Food: The Benefits of a Meal Plan

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The Benefits of a Meal Plan
Saturday, March 04, 2006

Creating a meal plan for your family can be as simple as you would like it to be. You simply will need some organization and the desire to work on your planning on a weekly or monthly basis. I recommend that you begin your meal planning on a weekly basis and move up. Even if you cannot afford the money or space to shop for a month at a time, you would do well to begin planning out the meals on a monthly basis.

First you will need to create a notebook where you will keep your meal plans. If you are going to be planning out meals regularly, then you should keep everything in a single location. You will need a calendar layout for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks. That means that you have five calendars for each month.

You will begin by filling in the squares for each meal. Be sure that you are keeping an eye on what you are having throughout the day. For example, you need to have at least one fruit between your morning meal, snack, and lunch, and you should try to have one to two veggies during those times as well.

When you are planning snacks, they do not have to be elaborate. The point of the snacks is to keep the meal costs reasonable. Snacks also are healthier for you because your body will be getting a constant supply of fuel, leaving you less likely to feel as if you are famished and begin eating uncontrollably. Finally, few people plan for snacking. Instead they plan not to snack and then find that they have eaten the lunchmeat that was planned for their lunch.

Go ahead and assume that everyone in the family will have two snacks a day. You can even pack them to go with Mom and Dad to work. It will give them something to get through the afternoon sluggishness that many people experience and also will save money from vending machine trips. The snacks can be simple, such as 1/2 cup of nuts or string cheese. Going with simple is not expensive and is easier to make happen.

One of the reasons that you should plan is so that you can make sure that you are getting the right combination of groceries. You want to eliminate unnecessary spending from your budget. That means that you need to think in terms of what can be used more than once during the week. Particularly when you are talking about produce, it is important to use the items several times so that you can use up what you buy. For example, if you were getting apples, you could make apple pancakes, sauteed apples, apple pie, and apple chicken rolls. While you probably would not want all of these dishes on the same day, you should think about how you will use all of the apples in the bag before you head to the store.

When you plan your meals, it is easier to cook from scratch. If you stop by the store on your way home from work or just pick up whatever interests you at the store, you are more likely to get convenience foods. That is because they are easy to cook. You can see the box and know that you only need water or a pound of ground beef. No planning is required to cook these meals, so not planning ahead on your menu means that you are likely to spend more and be less healthy because of the way you shop.

Planning out your grocery list also means that you will make fewer side trips. You will not forget the tomato sauce or the pickles or the dressing because you will be working from a list. That means that you will not have to stop by the store several times throughout the week, which will save you time and money. Every time you go to the store, you are tempted to pick up a few new things. By planning, you can avoid this temptation.

The next time you think about skipping the meal planning before you head to the store, just think about your grocery bill. It probably is one place in your budget where you can really trim some fat.

By Julia Mercer

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