I was never a big meal planner (ie. Copy and pasting 7 days of rice and chicken into those square containers), but I’ve been trying to spend less on takeout in general unless I’m out with friends. And honestly, the game changer for me has been only planning a day ahead. I look at my fridge and as long as I can identify meals for the next day’s lunch and dinner, I’m set. If not, then it’s probably time to go to the grocery store. Even then I’ll look at what’s been lurking in my pantry for a while and plan a few meals around it.
I just wanted to share it on this subreddit, hoping maybe it could help another person who swore they’d never convert to any kind of meal planning Endeavour. You don’t have to plan a whole week, just tomorrow.
An easy way to meal plan (if traditional meal planning feels like too much)
byu/UnhappyHighlight6899 inFrugal
Posted by UnhappyHighlight6899
4 Comments
I have a weekly meal planning pad, but you have to be realistic. I literally write “nothing” for one night and pizza every Friday.
I can’t meal plan for a week either. I would also get tired of eating the same two things for a week straight.
I like to make a batch of tuna, egg, pasta or chick pea salad. I mainly have that for lunches. On a sandwich when I get tired of deli meat, on lettuce boats, with crackers. I also tend to batch cook protein, usually whatever is on sale and use that to build meals around it. Grain bowls, tacos, stir fry’s, pastas, etc. Sometimes I do a sheet pan meal, you can easily do only two portions.
I have 1 and 2 cup molds that I use to freeze things that do well in the freezer, soups, stews, sauces. I vacuum seal them and pull out when I want a low effort meal. Sometimes I do a simple sheet pan meal.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/
Also look up the cookbook Piecemeal.
Still do the copy of a half dozen but have multiple different meals in rotation, so each week you batch cook something to eat once or twice a week. More work to start but evens out over time. You do need a large freezer to store dozens of frozen meals.