How to Start Meal Planning

Cooking is the easiest bit.

Editor’s note: Welcome to Truth Be Told, a weekly food and fitness newsletter published by The Whole Truth Foods. This week’s piece is written by Shalini Goyal, a marketing professional with almost three decades of experience. She is also the founder of ‘AMIYAA: What’s Cooking,’ a meal-planning app specially designed for Indian homes.

Shalini and I met in our Truth Seeker’s WhatsApp community group and then at the meetup we hosted at Lodhi Gardens in Delhi. In our conversations, I asked her to write a basic getting-started guide on meal planning for the newsletter. Hope it helps you!

—Samarth Bansal

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Aaj Khane mein kya banana hai? (What should I cook today?)

It's a question that has troubled every household at some point. It pops up at the most inopportune times - getting out of bed, leaving for work, even in the middle of a meeting. For those responsible for meals, it's the most annoying question of all.

In India, it's made more complicated because, for one, as a matter of habit, many families prefer freshly cooked meals, which require time to organise and prep. And two, Indian meals combine sabzi, dal, and some or all of rice, chapati, salad, curd/raita, papad, pickle, and maybe a beverage. This means countless permutations for each meal.

Now this question can't be avoided. And if you leave it to the last moment, you limit your choices and lead to suboptimal (and often unhealthy) meals. So what to do?

The answer: Meal Planning.

You've probably heard about it. It's a simple thing: deciding meals for the coming days.

The goal? Simplifying menu decisions. It saves time, money and resources; prevents food waste, and cuts daily stress. It enables varied, tasty, healthy eating.

Over many years of experimenting and following this process for my family, I have built a six-step process to plan meals. Let me walk you through it.

Step 1: Curate Your Family Menu

Have a handy, accessible list of dishes to choose from. You should have a list—don't rely on memory. Make this list in a notebook, spreadsheet, or an app, whatever is most easily accessible at all times. A few tips:

• Be simple. Add what belongs to your everyday cuisine (and not the fancy stuff you want to eat). Add what can be made with your existing kitchen setup (and not what requires more investment). And add what you love to eat (and not what you wish you ate).

• If you have dietary goals, like, say, eating more protein, add those dishes.

• I like to organise it in sections, like breakfast, snacks, main course, vegetarian and non-vegetarian and desserts etc. 

• Involve everyone you live with in curating this list, so everyone has a sense of menu ownership.

Look, this might seem tedious. Even time-consuming. It does take effort. But it's totally worth it. It goes a long way in saving time going forward.

Step 2: Consolidate Your Recipes

Okay, you know this. All of us who cook love recipes. And we love asking for recipes. But hey, most of these recipes are rarely used. You might screenshot them, bookmark them in your browser, or save them in a YouTube playlist, Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp, but when you really need them, you don't know where to find them.

Recipes, unite!

So gather them all. In one place. And try to cook just one of these many recipes every week to see what works for you. Keep the ones you like; remove those you don't like.

With these two steps, you will have a solid collection of options for your everyday meals.

Now comes what might seem daunting — cooking the food. (Don't worry, it's not.)

Step 3: Decide what to cook/eat for the next meal(s)

You now have a list. Now decide what you want to cook for the next three or four days. It's best to do it on the weekend and plan for the whole week.

Honestly, if your menu list is handy, it won't take you more than 10-15 minutes to plan your meals for the next seven days or so.

And do this yourself. I mean, you can outsource the cooking bit to a cook, but "what to eat" should be your conscious choice. Because nobody else is as invested in or clued into your and your family's preferences.

Remember this: knowing what to cook/eat is more important than knowing how to cook.

From my experience, the process of curating a balanced meal for the coming days looks like this:

First, select your dal, sabzi, rice, or other meal combinations for each meal in the coming days from your menu. Choose based on your preferences and what your schedule permits.

Next, review these planned meals for any gaps, mismatches, resource limitations, or other constraints. Consider factors such as early or late meetings, plans to eat out, guests visiting, or any other commitments.

Finally, refine your meal selections to address any gaps or limitations. For example:

• If some meals or days lack adequate protein or vegetables, incorporate those items into those meals.

• For hectic workdays, opt for the simplest meals, plan to order in or eat out, or prepare a larger quantity of food the day before so leftovers can be enjoyed the following day.

Feel free to repeat your weekly meal plans if they work well for you. One of the best aspects of home cooking is that you can customise your meals and combinations to your liking.

In my household, we happily enjoy rajma-chawal at least once every 2-3 weeks – it's a family favourite, and no one is ever tired of it!

Involve everyone in your family when deciding on the menu!

Step 4: Organise and Shop

With your meal plan for the coming days in hand, it's time to identify the items you need to organise and purchase. Craft a shopping list that includes all the missing ingredients for your planned meals, as well as any additional items you may want to buy.

A well-prepared shopping list is your secret weapon against aimless wandering through grocery store aisles and the temptation to overbuy "just in case." It empowers you to purchase only what you need, in the quantities required, saving you money, time, and precious resources while preventing unnecessary waste.

Step 5: Pre-Prepare and Prep

When you have a clear idea of what you'll be cooking for the next few meals and all the necessary ingredients are readily available, seize the opportunity to get a head start on your prep work.

Prepping involves tasks such as:

• Peeling, cutting, dicing, chopping, or cubing vegetables

• Marinating ingredients

• Soaking, grinding, or boiling dals and chana

• Kneading dough

• Weighing ingredients according to the recipe or calorie chart

Doing this ahead of time means you'll have all your ingredients in a ready-to-cook state, reducing last-minute stress and streamlining your cooking process.

Step 6: Cooking

Everyone wants their food to be tasty, and the cooking stage is where you ensure that your meals are appetising by selecting the right recipes that cater to your taste.

Now let me repeat myself: cooking is the easiest of all kitchen tasks and not as tedious as often perceived. Because once you know what to make, and you have purchased and prepped the ingredients, all that remains is combining them over heat. That's it.

Don't just take my word for it – tune into any cooking channel and observe how the chef effortlessly whips up a recipe.

Their secret? All the crucial groundwork (planning the menu, organising, and prepping) has already been meticulously carried out behind the scenes. That's the magic formula for stress-free, enjoyable cooking.

And that's about it – the essential elements of successful meal planning!

That is all there is to meal planning.

While it may initially seem like a lot of work, meal planning is quite manageable when broken down into these simple steps. As with any new thing, the most challenging part is getting started. So just get started.

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