The Ultimate Meal Planning Guide: 6 Steps to Success

This meal planning guide has everything you need to know to start meal planning and save time, save money, reduce waste, and live a healthier, happier life.

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You know those days when afternoon rolls around and you start stressing just a little because you realize you don’t know what’s for dinner? Or you’re not sure if you have the right ingredients… And you’re SO hungry… And then you’re tempted to eat out last minute because it’s going to take forever to cook and clean? We’ve ALL been there.

It can be SO hard to manage jobs, run errands, take care of babies, run a household AND THEN you’ve got the added stress of coming up with something healthy to eat every night. This is exactly why I find meal planning essential to reducing stress, eating healthy, saving money, saving time, and reducing waste. These are all things we want in life, people. It’s not always so easy, though.

This is why I wrote this guide with everything you need to know to get started on meal planning, including many helpful tips and tricks, as well as some free meal planning printable templates to get you started!

Why I love meal planning

Meal planning has made a huge impact in our lives! Some reasons why we love it…

• It saves money
• It saves time
• Less food wasted and thrown away
• Less cleaning and dishes
• Less trips to the store
• Healthy snacks readily available
• Easy last minute dinners
• Freed up mental capacity and energy for other things

Step 1: Shop your fridge, freezer, and pantry first

It’s incredibly helpful to take pantry, refrigerator, and freezer inventory before making your meal plan and getting more food. You won’t believe how much money you can save by using up everything you already have, first. We often forget about all the food that accumulates and some things end up sitting on the shelves for many months, if not years.

This may sound simple, but I truly mean clean out your fridge at the end of the month/week and use up that last package of carrots, even if it means getting creative. It pays off to reduce waste and you’ll feel good being organized. This is also a great time to do a refrigerator deep clean and to organize and take inventory of condiments, frozen food, etc.

Step 2: Make your Meal Plan Strategically

Once you know exactly what you already have, it’s time to come up with a written meal plan for the week. If you are new to meal planning, it’s a process that can take a while to figure out. The key is to get into a routine and commit to setting aside time for meal planning. From there, you will start figuring out what works best for you and aligns best with your lifestyle and schedule. I personally meal plan on Friday afternoon, shop Saturday mornings, and aim to finish my weekly meal prep by Sunday night.

Choose whether you want to meal plan for one or two weeks at a time. Aim to get all your grocery shopping done once per week. Aside from the occasional time you run out of something, you shouldn’t really have any problem shopping just once a week if you plan well.

To keep yourself organized, use my free Weekly Meal Plan template or the Two Week Meal Plan template to write down your meal plans, snacks, and any prep you need to do that week. Another great way to keep organized is to keep a meal planning notebook where you write down all your notes and grocery lists. You might even like to use a dry erase calendar board for the fridge or something similar (like this one from Amazon).

Here are helpful tips for when you make your plan…

• Reference a list of your favorite recipes or a Pinterest board, where you compile a board of recipe pins you love. (Here’s mine).
• Plan meals around what’s in season and for sale at the farmer’s market. If it’s summer, make lots of fresh salads, bake a peach pie, etc.
• Don’t forget to take a note of any special meal preparations to be done. Ex: baby/toddler meals, special desserts, freezer meals, etc.
• Try having dinner theme nights such as Pizza Friday, Comfort Food Mondays, or Seafood Saturday. It can simplify menu planning and even start a new tradition!
• Plan meals that require lots of fresh produce and perishable ingredients earlier in the week. Fresh produce starts losing nutritional value as soon as it’s picked.
• Plan to eat freezer meals and meals using frozen and non-perishable pantry items the last few days of the week, since these things keep longer.

Really try to keep things simple in your meal plans, especially if you are just getting started. Don’t plan to cook too many new recipes. Keep your breakfasts and lunches simple. For instance, oatmeal or eggs and fruit for breakfast, salads or leftovers for lunch.

Definitely don’t plan on cooking every night. Cooking every night = cleaning every night. This gets stressful fast. A couple nights a week enjoy leftovers, a previously frozen meal, or a no-cook meal (think – hummus and veggies, sandwiches, etc).

