Deconstructing Meal Planning

When it comes to cooking, one of the most challenging things for many people on special diets to do is to plan a weekly menu. It can be overwhelming. (In fact, even if you’re NOT on a special diet, it’s too much sometimes.) So many restrictions to remember; so many food combinations possible. A lot of people struggle with this.

When creating a menu plan it’s important to remember to vary your food choices from week to week and make sure you’re rotating things, to ensure a broad intake of nutrients while avoiding the foods that cause you digestive trouble. Many people fall into the trap of eating the same things over and over again because a) they know what dishes work and don’t make them sick so they stick to what they know, or b) they are hesitant to venture into the “unknown” and try new things because their cooking skills are limited.

When things are overwhelming, the solution is to “chunk it down”. Just like with any problem we may face, when we take what seems monumental and break it down into its component parts, it becomes much more manageable. No different with meal planning. Despite being fairly organized, it’s become too much for me to have to plan a whole week’s worth of meals, so I'll do 3-4 days at a time and just shop once more each week. I like this better anyway because I’d rather my produce be super fresh than sitting in my fridge all week before I get around to eating it.

So let’s chunk it down and go step by step in creating a meal plan for you!

First: take out a sheet of paper and write the days of the week down the left hand side.

Mon
Tues
Wed
etc.

Next to that add a column for your protein. Feel free to put down whatever you like here. If you don’t eat beef, obviously replace that with something you do eat. If you’re a vegetarian, make it lentils one night, tofu the next, beans and rice the next.

Mon               Chicken
Tues               Beef
Wed               Eggs
Thu                Pork
Fri                  Fish

Next, add a column for a vegetable or 2 that you think goes well with that protein.

Mon               Chicken      Greens beans, cauliflower, carrots
Tues               Beef            Broccoli, green onions
Wed               Eggs            Zucchini, eggplant
Thu                Pork            Butternut squash, sweet potato
Fri                  Fish             Spinach

Then think of a dish that would marry those veggies and protein together nicely.

Mon               Chicken      Greens beans, cauliflower, carrots        
                                          Result: Curry chicken & veg
Tues               Beef            Broccoli, green onions                          
                                          Result: Chinese beef & broccoli
Wed               Eggs            Zucchini, eggplant                                
                                          Result: Veggie frittata w/tomato sauce
Thu                Pork            Butternut squash, sweet potato              
                                          Result: Roasted pork & veggies
Fri                  Fish             Spinach                                                  
                                           Result: Fish & sautéed spinach w/garlic

It really helps to do all this planning at home. If you try to “wing it” and do it at the grocery store in your head, you run the risk of being sidetracked by the overwhelming number of choices there. You’ll probably end up buying random stuff and not being able to put a cohesive meal together. Plus, you will probably end up spending more money than you would have if you had a list and kept to it. So, plan it out at home first. This way you can also take stock in what you already have. Maybe you have some veggies that need to be eaten or herbs or spices you want to use. Start there and build your meals around those things. Sometimes I even plan a dinner around a seasoning. For instance, I have some rosemary plants in my yard that needed trimming, so I pruned them back and dried them out for a few days. What can I do with rosemary? It goes well with lamb, beef, chicken and pork. Let’s say we choose chicken. I chop my dried rosemary really fine, add salt and pepper and sprinkle that mix over both sides of my chicken breasts. I roast them in a 350° F. oven for 30 minutes. And because the oven’s already on, I would roast sweet potatoes and butternut squash together as well beforehand (they take longer than the chicken).

Or maybe I’m in the mood for curry. Do I want green curry or curry powder? Let’s say I want green (big surprise. I’m a lover of all things green). I think chicken and veggies go well with curry. Since a combination of vegetables is nice, I choose cauliflower, carrots, snap peas and red bell pepper to make it colorful and contain a variety of nutrients. I need green curry paste and a can of coconut milk for that and presto, I have dinner. So all that gets written down on my meal planner and after taking stock of what I have (I always have green curry paste in the fridge and about 4-5 cans of coconut milk in my pantry), all I need to buy are the veggies and chicken. This is a super healthy, super quick dinner to make, by the way. If you eat rice, you can make that as a bed for your curry stir fry, or you can buy some ready-made and just reheat it in the microwave. If you don’t eat grains, you can put it on a bed of cauliflower “rice” instead.

Hopefully you see now how simple it can be to put a meal plan together. Don’t stress over it. Use the internet, your cookbooks and this blog for inspiration. Chunk it down into manageable steps, and feel free to email me at apassionforflavor@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Good luck!