Life gets busy especially when you are short on time and still want to make nutritious food for your family, that’s why meal planning is a great place to start. I love meal planning because it takes the guesswork out of everything from grocery shopping to meal prep. With these quick and easy tips to help you create a meal plan, you'll be well on your way to saving time and money.
Not sure where to start? I’m sharing four quick and easy tips for creating a meal plan I find helpful and I hope you will too.
Quick and Easy Tips to Help You Create A Meal Plan
One large grocery shop every two weeks is easy with a detailed meal plan. This also helps reduce the amount of food waste and purchasing senseless items.
I inventory what I have and incorporate it into our meal plan. I use my FoodSaver® Vacuum Sealing System to preserve extra food and minimize waste. The clear containers make it easy to know what I have on hand.
Think about multi-purpose meals when planning, for example, a chicken dinner can easily be turned into a chicken spinach and arugula salad with tomatoes and balsamic dressing the next day. Mashed potatoes can repurposed into soup. Leftover veggies are great in a bowl with rice, spinach, and a little hummus the next day. Being creative with your meal planning will help lower food waste and allow for fewer trips to the grocery store.
Purchase Meat In Bulk
This is my favorite tip! One great way to start planning and prepping your meals for the week is to purchase your meat in bulk, and then marinate ahead of time. Using the FoodSaver multi-layer bags and rolls extends the life of food keeping food fresh up to 5X longer and protecting against freezer burn. A no-brainer, right?!
Choose different types of marinades for different meats, based on what meals you want to use them for. With the marinade mode on the FoodSaver, the continuous sucking and releasing of vacuum marinates the meat in about 5-10 minutes vs letting it stand in a marinade for several hours. This is an easy way to start cooking a flavorful meal right after returning home from work or after picking up your kids from school.
A favorite timesaver of mine is sheet pan meals like this herb-roasted chicken with red potatoes and kale recipe. Taking the guesswork out of future meals is a bonus when you buy in bulk. I like to divide the meat by how much we would use at each meal and in seconds, the powerful vacuum sealing system removes air and forms an air-tight seal to lock in freshness.
Food Prep
Intimidated by food prep? Think of the food items you use most during the week and start there.
We go through a lot of fruit and veggies each week from snacks to meals so prepping them ahead of time is a huge time saver for me. I also find that the FoodSaver fresh containers extend the life of my produce, so if I prep these items after I grocery shop they’ll still be delicious by the end of the week.
The little vacuum seal indicator reassures a tight seal that has been achieved and the food is protected. You'll see how it dimples when sealed, that’s all you have to look for. These fresh containers are also microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher, and freezer-safe. I love how crisp our leafy greens are at the end of the week when I use these containers.
Involve the Family
I have a couple of picky eaters in the house so I always involve them in the meal planning. If they add something to the list I know they’re going to eat it. Healthy choices are easier when everyone is involved in the meal-planning process.
Having extra hands to help with the food prep and vacuum sealing is always nice. I’m lucky enough to have the kids help with the chopping while hubby divides the meat into manageable portions. This frees up time to make the staples we use every week. Putting on a batch of rice, beans, or muffins doesn't feel as intimidating on top of cooking a meal.
I can’t say enough about using the FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing Systems when meal planning. It makes bulk purchases easier and the savings are well worth it.
Meal planning is easier than you think and once you start it will quickly become a habit. When you use the FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing System you'll love how food prep and storage becomes simplified. These quick and easy meal plan tips will help you create more time in your day and prep meals quickly.
What's your best meal planning tip?
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of FoodSaver®. All opinions are 100% mine.
14 Comments
I actually have one of these and use it often. So great when we have excess that needs to be saved for later. As far as meal planning goes, well I am just starting to do that lol
I don’t have one of these and wondered how they work. Sounds like it really adds value to your kitchen. I’d love to see it for myself. I often buy beef in bulk and definitely think the Food Saver would be excellent for saving money that way. I’m not great at meal planning yet but I try.
I often buy in large quantities because it’s often the best value, but worry about freezer burn when a repackage to smaller quantities. The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing system is exactly what I need!
So how many of those does he eat per day
This was a great read!
Thank you for the great read!
I like the Foodsaver.
Food saver.. heard of it for a few years now. Definitely nice for food prep and preservation
great tips! Thank you
A Food Saver is something I have been thinking about purchasing. I buy products when on sale and it would be great to help prevent freezer burn.
I purchase meat in bulk when there are great sales.
I’ve never thought about doing a meal plan but it’s such a great way to save money and it also saves me from having to decide what I’m going to make every day (which I hate) plus I always forget to take stuff out of the freezer before hand and then I scramble to figure out what to make. Thanks for the advice!
I need to get myself one of these food savers!
Getting the whole family involved in the process brings everyone together & ensures they will eat what they’ve created!