Meal Planning 101: How to Save Time & Money

"Aaj kya pakaoun" or "What should I cook today?" is many peoples least favourite sentence in any language. It is not one that I enjoyed answering with any regularity and became one of the reasons I started meal planning several years ago. Once I started though I realized that Meal Planning had more positives than I had anticipated.

5 Reasons to Meal Plan

1.) It makes the week run smoothly because you already know what you need to do.

2.) You save money on groceries and minimize waste.

3.) You eat healthier because you already know how to versus just reaching for what is convenient.

4.) It allows you to create your balance between kinds of food. On busier days when we have to get to classes dinners are quick, but on other days we slow down and enjoy daal chawal, aloo qeema, and kurkuri bhindi.

5.) Having a plan in place means you know what to prep ahead of time so you aren't cooking every day (unless you want to be).

Now I know the idea of planning out a weeks worth of meals can seem daunting, but take a deep breath and keep reading for how to make it easier.

4 Steps to the Best Meal Planning

1 & 2 are just for when you start off, 3 and 4 is what you will do weekly.

Step One: Make a List

Take 15 minutes, or more if you are a prolific cook, and make a categorized list of everything that you regularly cook. My preferred approach is a google sheet so I never lose it, but pen and paper works. You can download the following file and fill it out too!

Categories can include:

• Pakistani Chicken Recipes - weeknight favourites!
• Daal Recipes
• Salads
• Sabzi Recipes
• Quick fixes
• Rice Recipes
• School lunches

The idea here isn't to put together something impressive and populate with all the aspirational recipes. You want the recipes that are in your regular rotation or ought to be.

Looking for inspo? These Easy Weeknight Recipes are my weekday go tos!

Step Two: Set up an easy to use format

There are two approaches I have found successful. One is where I simply make a list of everything I am cooking that week and put it on the fridge as a reminder and the other is a format like the one below. You will see I don't plan breakfasts because those are quicker/smaller for us and that I do plan what the kids are eating at school and what is happening at home. The extras cover snacks that need to be made.

You can download the planner below.

I plan from Monday-Sunday, but please choose whatever sequence of days that makes sense for you. It makes sense to tie it in to your grocery store trips.

Step Three: Go Through Your Fridge

With the heavy stuff out of the way open the fridge and go through your vegetable drawers. Figure out what you need to use up so you can make dishes that use up those ingredients before they turn. This is a great way to be more budget friendly and eco friendly because unnecessary food waste is good for no one. A quick glance at your freezer/pantry doesn't hurt either. Jot down the stuff you want to use up the following week.

Tip: When looking through your fridge if you are a little over last weeks chanay ki daal but it's perfectly good then freeze it. Your future self thanks you.

Step Four: Fill it Out

Now comes the easier part, go through your what to cook sheet, prioritize dishes with the ingredients that you need to use up and fill it out. Filling in the sheet can take a little bit of time especially the first time around, but trust me it is totally worth it because it makes things so much easier for the whole week. 

Tip: Plan to eat leftovers.

Once when I shared my meal plan on Instagram I received a "snide comment + a lol to make it ok" response about how this person couldn't imagine feeding their family leftovers let alone plan for it. I honestly can't imagine not doing it.

Tip: Make a plan that works for YOU

I clean on Sundays, so the cooking has to be light. My kids have activities on certain weeknights so dinner has to be quick (and ideally not too aromatic). Friday is movie night and we always have pizza.

When things don't go according to plan, don't worry about it. There are times when a Shawarma sounds infinitely more appealing than the salan I had initially planned for and that's totally ok. I just roll that idea or the ingredients it required into next weeks plan.

Have questions? Leave a comment below and I am happy to answer them.