The Pinch of Nom Guide to Meal Planning and Prepping
Meal planning and meal prepping are both golden habits to get yourself into! By taking the time to write out a meal plan that’s built around prep-friendly lunch and dinner ideas, you’ll do your future self a huge favour.
Not only will you be able to stay on track for your slimming goals, you’ll also cut the cost of your food bills and reduce food waste too – that’s a win-win in our book!
If you’ve got a lifestyle where you feel like you’re too busy to eat healthily, this is the article for you! We’ve put all of our top tips in one place so you can get started.
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Tip 1: Pick your meal-planning slot and stick to it
First things first, you’ll want to figure out the best time of the week to write out your meal plan. While our schedule tends to mean that Sunday works out best for us, the perfect time of the week is sure to be different for everyone.
It really doesn’t matter when you write your meal plan, as long as you stick to the habit consistently.
If you’d benefit from a bit of kit to help remind you to plan, our Pinch of Nom Calendar is a handy space to pencil in your meal-planning slot each week.
You’ll want to ask yourself, are you planning dinners, breakfasts and lunches – or just dinners? It’s up to you whether you want to keep things open for your morning and midday meal slots.
We prefer to map out absolutely everything we’re eating, as it’s far easier to keep track of the calories – snacks included!
With a batch of Cheese Palmiers handy, you’ve always got a slimming-friendly savoury bite to munch on at a moment’s notice.
Make sure to check your diary too. If you’ve got lots of events coming up, or some particularly busy days ahead, you might want to note down ‘reheat leftovers’ for those days.
Or you can make sure those are days where you’re prepping something quick and easy, like our Smoked Salmon Spaghetti Carbonara that’s ready in 15 minutes.
Tip 2: Make the most of batch-cooking
Cooking something from scratch every single night is possible, but if you ask us, it’s far nicer to come home to a freezer stocked with batch-cook wonders!
When you’re organising your meal plan, write down a mixture of fresh and batch-cooked meals to keep things as flexible as possible.
Dishes like our Steak and Pepper Pie are ideal for batch-cooking as they freeze and reheat like a dream.
If you’re new to meal-prepping, batch-cooking is a great place to start. It only takes a few hours of effort in the kitchen to set yourself up nicely for the rest of the week with slimming-friendly meals.
You’ll want to use trusty airtight containers to store food in the fridge or freezer. These glass containers from Amazon are our favourite because they’ll go in the microwave, oven and dishwasher too!
For more inspiration, have a scroll through our top 10 batch-cooking recipes here.
Tip 3: Have a good look through your cupboards
Make sure you have a good rifle through the fridge, the freezer and your cupboards before you plan your meals and write your shopping list; they’re bound to be full of inspiration for what to cook next!
If you’ve got a pack of sausages in the fridge and some orzo in the cupboard, it makes sense to rustle up our Herby Sausage Orzo.
You’ll also save money by avoiding buying ingredients you don’t need, and take note of anything fresh that needs using up.
To reduce food waste, make sure to prioritise using fresh fruit or veg sooner. You’ll find more tips in our article on reducing food waste.
It’s always a good idea to throw stray offcuts of vegetables into a saucy dish like our Italian-Style Sausage Stew.
Tip 4: Get creative on leftovers night
When you’re meal planning, make sure you leave a night (or two) per week blank, to use up any leftovers that you might have in the fridge.
You can always mix up the side dishes so that you feel like you’re eating a whole different meal.
If you served a dish with potatoes and veg earlier in the week, try it with some pasta and a variety of different vegetables when you have the leftovers.
Versatile wonders like Creamy Garlic Chicken are perfect for this!
Knowing how to make certain meals go further makes all the difference. We’ve actually filled a blog with 7 different ways to serve Chilli con Carne. There’s also our Chicken Fajitas recipe, where the leftovers can be used to make our Chicken Fajita Pasta later in the week.
Always keep in mind that leftovers make for a quick, satisfying lunchtime option too.
Tip 5: Join our community of meal-plan pros!
It’s always easier to stay on track and stick to a habit when you’re part of a supportive community. Our friendly Pinch of Nom Facebook group is full of seasoned meal-planners and preppers, ready with tips and advice to help you through.
You can tap here to join the conversation around meal-planning, cooking, or just to chit-chat with like-minded foodies.
It’s time to make a start on meal-planning and prepping!
Let us know how your meal-planning journey goes! There’s plenty of inspiration for your meal plan in our Gallery too. You’ll need to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your own photos (we’ve got a step-by-step guide on how to do that just here).
If you liked this article, there’s more where that came from. Explore our blog to browse for recipe ideas, kitchen equipment recommendations, money-saving tips and more.