Step 3: Don’t forget to plan some healthy snacks

I like to plan snacks because when hunger strikes, you need something fast. Here are some healthy snack ideas:

• Hummus with carrots, cucumbers, celery, and bell peppers
• Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, peaches, watermelon, and lots of other fruits!
• Sliced apples with almond, peanut, or cashew butter
• Bean or lentil dip with crackers (prepare ahead of time)
• Boiled eggs
• Yogurt and granola
• Dark chocolate and dried fruit
• Dark chocolate and nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, etc.)
• Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
• Homemade granola bars
• A green smoothie
• Icelandic Skyr Smoothie

Step 4: Write Your Shopping List and Shop Smart

Once you write down your meal plan, it’s time to compile your grocery list and shop. You want to be as efficient as possible at the store, so…

Organize your list into categories – produce, meat & seafood, dairy, frozen, bakery, etc by using my FREE Grocery List template. This will help keep everything organized and save you time when you’re going down the aisles. No more wandering back and forth!

If you’re going to shop at multiple stores in one week, think about how you can make your trips more efficient. Maybe you want to do one trip to Costco every other week to stock up on your staples and shop at your regular grocery store on Saturday every week. I typically shop at the store with the widest selection last. For instance I would go to the farmer’s market and Lidl (discount grocery store) first and then buy the rest at Walmart or Harris Teeter. This way I will be sure that I get the best value and price while making sure I check everything off my list.

You can most certainly guess why, buy try not to go shopping on a hungry stomach. Or when stressed or pressed for time. There’s a high chance you’ll get chocolate, chips, and an extra pint of ice cream that wasn’t on the list. Remember to only get the things on your list. Easier said than done!

Step 5: Prep for the week Efficiently

So now you’ve written your meal plan and you’ve finally bought all your yummies and brought them home! Time to start prepping for the week ahead. It’s one of THE most critical steps for a stress-free and organized kitchen.

It may sound common sense, but start by taking things out of their packages and putting food where it belongs. Put the oats into the oat jar, put the fruits in the fruit bowl, etc. This makes it a whole lot more likely the produce will get seen and eaten and nothing gets lost, forgotten, or spoiled.

Be sure you know your food safety basics as well. Here is a great resource from the USDA on food handling and safety to keep in mind when meal prepping. There are some helpful charts on food storage and cooking that you may find useful.

Prepping Produce

• Sturdy veggies and greens such as carrots, sweet potato, and kale may be washed, chopped and stored in the refrigerator 3 days or so ahead of cooking but you must dry the produce thoroughly making sure no moisture remains.
• Some fruits like watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple can be cut up and stored in the fridge for up to 4 days and will keep well.

• I love to chop and freeze a large batch of mirepoix (chopped onion, celery, carrot mix) in freezer bags for use in many soups, stews, etc.
• Wash, dry, and chop fresh fruits and veggies for yummy smoothies. Divide everything up between freezer bags (add any seeds, nut butter, etc), squeeze out any air and store for up to 3 months. When you want a smoothie, just add milk and blend! Yumm!

I like using Pyrex glass containers to store chopped produce. I have different sized round and square ones for leftovers and meal prep. These are the my favorite large pyrex containers with lids. These are also THE best for storing a giant salad for the week, watermelon chunks, homemade broth, party food, etc… The list goes on!

Prepping Meat

• If you are using fresh meat like chicken breasts in the next 2 days, take them out of the packaging, cut into pieces as needed, and divide up to store in separate plastic baggies in the fridge.
• Portion out any meat you aren’t using in the next few days into separate freezer bags, squeeze out all the air, and label them with the description and date. Then, place in the freezer.

Sorting, cutting, and freezing fresh meat right away when you come home ensures you don’t forget about it, it doesn’t expire, and it’s ready to go when you need it! Since you have a meal plan you’ll know exactly when you’re using what and when to take it out to defrost. This is one of my favorite tricks and saves me endless time during the week.

Other Meal Prep

• Make any homemade seasoning mixtures for the week. (Like this fajita seasoning).
• Make any homemade dressings or sauces and store in small mason jars.

The idea is that if you have time and it can be done ahead of time, do it during your weekly meal prep hour and do it in one round. It’s much more efficient. This way, there’s less clean up and dishes to be done and cooking will be a breeze later. You’ll even get to enjoy your mealtime and family more!

