If you find yourself scrambling last minute to put balanced, healthy lunches and dinners on the table, you’re not alone! We’ve all been there (well, at least most of us!)
In fact, I’ll confess that to save my own sanity I got creative and developed a weekly meal plan worksheet, and it’s changed everything.
No more frantic runs to the grocery store at rush hour and no more throwing a bunch of snacks together and calling it “dinner.” And, best of all, just the right portions of leftovers when you use a weekly dinner planner.
With my often busy, hectic life, I honestly don’t know what I would do without my weekly meal and snack planner. It’s amazing what a simple little piece of paper can do. I’m not always a very organized person, and this weekly planner helps me keep it together when it comes to healthy cooking and eating.
With sections for daily meals and snacks and a shopping list, it may seem simple, but boy, does this work. For me, this meal planner makes order out of what would otherwise be meal-planning chaos! If you can relate to this, read on …
Why Plan Meals in Advance?
Meal planning is one of the simplest and easiest ways to ensure that you and your family eat nourishing, balanced plant-based foods and don’t get sidetracked by momentary whims.
Meal planning is especially helpful if you're trying to lose weight or need to save money on your food budget. With all the benefits of using a meal-planning diary, it's well worth investing the little bit of extra time it takes to “just plan it.”
Six Benefits of Using a Weekly Meal Planner
1. Meal planning keeps you on track with your dietary goals and provides a record, or a diary, of your eating habits over time.
It’s great to be able to look over my past weeks’ meal plans and see how and where I may have gotten off track and where I need to make adjustments.
2. Perhaps I’m eating too many low-fiber carbs or not enough leafy greens.
The meal planning worksheets make that so obvious. It’s only human to fool ourselves sometimes – what we think we’re eating may not be what we’re actually eating. The meal planning worksheet gives us the facts!
3. Meal planning helps minimize impulse and binge eating.
When you’re regularly enjoying healthy, balanced and varied meals and snacks, your blood sugar is likely to be more stable and you’re much less likely to just grab things “on the go” without regard for quality or quantity.
4. You can save money through meal planning by lessening the odds that you’ll resort to fast or convenience foods.
Let’s face it, cooking at home, even when using fresh, healthy and perhaps organic ingredients is still less costly than relying on pre-packaged and processed foods or eating out.
Also, you'll save money by buying in bulk from discount outlets such as Costco, Sam’s Club or Target, and by taking advantage of what’s on sale at your local grocer or natural foods store.
5. You control the number of leftovers.
When you plan in advance, you get to decide how much food to make and whether you want to have leftovers to eat that same week or perhaps to freeze for future use – or not. No more getting stuck eating the same thing every night!
6. You’ll waste less food by buying just what you need for the week
A win-win for the environment and your wallet.
Meal Planning Basics
Every Sunday, I sit down to figure out my meals and grocery list, and I encourage you to pick a day that works for you and do the same.
Steps to Filling Out a Meal Planner
- First, I look at the recipe index here on Plant-Based Cooking. I might also visit some other plant-based websites and then page through some of my favorite cookbooks.
- I pick out recipes that strike my fancy for whatever reason, or that call for ingredients on sale that week, or that I happen to have on hand and know I want to use up.
- After I’ve selected my recipes, I make a list of all the ingredients I need to get and add them to the “shopping list” section of the weekly meal planning worksheet. It’s so easy to have everything all in one place.
- I like that this planning tool is an entire week on one 8 1/2 x 11" page. You can make notes on the back and keep these for future reference in a notebook or on the fridge.
Get Your Planning On
For more in-depth information on meal planning, please read my article, "Beginner’s Guide to Easy Plant-Based Vegan Meal Planning."
As always, your feedback is appreciated. Is this weekly planner meals worksheet working for you? Do you have any suggestions? Please leave me a message in the comments below with any tips you'd like to share.
Want more of Plant-Based Cooking?
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.
My husband and I are diabetic and we would like to see some recipes. We’ve stopped eating chicken and, of course, meat years ago. We seem to be gaining weight, which is very bad for a diabetic. Please Help, Vivian
Hi Vivian, gaining weight on a plant-based diet is not unheard of, and I suggest you keep a diary of what you and your husband are eating. My guess, without seeing that, is that maybe you are eating too many refined carbs that have added fat, or you haven’t cut down on oils in your diet. Added sugar can be a problem, as well. To really get a handle on it, I would suggest working with a coach, if you can. It doesn’t have to last long, but will get you both on the right path to healing and losing weight.
I would also recommend Dr. Fuhrman’s book, “The End of Diabetes.”
I can direct you to others who are helping people lose weight on a plant-based diet (see the links below), and one of them is the Happy Herbivore. She offers meal plans that stick within a certain calorie count. You may like this approach because your meals are planned for you and keep you on track. I’d also recommend Susan Pierce Thompson’s Bright Line Eating approach, which also helps people stay on target.
It can take a little extra work to make this happen, but I know you can do it as you have the support of each other, and I’m sure it’s a priority for you. Here are the links for you, and best of luck.
Of course, there are a lot of recipes to help guide you on my website, as well, so check them out here: https://www.plantbasedcooking.com/recipes/
Happy Herbivore article:
Meal Plans
Bright Line Eating
All the best,
Diane
Thank you Diane. I think one of the difficult ways to cook is for diabetics. Thank you for the site for the doctors.
Hi Diane,
I am register for your blog and I love it. I would like a copy of the weelky Meal Planner sheet but I don’t know where to download it
THanks
Hey Michel, Typically, when you register to receive my newsletter on this Meal Planner post, you would receive it. Since you’re already on my list, send it the planner to your email. 👍