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Meal Planning For Beginners (Meal Plan Template Inside!)

July 30, 2020 by Talia Koren Leave a Comment

Meal planning is one of my all-time favorite weekly routines.

Every Friday, I sit down and follow the exact steps below to create a meal plan for myself and my partner that’s interesting, realistic, full of variety and most importantly, something I look forward to. Without a plan, I just feel lost!

In this post, you’ll learn my step-by-step process for meal planning for beginners. I wish I had a guide like this when I first started! I had to learn all of this the hard way.

What happens when you skip meal planning

I am all for being spontaneous with food when it makes sense. But sometimes it’s more trouble than it’s worth since we do have to eat multiple times per day!

Skipping the meal planning process usually makes life more hectic. Here’s how:

  • You’ll spend a lot more time in the grocery store, wandering aisles, trying to come up with meals on the fly.
  • You’re likely to waste the food you come home with since you had no idea what to do with it in the first place.
  • You’ll probably eat more takeout or bowls of cereal for dinner – which is great if you can afford it or feel great eating cereal for dinner every day (hey, no judgment!) but that’s not the case for most of us.
  • And you will always have to come up with meal ideas every day, which takes a lot of mental energy on top of everything else we have to worry about.

This is why meal planning, while not sexy, is a form of self-care. You’re taking care of future you by getting ahead of all the stress that comes with figuring out what to buy, cook and eat every day. You’re also saving money and reducing food waste in the process!

It’s also why meal planning isn’t just a thing dieters do. As you probably know, Workweek Lunch doesn’t support intentional weight loss and everything we talk about here is to help people like you create a system around food to get more out of life.

Are you ready to make a meal plan step-by-step? These steps will work if you’re meal planning for one or more! Let’s do it together.

What's In This Post

  • Meal Planning For Beginners In 6 Steps
  • How To Use Our Meal Planning Template
  • More Meal Planning For Beginners Tips
  • Let Us Plan Your Meals

Meal Planning For Beginners In 6 Steps

Click here to download our free meal planning template!

Step One: Look At Your Calendar

Since our schedules can change every week, it’s important to look at the week ahead and see what you have planned already. Do you have any work meals, dinner dates or happy hours to plan around?

Maybe you don’t have set plans yet, but are you the kind of person that randomly gets together with people on weeknights? If yes, anticipate that! If you know you might eat out a few times after work, don’t plan too many dinners at home.

Or maybe you’re not social, but do enjoy takeout during the week. It’s so important to not plan EVERY meal. Leave some of the meals open so you can be spontaneous or avoid over-planning if something comes up.

I recommend only planning meals for Monday-Friday when we’re busier with work or school. It’s better to leave weekends open!

Do: plan meals you always struggle to come up with ideas for.

Don’t: plan every meal.

Do: plan around your social schedule.

Don’t: try to make your social schedule fit your meal plan.

The goal here is to count the exact number of meals you need for the next week. Without this information, you won’t know how many servings you’ll need or how much food to buy.

calendar on a desk

Step Two: Check Your Pantry/Freezer

While you could jump right to finding recipes for your meal plan, let’s save some money, shall we? This step is super important if you’re making a meal plan on a budget.

related: How To Make A Food Budget

Shop your pantry and freezer first to use up what you already have. That way, you’ll spend less on food and save money on your next grocery trip.

If you have a lot of canned beans, make a note to look up recipes that will utilize them. If you have a lot of pasta, guess what? Pasta meals are always perfect for the workweek. Did you find some frozen ground turkey in the back of your freezer? That’s a great protein to use in all kinds of meals.

Doing this also helps you avoid buying stuff you already have (that’s the worst!).

Need some ideas to get started?

  • 18 No-Reheat Meal Prep Recipes
  • 6 No-Cook Chickpea Recipes
  • 10 One-Pan Dinner Ideas

Action step: pick 3 items from your pantry or freezer stash to use in your meal plan.

pantry storage containers

Step Three: Choose Recipes

This part of the meal planning process is the most fun, but also takes the longest. It’s easy to fall down a Pinterest rabbit hole and before you know it, you’ve spent 3 hours looking at decorative fruit pies.

What recipes to choose largely comes down to your lifestyle. I love meal prepping, but you can totally make a meal plan even if you DON’T meal prep! Or, you can do a mix of both meal prepping (like just meal prepping breakfasts) and making one-off meals for dinner and eating leftovers for lunch.

If you’re meal prepping…

You want to choose big batch meals that will hold up in the fridge for a few days or freeze well.

Good thing we got you covered there! We have lots of free recipes tested for meal prep here and over 450 in the WWL Meal Prep Program for members.

The basic/best meals to prep are stews, chilis, pasta dishes, curries, sheet pan meals, stir frys, burrito bowls, enchiladas and casseroles. You really can’t go wrong with these kinds of meals! Alternatively, salads, wraps and no-reheat meals can work too, of course, they just need a little more attention and care in the fridge.

