Read more about Food
Shop Your Pantry
You can’t plan meals if you don’t know what you have on the ground. So, check your freezer, fridge and pantry. Make a list of the foodstuffs, leftovers and spices that are available. This will help you determine what to cook and when to cook it. It will also help you to put leftovers to good use to avoid waste. Shop With A List And Buy Food In Bulk Once you’ve shopped your pantry and drawn up a list, you already have a skeletal meal plan in view. Going shopping without that list will simply mess up the plan you’ve already made because you’ll end up buying what you don’t need. So, go shopping with your list. It will help you to stay focused. If you are the type who always forgets your lists, take a picture(s) of it once you are done making it. What’s more, buying food in bulk will help you save money. Having a pantry full of staples means that you’ll only have to worry about buying fresh groceries. This will help you reduce stress and improve your meal planning.Review Your Schedule
You can’t plan your meals without taking a look at your schedule. What you’ll cook and when you’ll cook should depend on your schedule. You can’t close from work by 5 pm, for instance, drive to church for a two-hour programme then come home to start boiling meat and then cooking soup. It’s not impossible oh! But they no dey give award for stress abeg. Planning with your schedule will help you come up with a workable system, one that will help you eat healthily and minimize stress. For instance, you can cook simple foods on long days while leaving the more complicated foods for a more convenient time.Consider Each Food Group
A great meal plan is one wherein all the food groups are represented every day. You can’t eat bread and tea in the morning, abacha in the afternoon and yam and oil at night. Your meal plan should be healthy. It should include foods that are in season. Also, the menu should vary from time to time to make mealtimes more interesting.Make Your Meal Plan Flexible
If you are familiar with the saying, ‘man proposes but God disposes’ then, you should know that your meal plan should not be carved in stone. As a matter of necessity, it should include a backup plan. Whether that backup plan is the takeout option or an easier meal than you had intended doesn’t matter.Sign up to the Connect Nigeria daily newsletter
What matters is that meal planning is meant to make your life easier. If your meal plan is flexible, you’ll accommodate unexpected developments with minimum stress.
Put Your Freezer To Good Use
There are foods like soup and stew that may feature twice or three times in your weekly meal plan. You can prepare them in bulk and put them in the freezer. That way you can bring them out and use them whenever you want.Ask For Help
Coming up with brand new meals every week is not easy. But you don’t have to do it alone. If you’re meal planning for yourself, you can go online to check recipes that you might want to try. But if you are meal planning for your family, then, talk to your family members. Find a way to incorporate their input. You can even make it fun by including the contributor’s idea in the plan and the contributor in the cooking. Monday night for instance could be Chinenye’s Special Yamaritta and Chicken Sauce. Tuesday could be Chineme’s Spaghetti and Meatball delight while Chibuzo’s Boiled Rice and Orisirisi Vegetable Sauce could be for Wednesday afternoon. Finally, these tips are meant to ease you into the meal planning habit. It’s not enough to study them and put them into practice. You must believe that you can develop the habit as well. Happy Meal Planning. Source; Mealplify Featured Image Source: Slender KitchenGot a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com