Meal Planning Guide for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know to Plan Like a Pro
Meal Planning
Meal Planning 101
Meal Planning vs. Meal Prepping
The Benefits of Meal Planning
How to Begin Meal Planning
Meal Planning Resources: Tips, Tricks, Tools, and More
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1. Meal Planning 101

Meal planning is only useful for families. Meal planning is a great tool for households of any size, including single-person households.
Meal planning is expensive. No way! Meal planning can absolutely be done on a budget. (Psst—it’ll even save you money ... but we’ll get into that later.)
Meal planning is a ton of work. While it may seem that way at first glance, you’ll find that devoting just a few hours a week to planning and prepping will actually free up tons of time when you need it the most.
Meal planning and ordering in don’t work together. The two work together like peanut butter and jelly! (Speaking of, that would be a great lunch to plan and prep.) In addition to planning the meals you’ll be cooking over the course of one week and repurposing leftovers, you can also set aside days for ordering in so you get the best of both worlds.

2. Meal Planning vs. Meal Prepping


3. The Benefits of Meal Planning

Stick to Your Nutritional Goals with Meal Planning
Whether you’re eating low-carb, low-fat, or gluten-free, meal planning can be used to follow a healthy, balanced diet. Getting essential nutrients becomes super simple when thinking ahead about what to eat, as does having control over exactly what goes into your body. Essentially, meal planning makes it easier to work around dietary restrictions by eliminating last-minute choices made on an empty stomach (historically, not our best!).

Save Time with Meal Planning
Meal planning also helps to free up a ton of time. By devoting just a few hours a week to planning and prepping, you’ll streamline the grocery-shopping process and eliminate last-minute scrambling. Instead of walking down aisle after aisle looking for inspiration, you’ll be able to shop with a purpose because you’ll know exactly what you need before you even set foot in the store.

Save Money with Meal Planning
As you may have guessed, another huge advantage to meal planning is the money you’ll save. Like we just covered above, meal planning allows you to shop with a purpose. When you know exactly what you need to buy, you’ll no longer be wandering grocery aisles grabbing pricey items you don’t need (we’ve all been there). Your shopping trips will be streamlined thanks to thought-out lists with things you’ve got in your fridge or pantry already crossed off. Everything you buy will be put to use and you’ll never have to make a last-minute market dash or expensive takeout order because you’re missing a vital ingredient.

Be sure to check online for store flyers or coupons; you can then plan meals around items that are on sale.
Remember to always take inventory of your fridge, freezer, and pantry before creating a grocery list so you don’t buy things you don’t need.
Make bigger portions and use or repurpose leftovers to stretch your dinnertime dollar.
Buy in bulk if you can. The more experience you have with meal planning, the more you will be able to identify items you can buy in bulk for much less.
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Reduce Food Waste with Meal Planning
Another benefit of meal planning is that it helps reduce food waste. Having a week’s worth of groceries planned out in advance not only eliminates multiple trips to the store, but also leads to less lemon wedges, onion halves, and standalone garlic cloves stranded in your fridge. Plus, meal planning promotes the use of leftovers. All of this helps you create an overall greener footprint.

4. How to Begin Meal Planning
Lay out the goals you hope to achieve from meal planning, whether that’s saving time or money, switching to a certain diet, creating less food waste, looking for variety, or all of the above!
Pick a day of the week that you’ll devote to planning. We like to do this on a Friday for the upcoming week. On whichever day you choose, figure out the number of meals you want to plan for, then select recipes based on your goals. (TIP: Only choose one or two new recipes a week. Sticking to well-loved recipes makes mealtime much less daunting.) (Bonus Tip: Be sure to utilize the HelloFresh recipe archive as a source for hundreds of delicious, chef-crafted recipes!)

Take a look in your fridge, freezer, and pantry to see what you already have. The next day (for us, that’s Saturday), shop for the ingredients you don’t already have.
Consider meal prepping. (We like to do this on Sundays.) Prepping goes hand-in-hand with planning and will free up so much time during your busy week. Your prep can include washing and portioning produce, cooking grains and proteins, and storing everything in airtight bags or containers.
Cook your meals. As we mentioned earlier, you can plan for repurposing leftovers or simply eating them as they are. And then, boom! You’re done.
Evaluate. If one week was particularly hard, examine why and simply refine for next time. You got this!

5. Meal Planning Resources: Tips, Tricks, Tools, and More
Create a weekly meal calendar. Writing down the upcoming week’s recipes will help you stay organized and get you that much more excited about mealtime. Try using a small whiteboard in the kitchen, or just stick a handwritten note on your fridge!
Remember to always give yourself enough time to plan. Carving out a few hours one day each week can keep you from feeling overwhelmed. Leading up to that day, look for inspiration in cookbooks or on your favorite recipe websites.
Combine home-cooked meals with the occasional takeout treat to make things fun and easy. We’re all about pizza night every now and then!
If you can, buy in bulk. Start after a few weeks of meal planning, when you’ve had a chance to consider which items you can buy in larger quantities for much less money.
Combine meal planning with meal prepping. Having mise en place (aka everything in its place) will make cooking an absolute breeze—and make you feel like a fancy chef.


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