Menu Planning

Menu Planning

Planning is the key to eating a healthy diet and there are many benefits of meal planning.  I’d highly encourage you to take half an hour  every week to meal plan healthy meals for your family that week.  I prefer to plan my week and review the past week on Sunday evenings. 

Start menu-planning by looking in your freezer, refrigerator  and pantry. 

 Here are many benefits of meal planning;

1. Save money

-You save money by eating at home.

-Planning allows you to look at the sales in your local grocery store circulars. You can choose recipes that incorporate sale items  and fresh produce in season. 

-Build your grocery list around a meal plan,buy only what you need.

Menu planning saves on gas

2.Eat Healthy(Avoid Unhealthy Choices)

-You establish good eating habits for younger children. 

-You have more control over the ingredients in your meals Lowering sodium and saturated fat while increasing fiber in the diet.

3.Less Stress

You don’t have to run to the store, run around your kitchen frantically trying to figure out what to make for dinner, or spend an hour trying to find a great recipe.

Improve Family Relationships

Studies show that the more often families eat together, the more likely children are to do well in school bond with parents and siblings and eat their vegetables.

Makes meal time more joyous. 

4.Save time

After selecting your recipes, make a grocery list. 

You can buy what you need for the entire week without having to make a return trip to the store for forgotten items. Select easy recipes that don't require a lot of prep work. 

5.Add Variety

Families are more likely to eat the same meals over and over if they don’t meal plan and with time it gets boring. 

It's very easy to fall in the trap of eating out  on a regular basis where there's no variety. Choose a theme to help steer you to a particular section of a recipe book or even try different cuisines of the world.  Decorate the house and Set up the table in that theme if you have time.

Menu planning tip,

Begin your cooking with the Picture of the plate in mind🤔🍽. Always remember that vegetables🍠🌽🍆 and fruits 🍇🍎🍉should cover half your plate and the protein🍗🍖🍤 should cover a quarter. The rest of your plate should be grains, preferably whole grains.🍚🍝🍞Planing ahead is key.

Do you plan your menu? What are your best meal planning tips?