If you’re not meal prepping…

Plan meals you can make in 30 minutes or less on weeknights, or meals you can throw in the slow cooker in the morning and enjoy when you’re done with work.

Stuck trying to come up with good meal ideas? My favorite way to come up with meal ideas to get inspired by takeout. What would you normally get at your local takeout/delivery spots? I can guarantee that there’s a free, easy recipe for it online.

General tips for choosing recipes:

Do: choose recipes you’ll actually enjoy.

Don’t: plan too many complex meals with ingredients you’re not sure you can find at your store.

Do: discuss meals with your partner or anyone you’re cooking for while you search.

Don’t: choose meals based on how “healthy” they are because honestly if you’re cooking at home, chances are it will be healthier than what you’d normally get for takeout or at a restaurant. It’s hard to look forward to bland, boring “healthy” meals.

Step Four: Plug Recipes/Meals Into Your Planner

Got your recipes? Great. Now it’s time to plug them into your planner. You can use our free meal planning template for beginners here, or do with pen and paper!

This is pretty straightforward – just write in the meals you plan to eat on the day/time you want to eat them!

An important reminder: you don’t have to stick to your meal plan like glue. Plugging in meals is more about making sure you’ve chosen enough meals with enough variety for you and less about deciding what exact thing to eat when. It’s more about knowing you’re choosing the right amount of meals – not too much where you’ll have too many leftovers, not too little where you’ll be scrambling to figure out food.

meal planning for beginners template grid

Step Five: Make A Grocery List

Alright, we’re almost done. Now, you have your recipes, so now it’s time to make a grocery list!

In our free meal planning template, we have a section for you to write it.

I keep my meal plan and grocery list in Google Sheets because I can work on it on my laptop and it automatically syncs to my phone. That way, I can never forget my grocery list (unless I leave the house without my phone – highly unlikely).

To make your grocery list, look at the ingredients of the recipes you chose for the week and write them down.

Pro tip: Before you shop, check your pantry to make sure you’re not doubling up on anything you already have! I’ve come home with a brand new bottle of a sauce I thought I didn’t have, only to see one just barely used in my fridge when I got home from the store. Not fun.

Step Six: Go Shopping!

And you’re done. You have your plan, you have your list, it’s time to shop. You did it! Now you don’t have to think about food for a while. Your brain deserves a break!

I hope you found these meal planning for beginners tips helpful.

How To Use Our Meal Planning Template

If you haven’t already, grab our free meal planning for beginners template here. You can follow the steps above to fill it in!

The template is an Excel file (all good plans start wit ha spreadsheet IMO). You can either use it in Excel or download it in Google Drive to use it the way I do – in Google Sheets.

I’ve used the same Google Sheet meal planner since 2015! I simply delete the meals from the previous week and give myself a fresh start every week. It’s seriously something I look forward to doing on Fridays.

More Meal Planning For Beginners Tips

  • Know that your plan will change every week. Every week you do this, you can learn what to do better in the future.
  • It might not always play out exactly the way you planned it. That doesn’t mean you should stop or that you failed! That’s just life.
  • If you’re cooking for other people, always review the plan with them and include them in the process (if they want to be included).
  • When you get stuck on meal ideas, ask your SO what sounds good to them or think about what you like to order at your favorite restaurants.
  • If planning a whole week of meals is too overwhelming, start with just planning breakfasts.
  • Don’t forget that you can include snacks and desserts in your meal plan if you want to!
  • There is no perfect one-size fits all meal plan.

Let Us Plan Your Meals

Does this seem like a lot of work to do every week? It definitely is and I don’t blame you if you don’t see yourself making a full plan each week.

That’s where we can help! 

The Workweek Lunch Meal Prep Program provides a new meal plan with recipes and a grocery list every week so you never get bored or have to spend hours searching for recipes. Each plan comes with 14-15 planned meals to avoid over-planning and leave plenty of space for spontaneity.

Our membership includes our customizable meal planning tool so you can even build your own meal plans with our recipes (we have over 450).

Start a free trial here! Again, this is perfect if you don’t have time to meal plan yourself, but know it’s super important.

