Meal Planning 101

Last Updated on March 8, 2025 by Christin Gillespie

If you’re looking to elevate your weekly meals, then meal planning is key. In this 101 post, you’ll get all of your meal planning questions answered, like why you should meal plan, the best strategy, useful tips, & a lot more. Also, you’ll be equipped with several healthy vegan recipes, to start your meal planning experience off on a delicious start!

Meal Planning 101 straight-forward tips to succeed

Today, on the blog we’re talking all about meal planning.

You’ve probably heard of meal planning & you know it would make your life easier, but if you’re being honest… you’re probably not doing it, because it’s too overwhelming + takes time.

Fortunately for you, I love to meal plan. Is that crazy? Possibly, but it’s the truth.

For over four years now, I have been meal planning everything that I eat. I know it sounds bizarre, but it’s what I do. If it’s not on my plan, then it’s not going into my body.

Benjamin Franklin said it best, “if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”

So without further ado let’s get into it.

What is Meal Planning?

Meal planning or menu planning, as some call it, is simply the act of making an easy (and doable!) plan for what your household will eat this week. It is the plan you make for buying and making food.

Why Meal Plan?

Less Stress
Save Time
Save Money
Eat Healthy Effortlessly

If you are looking to save time and money, then meal planning is the answer you have been looking for. Do a little work now for a schedule of meals you can enjoy all week or month long!

How you meal plan depends on a variety of factors, including:

The degree to which you like to cook and try new recipes
How organized you want to be with it
The frequency with which you grocery shop
Your household’s taste, and how versatile you are in your eating style

The idea is to simply do what works best for you! It really does not need to be complicated or fancy.

How Do I Get Started Meal Planning?

Check your calendar for the week to see what you have going on and how many nights you’ll be eating at home.
Take a quick inventory of your pantry, fridge, and freezer, to see what you already have on hand that you can make meals out of.
Check out the sales ad for where you shop, and see which sale-priced items you can turn into meals.
Turn to cookbooks, Pinterest, or inspiration of what to add to your weekly menu.
Write down your list of meals for the week – breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Create your grocery list based on your meal plan.
Go to the store and buy what you need for the week.

How Frequently Should I Meal Plan?

It’s completely up to you! Whether you meal plan for one week at a time, biweekly, or once a month. I find the idea of meal planning for an entire month to be very daunting, but if you’re that organized, go for it! I usually plan for the week.

The best way to decide is just to meal plan for as often as you grocery shop. If you’re a person who goes to the store once a week, then meal plan for a week at a time.

6 Super Easy Meal Planning Tips

1. Get Your Family Involved

If you prepare meals for other people, it is important to get their input on what meals to make. Let them know that you intend to get started meal planning, and you’d like to hear some meal ideas they have.
You won’t waste your time, energy, or money making things that no one wants to eat. You’ll also be armed with new ideas. It takes some of the responsibility off of you.
Getting them invested in the process is a way to make your new meal planning routine go more smoothly.
Have your weekly meal plan in a place where everyone can see it. That way you won’t have to answer the “what’s for dinner?” question 5 times a day.

2. Only Prepare One Dinner Per Night

If you have picky eaters in your home stop feeling like you need to cook them a separate meal every night.
If you’re kids or family members are used to eating things found in a cardboard box, remember, they’re people too. Their quality of food and their health is just as important, if not even more important than yours. Also, if you transition them to healthy habits when they’re younger, the process will be a lot simpler versus them adapting to a new eating routine 20 years from now.

3. Cook Once Eat Twice

You don’t have to make a complicated, glamorous meal every night.
Simply double the amount of ingredients for one dinner, then have that same dish for lunch or dinner the next night.
This is a great way to use up what you already have, and take a night off from cooking.

4. Keep a Running List of Meal Ideas

Keeping a list of meal ideas makes meal planning SO much easier! Write your ideas in a notebook, Word document, or in the Notes section of your iPhone.
Periodically, do some research to add to your list. Go to Pinterest for meal ideas you’d like to try. Thumb through your cookbooks, or do some searching on food blogs, and jot down what attracts you.
On your list of meal ideas, include where you saw the recipe so you can refer back to it!

5. Keep Past Meal Plans

Don’t toss your weekly meal plans when you’re done with them! Save them in a folder, binder, notebook, drawer, document, or powerpoint.
When you’re stuck for ideas, referring back to past meal plans will remind you of quick and easy meals you’ve made in the past.
You could even make 12 weekly meal plans, and rotate through them.

6. Incorporate Theme Nights

One of the easiest ways to meal plan is to use theme nights. You could do Meatless Monday, Tacoless Tuesday, Breakfast Wednesdays, Fiesta Friday, and so on.
Or just incorporate a Mexican meal once a week, an Italian meal once a week, a curry dish once a week, etc.
Breaking it down like this just helps you quickly fulfill your ‘quota’ of theme nights.
It also makes planning your weekly menu so much quicker when you have a system!

Where Should I Grocery Shop?

4 Options

1. Buy Local Grown Foods

Be conscious of where your food is grown.
Even if you buy organic at the grocery store, the nutrients start to degrade very quickly.
Instead of going to the grocery store, visit your local farmers market each week, to purchase locally grown foods.
Just be sure you ask if they’re using best practices (no pesticides or chemicals being sprayed on the produce).

2. Grocery Store

I suggest going to your local health foods store.
- Whole Foods, Sprouts, Trader Joes, etc.
A few tips while shopping in a health foods store :
- Not everything in your local health foods store is organic.
- Not everything in your local health foods store is healthy.
  - The bag of gluten-free chips or the package of vegan cookies is not “healthy.”
  - If the nutrition label has more than 5 ingredients in it, then think of other options – get resourceful.
  - If you can’t pronounce the ingredients on the nutrition label, then it shouldn’t be going into your body.
TIP: Keep to the outside ring of the grocery store where the whole, real food is.

3. Online

Thrive Market
- They carry healthy food from top-selling, organic brands at wholesome prices.
Amazon
- You can find better deals on pantry essentials, such as nut or seed butters, superfoods, supplements, etc.

4. CSA

Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects the producer and consumers within the food system more closely by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms.
It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming.
Go to https://www.localharvest.org/ to find a CSA near you.

Healthy Vegan Recipes

As promised, below are a few of the many healthy vegan recipes on my blog!

If you didn’t see what you’re looking for click here!

Final Thoughts

Ok, ok I know that was a lot of information, but I trust that I simplified the process and made it straightforward.

That being said, if you’re not meal planning now is the time.

Do you have questions? Happy to answer ALL of them below!

Xoxo.

Christin.

If you found this Meal Planning 101 post helpful, please leave a review & rating below! I love hearing from you and it helps others learn more about the blog too. Lastly, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, & TikTok for even more deliciousness & wellness tips!