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Modern life is busy – but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your health! Meal planning is one of the most effective ways people can stay on top of their health, but it can seem daunting and unachievable for those who’ve never tried their hand at it before. Here are five of the best meal planning tips to implement into your routine, ensuring you’re never left with an empty fridge again!
1. Find great recipes and save them
Take the guesswork out of your meal planning and spend a little bit of time each week hunting for recipes to try out. With a whole world out there, you’re bound to find an amazing array of simple and cheap recipes that you can easily add to the rotation. As well as looking for recipes, make sure you have an organised place to store them. There’s nothing worse than knowing you’ve found the perfect recipe, but not being able to remember which app you saved it in! Try Pinterest, Evernote, iPhone notes or even a notebook!
2. Eat seasonally
Eating seasonally means you only eat the produce that is locally available at any given time. This is a great way to eat because it supports your local farmers and vendors, as well as giving you added health benefits and keeping your costs down. When you begin your meal prepping journey, take the time to understand when certain produce is available and thriving in your local area. Basing your menu off seasonal produce is such an easy way to pack your meals with more nutrition and flavour!
3. Plan for the weather
While you can’t also be certain what the weather is going to do, make sure you keep an eye on the forecast and use it to determine what you eat. For example, if you know there’s going to be a cold snap mid-week, don’t plan for chilled soups and cold salads!
4. Plan for action
Now that you’ve come up with a list of great meal ideas and know what’s in season and what’s not, it’s time to get the calendar out and start prepping! Whether you like to plan weekly, fortnightly or monthly, keeping a calendar is a great way to keep a revolving and exciting meal prep menu. Jot down your favourite breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas and stick to it. Remember, practice makes perfect!
5. Choose a day and stick to it
Planning is key when trying to create a functional and healthy menu, so it’s super important to be organised and stick to it! Choose one particular day a week where you write a shopping list and go shopping, and another day to prepare the meals. Whether you’re planning on having meals ready to go for a quick lunch or dinner, or you’re simply trying to plan the week ahead so you don’t get stuck staring at an empty fridge when the hunger hits, there’s always something you can do to benefit your meal prep!