6+ Simple Tips & Ideas for Planning Healthy Meals
If you want to focus on your well-being, then healthy eating will play a huge role in your daily life. This is where planning healthy meals is so important.
When it comes to making smart dietary choices, healthy cooking tips and meal planning are a must.
Planning Healthy Meals
Meal planning is simply creating an organized system that works to get healthy meals on your table more efficiently. Get a jump on it today!
To help you get off to a good start, we’ve rounded up six healthy meal planning tips and ideas!
1. Create a List for Your Favorite Healthy Recipes
Every household has 8 to 10 recipes that are repeated over and over again. You first need to work on this list to begin with your healthy eating plans. This will help you stick to a healthy diet because you won’t run out of options on what to cook and you will soon get into the habit of healthy cooking.
You can browse the internet for some recipes, test and try some easy-to-prepare healthy meals, and then pick the ones that you and your family enjoy the most. This will be the first step to healthy meal planning.
Interesting Point to Consider: after cooking for more than 40 years for our family, I find that I gravitate back to the simple, unadulterated foods. What I mean by this is that real foods prepared in the simplest ways seem to satisfy the most.
Fancy sauces and fancy ingredients are not always necessary. Find your niche and your methods of what works well for you because as you practice, you will become an expert in your own distinct cooking style.
The really cool thing is when you do not need to follow your favorite recipes anymore as you have developed your own sense of cooking! It is fun and exciting when this happens! You will know when you get there…….♥
This is especially easy when you learn more about superfoods and keep them in your kitchen!
Important Tips When Getting Started:
- If you are planning healthy meals for your whole family, make sure everyone likes the recipes you list down. (at least most everyone likes them, some exceptions will need to be made for individual tastes and/or allergies.)
- Pick recipes that have common ingredients and maybe a few specialty things that are important to you and your family’s taste
- Include recipes with leftovers that can be easily used the next day. For example, stir-fried vegetables can be added to salads, omelets or soups and chicken roast can be used to make sandwiches for next day’s lunch.
- Your recipes should have a healthy proportion of nutrients. 1/3 healthy carbs that focus on whole grains and pulses, 1/3 lean protein and good fats – include a variety of protein sources throughout the week to include: chicken, turkey, fish, beans, nuts, seeds & eggs but make sure to avoid saturated fats, and add 1/3 vegetables and fruit.
- Also, look at this fantastic resource on non-meat protein sources!
Just for Fun……..Check this Out!
Check your daily nutritional values on Cronometer! Enter your food choices and amounts to make sure you are getting important vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids and more! Cronometer is a free fantastic resource!
2. Make Your Weekly Meal Plan Over the Weekend
Design a weekly plan of meals over the weekend that best works for you and repeat recipes in a cycle. To make your meal planning even more straightforward, you can give each day a theme.
For example, dedicate Mondays to vegetables and beans, Tuesdays can be about fish and salads, Wednesday could include leftovers from the previous days, and so on. If you are a chart and list person or just need some extra help, take a look at these great charts and lists on healthy meal planning.
If you feel more comfortable with a book on meal planning, then you must take a look at The Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook to give you a great framework. It is also available in as a kindle book.
Simple Easy Weekly Dinner Menu Ideas: approx ~ 1/3 ~ 1/3 ~ 1/3~
Sunday | Baked Lemon Chicken | Rice or Quinoa | Leafy Lettuce Salad w/ Grated Carrots |
Monday | Meat Loaf | Baked or Mashed White Sweet Potatoes | Steamed Broccoli w/ Mushrooms |
Tuesday | Tortillas Pizza | Various Toppings | Fresh Salad w/ Tomatoes |
Wednesday | Homemade Chicken Soup | Crackers | Fresh Apple Slices |
Thursday | Crockpot Roast | Potatoes & Carrots | Fresh Spinach or Green Salad |
Friday | Hamburgers | with Buns or Bread | Lettuce, Tomato, Carrot & Celery Sticks |
Saturday | Fajitas w/Beans or Meat | Grated Cheese | Lettuce, Tomatoes, Olives, etc |
Easy Recipes
- Baked Lemon Chicken
- Meat Loaf
- Easy Tortilla Pizza
- Homemade Chicken Soup
- Crockpot Roast with Potatoes & Carrots
- Fajitas with Beans
3. Stock Your Staples
Once you have your list of healthy recipes ready, take a few minutes to plan your monthly. Staple items, such as whole-grains, meat, pasta, brown rice, eggs, cooking oil, seasonal veggies and fruits, and almond milk, should always be in your pantry and refrigerator.
