Save Time & Money
One of the concerns people often have when it comes to cooking and eating healthier is cost and time. Sometimes it might seem like buying pre-made meals or going out is faster, but the cost to your budget and health is huge. The secret to making easy, fast, and healthy meals on a budget begins with three simple steps: menu planning, creating a food budget, and shopping smart.
Menu Planning
Menu planning makes cooking easier and faster because you don’t have to figure out what to cook each day and wonder if you have all the ingredients; you already know. This saves you time and energy because it means you aren’t going to the grocery store every day. Menu planning also saves you money because you know exactly what you need to buy. If you have never menu planned before, use the steps below to get started. After a few weeks of planning, it will become easier and faster.
Once you have three or four weeks of menus planned, you can reuse them making small changes as necessary. Like creating a healthy lifestyle, there is no one right way to menu plan. The steps below help you to plan every single meal for the week, but maybe you don’t want to do that. Perhaps planning out dinner only and making sure you have healthy breakfast and lunch foods on hand is all you need to do. Maybe it works better to have a variety of foods from each food group available and to pull ingredients together without following a specific recipe. Whatever your method, spending a couple of minutes each week making a plan can simplify the cooking process and cut down on unnecessary costs.
Example Menu Plan
One of the challenges of menu planning is fitting in the recommended amount of each food group every day. Later sections explain the daily recommendations of food groups in more detail, but for now it is important to know that a healthy diet is a balanced diet. Refer to food group introduction sections for serving size equivalents. If you aren’t sure how to balance the food groups, the sample plans below might be helpful. Each plan shows a possible way to fit in all the recommended food groups for one day.
Visit the Example Menu Plans page for more ideas.
Meal Planning Steps |
Check your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator to see what you have on hand. Note what is already prepared and anything you can make from the pantry ingredients. Using the CNP Pantry section is a good way to keep your cupboards and freezer stocked for cooking. |
List out the main dishes for the week. Aim to include foods from several food groups in each meal. Consider the events for each day and the amount of time available for cooking. On busy days, it might be helpful to rely on what is in the freezer, what is leftover, or what can be made quickly. Note the school or senior lunch menu, if necessary. |
Plan snacks to fit in foods you don't get enough of, like fruits and vegetables. |
Check your plan and add any changes to make sure you are getting enough of each food group every day. |
It might also be helpful to plan a physical activity for each day. |
Menu Plan 1 | |
Breakfast | 1 ounce grains + ½ cup fruits |
Snack 1 | 1 ounce grains + 1 cup fruits |
Lunch | 2 ounces grains + 1 cup vegetables + ½ cup fruits + 1 cup dairy + 2½ ounces protein |
Snack 2 | ½ cup vegetables + ½ cup dairy |
Dinner | 2 ounces grains + 1 cup vegetables + 1 cup dairy + 3 ounces protein |
Menu Plan 2 | |
Breakfast | 1 ounce grains + 1 cup dairy + 1 ½ ounces protein |
Snack 1 | 1 cup fruits + ½ cup dairy |
Lunch | 2 ounces grains + 1 cup vegetables + ½ cup dairy + 2 ounces protein |
Snack 2 | 1 ounce grains + ½ cup vegetables |
Dinner | 2 ounces grains + 1 cup vegetables + 1 cup fruits + 1 cup dairy + 2 ounces protein |
Menu Plan 3 | |
Breakfast | 1 cup fruits + 1 cup dairy |
Snack 1 | 1 ounce grains + ½ cup dairy + 1 ½ ounce protein |
Lunch | 2 ounces grains + 1 cup vegetables + 1 cup dairy |
Snack 2 | 1 ounce grains + ½ cup vegetables + ½ cup dairy + 2 ounces protein |
Dinner | 2 ounces grains + 1 cup vegetables + 1 cup fruits + 2 ounces protein |
Leftovers
Leftovers may not seem like a life changing thing. Some people really dislike them, but when it comes to menu planning, saving time, and eating healthy, leftovers are amazing. Leftovers are a good way to decrease food waste, have healthy meals ready for another day, and decrease the amount of time spent cooking. If you and your family will eat leftovers, there are a few tips to help you add them to your meal plan.
- Pay attention to the number of servings a recipe makes and aim to serve one serving per meal per person. If the servings are small, try adding a green salad, vegetable dish, or fruit to the meal instead of eating multiple servings. This will allow you to save leftovers for another day and help you to get your servings of fruits and vegetables for the day.
- Plan to cook larger meals on days when you have time so that leftovers are available on busier days. By preparing a larger meal, you can cook once and eat two or three times. Leftovers make a great lunch later in the week or a fast dinner on busy nights. Building them into your menu plan for the week can help you save time and energy while making sure the food doesn’t go to waste.
- When storing leftovers, label each item with the contents and date originally prepared, then refrigerate or freeze. This method will help you use the oldest leftovers first without having to guess what is inside. Make sure to use freezer safe containers when freezing leftovers to maintain food quality. As a general guideline, refrigerated leftovers can be kept for 3-4 days. Frozen leftovers can be kept for up to three months. It may be helpful to keep a list of what leftovers are in the refrigerator and freezer so you know what is available. Make sure to use the oldest leftovers first so they don’t go bad.
