Meal Planning

Anyone who has gone to the grocery store for six items and walked out with twenty already understands why making a shopping list saves money on the grocery budget.

Planning the meals before you make out the shopping list is the best way to insure you get home with what you need, and also helps you arrange a variety of tastes and colors to avoid boredom in what goes on the table.

So if it's such a good idea, why isn't everyone already doing it? We believe it's a decision thing. The number one step in Meal Planning is to DECIDE to do it.

We can give you reasons to make that decision. We can give you team support, and suggestions, and examples, and a host of links to other websites to find the one that matches your needs, but we cannot make your decision for you. That one you have to do for yourself.

You can do a quick exercise right now. Pull out a sheet of paper and fold it in half, then fold it in half again to divide it into four pieces. You can just drawing lines in the folds, or you can actually cut the pieces apart, it doesn't matter.

Now let's use each piece to make a meal plan for one day.

In our culture , meals tend to be constructed around the protein item (chicken, pork, beef, fish, lamb, beans, or cheese). The protein item isn't necessarily going to be the largest portion on the plate, but we do tend to build everything else around it for the meal's flavor and color appeal.

When each block of paper has a protein item, add one or two vegetable items and a fruit item. This is your chance to play with color. I like to have something green with every main meal, though sometimes that's just a little lettuce or spinach salad. Adding a second vegetable that is NOT green gives the plate an appeal. There are plenty of yellow and red vegetables to choose from (squashes, potatoes, corn, beets, carrots, and more).

Now add a fruit item to each meal -- anything from applesauce to slices of apple, peach, apricot, orange, pineapple, melon, or one of the berries. Fresh fruit is not always available at a reasonable price so don't forget to check out the canned and frozen varieties.

Add a slice of whole grain bread, and you have four complete meals planned.

Congratulations! Now you can use these same four meals to start a shopping list, and you're on your way to solving the hardest job in the kitchen.

Next: See a list of "First Step" methods our members tell us is working for them.