So, you need to work out your grocery shopping frequency according to your consumption.
This means that even if you don’t have your weakly meal plan ready, you can still take a quick look at what’s in your fridge, pantry, and freezer and then cook accordingly.
Having staples and products that you use on a regular basis makes cooking at home so much easier.
Pro Tip: Look at #9 in Homestead Skills Done Anywhere for a list of handy pantry items.
4. Pre-cut Your Vegetables and Fruits
While creating your list of favorite recipes, you will also get an idea on which vegetables or fruits you need most frequently. If you can precut your veggies, it will save you a lot of time and hassle later.
They are also great for preparing quick side dishes, stir-fries, and desserts. You can even get pre-cut vegetables and vegetable mixes directly from the grocery store, though they might be a bit more expensive. But, sometimes this is the best way to go if you only need a small amount.
Overview of possible fresh veggies & fruits for your shopping list:
- Leaf Lettuce
- Leafy Greens like Spinach
- White Sweet Potatoes or Regular Potatoes
- Celery
- Carrots (Baby or Whole)
- Cucumbers or Zuchinni
- Mushrooms
- Green Onions and/or Whole Onions
- Tomatoes (Whole or Cherry)
- Green, Red, Orange or Yellow Peppers
- Apples
- Bananas
- Oranges or Tangerines
- Red or Green Grapes
- Your Favorite Weekly Picks
Pro-Tip: white sweet potatoes can be boiled, baked and mashed. White Sweet Potatoes are packed with lots of vitamins and minerals and are super healthy!
Watch for Sales and Specials on Seasonal Fruits:
- Avocados
- Kiwi
- Watermelon
- Peaches, Plums & Nectarines
- All Kinds of Fresh Berries (Learn the Easy Way to Freeze Berries!)
- Cantaloupe and Honeydew Melons
- In-Store Specials
5. Use Herbs and Spices to Your Advantage
Healthy meals do not have to be boring and bland. There are plenty of dried herbs and spices that can add delicious flavors and aromas to your healthy dishes. The best part is that they are virtually calorie-free and offer several health benefits.
Some good options are cilantro, bay leaves, oregano, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, lemongrass, dill, etc.
Quick Guide to Understanding Different Herbs & Spices
Create or Buy a budget program like Money Saving Worksheets from Victoria Pruett for only $18 to help with meal planning . This is a must-have resource!
6. Find Your ‘Star’ Ingredients
There are some ingredients that are both super healthy and can be smartly used to give life to leftover food. One such ingredient is tahini. You can spread it on sour dough, use it with sautéed vegetables, blend it into hummus or a smoothie or mix it with Greek yogurt to prepare a sauce for fresh vegetable sticks.
Another option is the miso paste. Miso paste is rich in umami flavor and miso soup is really popular among the clean eating community. However the paste can also be used as a salad dressing, for marinading meat, drizzling over vegetables and preparing sandwiches.
It can be stored in the refrigerator and it can last for ages. You can pick an unpasteurized version for added probiotic benefits.
Never heard of Umami, take a look here.
Make sure to have liquid aminos or a non -soy based coconut aminos on hand, too! This is wonderfully simple ingredient that is used in place of soy sauce. This is the main seasoning that is used in my crockpot venison roast. I also will use liquid aminos in my homemade gravy recipe. It adds a little more flavor instead of just planin salt and also adds a nice rich brown color to gravies.
Liquid aminos offers a substitutre for soy sauce and can be used in all types of dishes and even as a salad dressing. Important information on Liquid Aminos.
Just remember that it is salty so only use a 1/4 teaspoon at a time on salads or vegetables!
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To Sum Up
The right mix of foods and some intelligent meal planning can help you pave the way for a healthy lifestyle. Follow these healthy meal planning tips for better and more wholesome meals……remember simple is best!!!