How to Plan Meals a Week in Advance

There are a number of reasons you may want to plan your meals for the week ahead. Pre-planning healthy meals can help you keep track of calories and stick to a diet plan. Knowing exactly what you and your family will eat can help save time and stress at meal preparation times. You can also save money and stop wasting food by buying only what is needed to make planned meals.

Instructions

• 1

  Print a meal-planning worksheet to start scheduling your meals. If you want to create your own schedule sheet, take a sheet of paper and draw 7 rows for the days of the week and 3 columns to list each day's breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you find it difficult at first to plan several meals in advance, a sheet that only lists each day's dinner can help ease you into the menu-planning process.

• 2

  Check your kitchen for ingredients. If you have ingredients lingering in your refrigerator or pantry, start your planning around these items to ensure they don't go to waste.

• 3

  Write down each day's meals. Whether you're trying to organize and use up food in the house or have new ideas for meals, write down one meal in each space on your sheet.

• 4

  Write a shopping list from your planning sheet. Look over the meals you have listed and figure out what ingredients are needed. Make a list of the items you don't have at home.

• 5

  Choose a day for grocery shopping. Stick to your shopping list and focus only on picking up the ingredients needed for your week of planned meals. You'll cut down on impulse buying and reduce your weekly trips to the store if you pick up a whole week's worth of ingredients in one day.