be so special.
Now, make a list of your favorite 14 meals you like to make. This isn’t time for fancy new recipes (unless you don’t have 14 meals you already make). The idea is to have a list of meal ideas you can use where you aren’t spending time scouring cookbooks and you are getting to the business of preparation. Save the hours on Pinterest for after you have your meal planning habit down.
Of course, if you are a backpacker and want to kill two birds with one stone while doing this meal planning boot camp, use a few of the meals in my Hiking & Backpacking Paleo Recipe Index because you know they will translate well to the trail!
Step 3 Write Out A One Week Plan of Meals
Okay, using your method of choice write out a week’s worth of meals using the 14 meals you have already written down. Most people stick to dinners with this exercise. Other meals come later. Think about the ingredients you have already and try to pick meals that use those incorporate them.
Step 4 Make A Grocery List and Shop For The Week
Using the list you have from your kitchen inventory, make a grocery list of the ingredients you will need for the meals you selected that you don’t already have. Go shopping, all in one session if you can. Hopefully, this will eliminate the need for those impromptu trips during the week that lead to spending more money and buying extra things you don’t need “because you are there anyway”.
Step 5 Take 20 Minutes To Prep Ingredients For Future Meals
After you have done your grocery shopping, take about 20 minutes to prep the ingredients. You bought a whole head of cauliflower? Chop it up into the pieces you will need for your recipe. Onions? Dice and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Have those foods ready to go the fridge so your feel less rushed when it comes time to cook.
Step 6 Make A Double Batch and Freeze For The Future
For at least one of the meals you select each week, make a double batch. Maybe even triple. This allows for three things: 1) lunches, 2) meals in the freezer for when life gets extra crazy, and 3) a dish you can dehydrate for backpacking meals! Just portion it out and lay each one on a tray so that when it dehydrates you can just add it to a bag and stick in the freezer.
Step 7 Think About Side Dishes, Emphasize Vegetables
When you are ready to add another layer, think about side dishes. And I say, think about how you are getting your vegetables for the week. Write down a list of your favorites so that when you are shopping you can easily add them to the cart. Whether that is greens for salads, shredded cabbage for coleslaw and veggie “noodles” or diced vegetables to toss into omelettes, make sure you have a side of vegetables with every meal you can.
If you are like me (a backpacker who swaps out veggies for grains), pick up an extra bag or two of “riced” or shredded vegetables as you go along and toss them in the dehydrator. That way, you have some trail meal bases ready to go by the time you get to summer!
Step 8 Another List of 5 Meals You Can Make In 30 Minutes Or Less
Now that you have some idea of what a weekly meal plan might look like, keep a separate list of meals that you know you can make in 30 minutes or less. If you don’t know any, here’s where you might head to Pinterest. Try and pick meals you almost always have all the ingredients for or an easy swap could be made. Use these meals when filling out your weekly plan on days you know you will be more busy. Have a day you know you will have NO time to cook? Use one of the meals from Step 6 you now have in the freezer!
Step 9 Make 6 Meals From One
Think of a meal that you can make that could be used as an ingredient in other meals during the week. For some people this might mean roasting a chicken or slow cooking a pot roast that can be used later in the week for salads, wraps, and casseroles. For me that usually means cooked ground turkey, meatballs, sauces and batches of cooked sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are great with eggs, on top of spinach salads, added to soups or just eaten on their own with a favorite sauce.
Step 10 Wrap Up and Plan For Next Week
Take a few minutes each week to assess how meal planning is going for you. Things you want to repeat and things you don’t. I found that all my planning usually meant I had an ample supply of leftovers each week and didn’t need to cook so many new meals the next week. Instead of just one “leftover” day, I had two or three. Use what you have learned or done the week before to plan your next week of meals.
I hope you take time to follow these meal planning boot camp steps for yourself. You will not only find yourself more likely to stick to your healthy food goals, you will reduce the stress around deciding what to have for dinner each night and scanning the kitchen for whatever you might need to make that dish you have been looking forward to all day.
Hopefully if all goes well, meal planning will have you feeling like the guy in the hammock above rather than a frazzled mess. You may, also, have a stash of backpacking meals ready to go at a moment’s notice. No more Mountain House for you!
Good luck on your own meal planning boot camp and let me know below if you have any questions in the comments below!
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