3 Baby Steps To Start Meal Planning Like A Master Chef

You must have heard this …

People don’t buy drills because they want a drill.

They buy a drill because they want to put a nail in the wall.

So that they can hang a picture.

Seth Godin goes one step further to really nail it (couldn’t help myself!) by explaining it this way.

We buy a drill to put a nail in the wall.

To hang a picture.

So that we experience the satisfaction of completing a task of making our home beautiful all by ourselves.

That same principle applies to meal planning.

There’s been an explosion of meal planning and meal prep companies in recent years, but they don’t appeal to everyone. Because some of us want to experience the joy of making dinner, from beginning to end. Neither way is right or wrong, simply a matter of preference.

Anything that makes meal planning easier is a good thing, I say.

The advantages of meal planning go further than saving you time and money.

Even though we know this, it can feel like a daunting task to go from empty fridge and empty kitchen cupboards to full-on home chef.

There’s no need to take the leap into meal planning all in one go.

I’ll share with you three tiny steps that will guide you in the right direction.

1 | Stock up on containers

You’ll need these to store your pre-prepared ingredients, leftovers and frozen meals. Buy the best quality you can afford. No-leak containers are essential if you’re going to use them for packed lunches.

You can of course use empty tubs and jars, but make them containers that you’d like to use. That way you’re more likely to use them.

Having food storage on hand, means that you’re all ready for your first meal prep session.

2 | Make three meals

Doing this reinforces the idea that you can pull a meal together.

Feel free to make a trusty favourite or follow the steps from a cookbook.

My next suggestion is that you put two of those meals in the freezer (don’t forget to label it). Those are two meals to defrost on a future day when you have no will or no desire to cook.

3 | Create a recipe bank

Create a record of all the dishes you can make, doesn’t matter if they’re simple. So long as you’d make them and eat them, add it to your list of firm favourites.

This list builds an easy reference guide when you sit down to create your meal plan for the week.

If you don’t have a lot of dishes on the list to start with, then commit to trying out new recipes.

Just one new recipe a week or every two weeks is enough to start with. This will grow over time.

Ready to give meal planning a go? There’s a Weekly Meal Planner in the Free Planner Printable Library. Download yours and start making plans for next week’s nosh.