Overwhelmed by Meal Planning? Basic Meal Planning for Beginners

You walk in the door after a long day of work. That last project took longer than you expected, you barely survived rush hour traffic, and now you’re starving. You open the fridge to find a bag of wilting lettuce, some mostly-frozen chicken, and a jug of milk. You sigh. The last thing you want to figure out? What to have for dinner.

This, my friends, is how we have cereal for dinner more nights than not – or spend all our dollars on Postmates delivery. But I am here to help you avoid this evening exhaustion and make your weeknights just a little bit better.

It’s called meal planning.

Before you roll your eyes and close this tab, hear me out.

Basic Meal Planning: A Word

Meal planning doesn’t have to involve elaborate calendars. It doesn’t have to mean spending your entire Sunday making freezer meals. All meal planning requires is that you plan a little before you run to the grocery store. Ten minutes of planning means that your Wednesday evening is 1000% percent easier. It means that you’ll end your day with less frustration. It means you won’t find the kitchen quite so anxiety-ridden. And anyone can do it. If you’re a college kid who’s still eating mostly ramen, you can do this. If you have a million children and zero spare seconds in the day, you can do this.

One of the things I hate about traditional meal planning guides is that they assume we’re all starting from the same place. But we’re not. When I was in college, I had 7 square inches of freezer space. Making freezer meals did not fit my lifestyle.

So I’m not going to tell you the one correct way to meal plan – because it doesn’t exist. Instead, I’m outlining 3 basic “levels” of meal planning. For each level, I’ll include my favorite strategies – including a peek at my absolute favorite meal planning tool – and how to know if you’re ready to level up.

Before you start, you need to know this: There is no “wrong” level. We’re all at different places, and we all have different needs. Don’t feel bad because you’re at Level One. You’re making food! You’re feeding yourself! You aren’t eating out every night! That’s a win.

I also believe that if you want to make a change, you have to start slow. If you try to jump from zero to 150 miles per hour (or…from zero to Level 3, for the sake of this analogy), you’re going to get overwhelmed. You won’t even make it to the grocery store before you give up. Small, achievable steps are the key to lasting change.

Let’s get started!

Basic Meal Planning: Level 1

Make a list of your staple recipes. Keep the ingredients for those recipes on hand.

Need somewhere to start? This is it. “But Anna,” you’re asking. “How is this different than not planning at all?”

The truth? It’s almost exactly the same – except for a few important modifications. These tiny changes are super doable and will make your life way easier.

• You need to make an actual list of your staple meals. It could be on your phone. It could be on paper and be posted on your fridge. But you have to make a list. Then, when you’re hungry, you check the list. No more wracking your brain and coming up empty.
• Stock your fridge and cupboards with the foods you need to make those meals. It’s easiest if your meals don’t involve things that will go bad instantly – frozen and jarred foods are your friends here.
• Keep a notepad and a pencil in your kitchen. Use it for your shopping list. When you run out of something, add it to your shopping list right away. Otherwise you’ll get home from Target to discover that you have 12 boxes of noodles in your cupboard, but no sauce. Can’t remember to actually bring a physical list with you when you go shopping? Keep an ongoing list on your phone.

See? You can totally do this.

If you’re wondering what on earth you could make for staple meals, I’ve got you. The Lazy Genius, my favorite meal planning guru, refers to these meals as brainless crowd pleasers. They’re the ones you can make with your eyes closed that will please most of the people who will be eating them.

Our staple meals:

• Spaghetti and sauce
• Egg scrambles/omelettes
• Avocado toast
• Salad topped with grilled chicken and whatever else is on hand
• Tacos
• Pizza (on tortillas or pizza crust)
• Grilled cheese (plus eggs or ham)
• Quesadillas
• Tex-Mex-inspired chicken and rice
• Trader Joe’s potstickers, rice, and veggies
• Trader Joe’s orange chicken, rice, and veggies

With this list of staple meals, here’s the foundation for our a grocery list:

• Noodles
• Sauce
• Grated parmesan
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Deli meat (either ham or turkey)
• Avocados
• Bread
• Lettuce
• Frozen chicken
• Salsa
• Canned corn
• Tortillas
• Pizza crust (or the ingredients for it)
• Rice
• TJ’s Potstickers
• Frozen stirfry veggies
• TJ’s orange chicken
• Soy sauce

Note that this grocery list is not what a cookbook tells me I need to keep in my kitchen. It’s based on my own actual staples. Don’t keep mushrooms stocked if you know you don’t regularly cook with them.

You should level up when: You’re bored of your rotation. You want to work more fresh produce into your life.

Basic Meal Planning: Level 2

Make a list of your staple recipes. Keep the ingredients for those recipes on hand. Plan to add in one or two special recipes a week.

So you’ve mastered the art of keeping your kitchen stocked. You’ve got a list of staple meals that works for you. But you’re getting a little bored. Here’s what to do next.

Start by making a list of new recipes you’ve loved and ones that you want to try. This is where my very favorite organizational tool comes in. It’s called Trello. It’s like Pinterest but better. And it has absolutely changed meal planning for me.