Step 6: Extra Make Ahead Meal Prep

On weekends and during the week when you have a little extra time, it’s a wonderful idea to do some EXTRA prep to save yourself loads of time later on.

If you aren’t having leftovers for lunch and want a healthy, delicious meal, make a batch of something “meal prep friendly” for lunches for the week. This basically means the dish reheats well and keeps well in the fridge up to 4 days. Salad, soup, grains, beans, meats all work great! After cooking, cool everything down, if needed, and store in several containers in the fridge – ready to go for lunch! I LOVE using these glass meal prep containers!

The freezer is your secret weapon in meal planning

One of the MOST important things I’ve learned over the years is that the freezer is your best friend when it comes to meal planning and prepping. That’s because you can freeze pretty much anything! Breads, sweets, citrus, nuts, sauces… You name it! Use it as a secret weapon to minimize cooking, cleaning and stressin’ throughout the week! Seriously, freezers are underutilized and once you learn how to freeze food, your life will be transformed.

That being said, when you do your produce shopping for the week, one good trick to saving money and eating healthy is to take advantage of cheap in-season veggies or fruits for sale. Buy lots and freeze what you won’t use right away. Some veggies such as green beans, cauliflower, and broccoli will freeze better if you blanch them. And the great thing is that they will keep well in the freezer for many months!

Freeze and store your fruits and veggies in freezer bags and enjoy for months to come. Try freezing corn, kale, green beans, squash, pumpkin (puree or chopped), carrots, and peas! Freeze berries and fruit as well – raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, blueberries! You’ll love having some packed away and ready to use in many recipes, smoothies, breakfasts, and baked goods! This also is a good tip if you have a large backyard garden harvest.

Freezing actual meals is another brilliant way to use that freezer. During the week, plan to make a double batch of something that freezes well, such as meatballs, Bolognese, soups, stews, chicken, etc. Freeze one of the batches for a busy night.

On certain days when you know you have extra time, make several freezer-friendly meals to freeze in one round to have on an extra busy night or as emergency meals. I found this is one of the MOST helpful tricks because it saves time and reduces clean up! It’s especially helpful if you’re getting ready to welcome a baby, have many projects coming up, or you just know that cooking may be difficult in the near future. Look in my freezer friendly category for recipe ideas. I will be sharing more recipes and tips in the future to help you fill up your freezer and have delicious, healthy, and fast meals ready to go!

See more information here on freezing and food safety. It’s very important to follow proper food safety guidelines around freezing food, especially meat and seafood, to avoid getting sick.

Final tips: Remember to meal plan with flexibility

We can all do a wonderful job planning and prepping, but sometimes, things will not work out as planned and you will need a plan B. You stay late at work, you get caught up with something, a child gets sick, or YOU get sick, and suddenly you actually can’t cook what you had planned. That’s no problem – because you’re prepared! Woohoo!

• Always keep a few completely prepared freezer meals stocked at ALL TIMES. Examples include a frozen homemade or store bought pizza (👉 my favorite choice), homemade frozen burritos, prepared frozen soup, breaded baked chicken, or freezer-to-Instant Pot meals. The goal is to just pop something in the oven or Instant Pot and have a quick, easy, and delicious meal!
• Always keep your pantry stocked with staples AND easy to prepare foods, so you can always make a last minute meal. Bread, cheese, nut butter, fresh fruit, frozen veggies for steaming, oats, or cereal! If all else fails, you can always eat breakfast for dinner or have a no-cook meal. Nobody would ever complain ☺️

I hope this meal planning guide has been helpful to you as you start your own planning. It can be tricky at first, but getting into a routine and staying organized is key. You’ll clear your mind of thinking about food and a weight will be lifted off your shoulders! Even if you find 15 minutes in your day to write out a menu, it will already be a huge help. At first, it may sound like meal planning is a lot of work, but it really pays off when you see how much healthier you start eating, how much money you save, and how much time and sanity you gain back.

Don’t forget to grab my FREE printable templates for meal planning below! Figure out what works best for you, but DO take the first step! Good luck! What does meal planning look like for you? What are your biggest challenges with it? Let me know in the comments below ⬇️

My Free Printable Meal Planning Guides