The importance of meal planning and prepping amazing meals!

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Meal Planning

It’s no secret at all – I’m a planner! Always have been, and probably always will be. It can drive the people in my life wild sometimes my need to plan things ahead of time. However, in the instance of meals and going grocery shopping effectively my planning skills shine! Meal planning is a great way to relieve stress and tension from cooking and shopping, lets dive into the benefits!

Every Sunday I sit down with my magnetic meal calendar for the week and plan out our meals.

For myself, I find this incredibly soothing. On top of the many many benefits that come from taking 10-15 minutes to plan out our week. Preparing and planning your meals out ahead of time has many benefits that can help you and your loved ones! Below I’ve outlined some of the benefits I find with doing this weekly. Be sure to outline the comments what additional benefits you find from doing this.

If you’d like to know more about how to meal plan out your week check out my post Click Here.

Reduced Snacking

My fiancé loves snacks, unlike myself who grew up without snacks playing a dominant role in my life. When you take the time to plan out your meals you are more likely to begin cooking earlier in the evening and making a meal that is well-rounded and full of good nutrients.

Snacking tends to occur when we are bored, or hungry and unsure of when our next meal or snack is. With planning, I’m going to have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight. You’re less likely to eat out because you don’t know what or when your next meal is. As well, when we plan out our meals they tend to be fuller and packed with good food as opposed to food were craving at the moment. This often results in less snacking as were fuller longer.

Purposeful Grocery Shopping

This is honestly one of my favourite benefits of meal planning for two main reasons, one being it’s less wasteful as less food gets thrown out of goes bad before use, and two you spend way less at the grocery store with means savings for your wallet – cha-ching!

What I mean by purposeful grocery shopping is taking the time to set out all your meals for the week so you can then make a grocery list that is full of the food you need. You’re less likely to go to the store and impulse buy food you don’t actually need or purchase too much produce that results in un-needed waste.

By having a list (and checking it twice!) you’re able to go to the store and ensure you have everything needed to feed yourself and or your loved one for the week without having to rush out to the store again or throw out unused items.

Meal Planning Healthier Meals

When we’re in a rush, or beginning to get hangry our bodies crave sugar, salt, and quick food. This food is likely not the healthiest and probably won’t satisfy your system long term. When you take the time to plan out your meals and properly shop for them you’ll find your meals will be more nutritious and will leave you satisfied longer.

Let’s say as an example you’re more likely to cook a meal like hot dogs when you’re in a rush. Now hot dogs don’t have a lot of nutritional value, quite a bit of sodium, and don’t hit the target food groups but because you’re rushing it’s easy. Now looking ahead to a meal that you planned such as you’re going to cook chicken breast, with a side salad and asparagus that is going to do more for your system than the hot dog. When you plan your meals out, it also helps you plan out your time. Instead of looking at your clock at 6 pm going what am I going to cook today, you can at 5 pm start prepping your carrots or salad and begin the process in smaller chunks.

You’re more likely to add fruit and vegetables to your meals when not rushed, and likely to have more of them on hand if you do purposeful grocery and meal planning.

Less Take Out

We’ve all been there, you look at the others you live with and go “what do you want for dinner”? It’s close to 7 pm and you’re too exhausted to start any big meal prep now after working a full day. Likely the next response will be some indication of take-out or delivery.

These meals while are convenient in the moment of tiredness, do cost more than home cooking as well often less nutritious. When you have meals planned ahead of time you can look at your week ahead and identify those stressful or longer workdays and plan around them with a prepped meal. Having leftovers from the night before or having a simpler meal that evening. For me, Mondays are late work days for me and my fiancé. We often work into the early evening and then are both exhausted. I find making a big meal on Sunday, like a casserole or lasagna to be helpful as it allows us to plan ahead and reheat that meal without sacrificing a good nutritious meal when we are tired.

Now I will be honest, sometimes those nights do sneak up and we can’t plan for them. In that case, I usually keep a couple of meal-prepped dinners in the freezer. These just require putting them in the oven for nights we don’t plan it to be busy or unexpected events occur. By doing this we tend to eat out only one time every month or two as more of a treat or celebration of an event as opposed to eating it out of a lack of planning.

Increased Relationships/Moods

This one might surprise you, or you could be all too familiar with this. When there is no clear plan outlined for the meal this can result in nagging, persistent questioning, or frustration from those you live with surrounding what the meal is, will everyone eat it and when will it be served? When you take time to plan ahead everyone is aware of the plan. As well, everyone (hopefully) agrees to the menu and will know when to expect a meal.

Second that, often I find with planning out meals ahead of time I’m often offered help or support. If there’s a task or two with dinner or lunch they feel comfortable with and want to contribute to. There is a lot less tension when there is clear communication about meals. As mentioned above when the meals are hearty and satisfying you’ll often have better mealtime and post mealtime interactions.

Meal Planning Time for Prep

Planning ahead allows you to do the prep when you want to! For myself, when I’m making lunch or on a Sunday when I’m making a big dish, sometimes I chop additional veggies that I know I’ll use in the next day or two for meals which save me the time day of. This also helps motivate you to cook when some of the work is already done! I’d much rather peel 8 carrots one day and it takes longer than get out the cutting board and peeler and get a couple of carrots out of the fridge to cut up and do this each and every day I want to add this to dinner.

This also allows things like marinating to have the time they need. I usually take 5-10 minutes at lunch to prepare any meat we may be having that evening. By the time the evening rolls around it’s soaked in all the juices and spices. Now some meats and marinades do take longer so planning and prep may be needed there.

Additionally, planning meals allow me to look ahead to the next day. Defrost anything needing defrosting before the next day. We buy a lot of our meat at Costco and need to freeze it. So, we need to take some meat out the night before we want to use it. Meal planning allows me to always know what is needed and to plan ahead. There’s nothing worse than getting all ready for your meal and realizing it’s frozen.

Wrap Up

For myself, I find planning my meals to be incredibly rewarding and it helps relieve stress and tension often from my day. I hope you were able to read this article and take away a couple of ideas on the benefits of meal planning. If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at how to meal plan I encourage you to Click Here. I also encourage you to check out Neesha’s site Family Loving Life. Neesha’s post includes additional information about How to Start Meal Planning for Your Family.

Talk soon!