How Trello works:

1. Create a board. This board is where your recipes will be housed. Mine is just titled Favorite Recipes.
2. Add a list. These lists are going to be collections of different categories of recipes. I currently have a bunch, including Salads, Weeknight Favorites, Staple Meals, Fancy Food for Company, and Recipes to Try. But if you are just beginning, you only need 3 boards: Staple Meals, Tried and Liked, and Recipes to Try. Do not go overboard. You need to start small in order for this system to stick.
3. Add a card to the list. This is where you’re going to write the title of the recipe. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If the recipe is online, click to open the card, then edit the description so it includes the recipe link. If the recipe is in a cookbook, take a picture of the page and upload it to the card. As you try these recipes, you can add notes to the descriptions.
4. View your boards from anywhere. You can use either your desktop browser or the phone app – everything syncs between both versions.

Why use Trello?

This system is life-changing for a few reasons. First, it allows you to categorize your recipes. You won’t get lost in a Pinterest board full of 7-course meals when all you want is a one-pan dinner. You won’t have to remember which version of tortellini soup you’ve tried and which one you haven’t.

I also love Trello to meal plan on the go. When I’m making a grocery list in the Aldi parking lot after work (it happens), I have my stash of favorite recipes AND their ingredients on my phone. I can figure out what I need to buy right then, without having to run home to check a cookbook.

Listen, I can send you my Trello board if you want to see it. But this tool is most valuable when you create your own.

Here’s how to use your Trello board to level up your meal planning.

• Choose one or two recipes per grocery store trip to mix with your staple meals. Maybe these recipes didn’t make your staple meals list because they take a little extra time. Maybe they involve ingredients you don’t always keep on hand. Cool. Before you go grocery shopping, choose a meal or two from your list of Tried and Liked or Recipes to Try lists. Then get the ingredients for those recipes.
• Plan to try your new additions on a night that isn’t crazy. Don’t plan to spend two hours making soup if you know you’ll have to work late and then run to small group and then finish proofreading that resume for your brother. That’s a recipe (heh, heh) for just eating cereal. Choose an evening where your calendar is more open. Then make the recipe that night.
• Make a staple meals on other nights!

See? One small step for you, one giant leap for your meal planning.

You should level up when: You want even more variety. You want to reduce your food waste and save money. You’re Type A and rock at systems.

Basic Meal Planning: Level 3

Meal plan and grocery shop once a week. Decide ahead of time what meal you’ll eat each day. Focus on maximizing ingredients.

This is what I do. Before I explain, let me again repeat this caveat: you do not have to do this to be a good adult. My husband, dear man that he is, would never do this. (Though he does appreciate that I do.) And if you’re just starting to cook? You don’t have to start here. In fact, you probably shouldn’t.

But I am freakishly passionate about meal planning this way:

• Before doing anything, check the fridge and pantry. See if there are any things that need to be used up before they go bad. Is there lettuce wilting? Salsa that’s lingered a little too long? Cheese that’s about to be fuzzy? Plan to use those up in your recipes.
• Coordinate your meal with the amount of time you’ll realistically have. Open your calendar and your Trello app (or wherever you keep your list of recipes). See what kind of time and responsibilities you have each evening. Then choose a recipe that fits. For example, on days when Adam and I go running after work, we pick quick meals from our Staple Meals board. On other nights, I’ll make something that requires a little more energy.
• Strategically buy ingredients. If you’re getting a huge bag of kale for soup, can you use the leftovers for pasta later in the week? If you’re buying pico de gallo, can you add it to eggs after you’ve used it on tacos? You don’t have to do this perfectly, but thinking about it will help reduce the amount you buy.
• Keep some ingredients for staple meals on hand. That way, you’ll be prepared for emergencies or nights where you just don’t want to cook.
• Be flexible. You are the boss here. If you decide that you don’t want stir fry on the night you planned to have stir fry, don’t force it. But more often than not, I find myself making the meal I planned.
• Don’t make it too fancy. This is the real-life way I keep track of what we’ll be eating. My grocery list, stuck to the fridge.

Want to level up even more?

Sorry. This is where my expertise ends. I don’t food prep on weekends. I don’t do freezer meals. But there are tons of people on the Internet who do. As I mentioned above, Kendra Adachi at the Lazy Genius Collective is my favorite meal planning guide. She’s super realistic and is smart about systems. Check out her podcast (especially this episode about freezer meals) and her blog (like this post about food prep) if you want more.

Questions

• What about lunches? Instead of just cooking two servings of everything, I make sure that the meals we eat make at least 4 servings. That way, both Adam and I can eat leftovers for lunch. If you have teenage boys who will eat anything in sight, I don’t know how to help you. Maybe dish up your own lunch portion first? (Are those even technically leftovers, then?) I also try to keep a “backup” lunch option around – something like avocado toast, cheese and crackers, or sandwich meat. If we don’t use it during the week, it will often become a weekend lunch.
• What if I’m broke? Then ohmygosh, you need to do this even more. It actually saves money – you won’t throw away as much food, and you won’t eat out nearly as often.
• Doesn’t this actually take more time? I would rather spend 15 minutes planning on a Sunday afternoon than spend 15 minutes griping in front of the refrigerator on a Tuesday night. Wouldn’t you?
• Do you have more advice like this? I’m always adding more posts about food – check out this one about finding the best deals at Aldi and this one to adapt for the coronavirus pandemic!

I hope this helps make dinner time a little better! What are your favorite meal planning tips and tricks? Tell me in the comments, or connect with me on Instagram @annaleighsaxton!