Tips to Master your Meal Planning!

1 – Use the oven or slow cooker to cook your meats & vegetables. By doing so, this can free up time to prepare another meal or snack. Standing over a pot or fry pan in which you have to constantly monitor and stir takes up time in which you could be doing something else. (I rarely use my stove when I meal prep – usually I have the slow cooker, rice cooker and oven all going at the same time). This allows more free time to do other things i.e. put on a load of washing etc…

2 – Grocery shop the day before and chop up all your vegetables and marinate your meats (*optional) and put them in zip lock bags or air tight containers so they are ready to cook the next day.
3 – Unless you have the time, don’t worry about getting too “fancy” with you meals. Go for quick and easy recipes and use variety of herbs and spices to “jazz up” your food.
4 – Select a small variety of fruit & vegetables to go with your meals and re-create them in different ways to make you meals interesting. For example: Zucchini can be roasted, steamed, grated, fried or made into noodles. Same vegetable but can be re-created to different versions. This way you’re not spending too much money on large varieties of vegetables.
5 – Cook and prepare your larger meals first i.e. lunch & dinners.
6 – Select one dish in which you can make multiple variations of. For example: Making a large batch of savoury mince can turn into – Bolognese (just add spices & tin of tomatoes), Shepherds Pie (add mashed sweet potato or pumpkin), Chilli Con-Carne for a mexican dish (add beans, tomatoes & spices)
If you are strict for time on the weekends, make a point to prepare at least 1 or 2 meals. Meals that are you biggest downfall. For example: Prepare your lunches for the week because you tend to buy your lunches most days. Or prepare all your snacks ahead of time to avoid going to vending machine or grabbing a chocolate from your works snack box. Having something prepared is better than having nothing prepared.
Suggested items/equipment to help make you more meal planning efficient and effective:

Air tight containers
Slow Cooker
Rice Cooker
Zip Lock Bags
Marker Pens – to write on your containers or bags (i.e. “Monday – Morning Tea”).

If you’re stuck for ideas on what to cook, check out https://www.foodwise.com.au. Add what ingredients you have and the recipe finder will populate a list of recipes based on the items you have.