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Workweek Lunch | Talia Koren
Yes, it’s definitely easier said than done but t Yes, it’s definitely easier said than done but this is basically it. 👇🏼
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It seems counterintuitive but the answer to binge eating isn’t more restriction.
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Restriction is generally what fuels binge eating a good amount of time, although not always. This post is meant to address binge eating as a result of restriction, not Binge Eating Disorder. Just to make that clear!
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And I’m sending compassion and virtual hugs to anyone who is currently dealing with binge eating in any form.
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I used to try so hard to avoid chocolate, peanut m&ms (my fave), bread, pasta, cereal and sweets in general by not having them in the house. But guess what I used to think about ALL THE TIME? All the foods I restricted. And when I had an opportunity to eat them, I ate A LOT of them because I thought it was my last chance. Which led to more guilt and more restriction followed by, you guessed it! More binge eating. It’s such a rollercoaster.
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I started making peace with these foods by buying them for the house one at a time until I felt more in control around them. Until I forgot they were even there. Restriction gives food power over us. Permission does the opposite.
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Now I hardly ever binge eat thanks to incorporating all the foods I like into my daily/weekly eating routine AND eating regularly throughout the day, which is why I don’t get ravenous at night. It took time but I feel a lot better.
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Where are you in your journey when it comes to this? What are steps you’re taking/you’ve taken to help make peace with your binge foods?
It feels like a year went by since we put out last It feels like a year went by since we put out last Wednesday’s new meal plan. 😅
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It’s been a crazy and stressful time to be alive yeah? If this week you noticed a change in your appetite caused by stress - that’s NORMAL. Do your best to roll with it and practice self compassion. And maybe cooking can be a good distraction while also giving you an chance to take care of your future self.
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👈🏼Swipe through to see what we have featured this week in the WWL Program for members!
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👍🏼All of these recipes are either new or freshly updated! Lots to try, and if these don’t inspire you, we have HUNDREDS of meal prep recipes to choose from. You can create your own meal plans in our program! Yay flexibility!
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👇🏼We have:
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🍯Honey Dijon Salmon Greens & Orzo Bowls
(Vegan alt: Everything Tofu)
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🥦Teriyaki Turkey Meatballs
(Vegan alt: Chickpea balls)
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🥕Sheet Pan Veggie Soup (vegan)
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🍓Berry Parfaits with Homemade Granola
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🧇Nut Butter & Jelly Waffles!
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❓Which are you excited to try? Share below!
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🙌🏼And if you want to dive in with this plan and our recipes, planning tools and private community, sign up for the WWL Program in my bio link! Can’t wait to see you inside and help you have a little less stress in your life.
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Photos and recipes by me and @pinkleme, our assistant recipe developer, meal plan production by @alyssalash28
This weekend’s prep was super fun and fairly eas This weekend’s prep was super fun and fairly easy! I still had plenty of time this weekend to enjoy the farmer’s market, watch movies with my partner, finish an audiobook and do some deep cleaning.
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👈🏼Swipe left to see the cost breakdown of what I spent on groceries this week. We consistently spend the most on produce each week thanks to having a stocked pantry!
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👇🏼MEALS
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BTW most of these might not end up in the WWL Program - more on that later! But I hope they give you some good inspiration.
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🥑Mission-Inspired Burrito Bowls with avocado, crema and pico de gallo on the side! I made the tastiest carne asada for this recipe in my cast-iron.
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🥦🧀Broccoli cheddar soup!
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🌯Roasted sweet potato and chickpea wraps with avocado, kale and radishes. These are meant to be eaten cold or room temp,
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🫐Homemade Granola Parfaits! These are coming to WWL tomorrow for members - learn more in my bio link. Yes, the granola did get soft but I didn’t mind!
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🍿Snacks: celery, homemade hummus, grapes and homemade popcorn.
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📆All of these meals will be eaten by Thursday! We reheat them in the microwave as needed.
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🤷🏻‍♀️I don’t know the calories because I don’t count!
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😍Feels so good to be back into a regular work/prep routine after the holidays and I’m super motivated by our personal financial goals for 2021 to keep going.
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❓Got questions about this prep? Drop them below!
When I stopped dieting (restricting food to be the When I stopped dieting (restricting food to be the smallest version of me) my world opened up.
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✨It was like all of the sudden I had the time and mental energy to focus on other things like side hustling, dating, planning my move to Colorado, exploring NYC with my friends more and reading more. Oh and learning how to cook with regular butter and flour. 👩🏻‍🍳That’s what I remember about that season of my life. I can’t believe how much time I used to spend in the gym, counting calories and generally avoiding social situations where there would be food  that was outside of my control. And the stress!! All that stress and guilt probably did more harm than what I was eating.
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✨Over the weekend I received more DMs than usual about my food choices and how I “balance” certain things I eat. The truth is I don’t think about it that much anymore. It’s taken years to get here but I can trust my body and thanks to cooking, it’s not a challenge for me to incorporate a variety of health-promoting AND flavorful ingredients.
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✨It’s hard to be fully present when our minds are cluttered with thoughts around food based in guilt and fear (thanks to diet culture). Health is important. But is the focus on it holding us back from actually just living?? We all end up in the same place - I know that’s morbid but it’s true.
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✨Something to think about: does the way you think about food serve you or hold you back? No judgement no matter where you are in your journey.
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✨And if you find the diet mentality helps you or is positive, I’m not here trying to change your mind. My aim is to help folks who may be ready to explore new ways to think about food outside of what’s “good” or “bad.”
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✨This mentality switch doesn’t happen overnight! But I hope this post helps you become more aware of how you think about food. Always come from a place of curiosity when it comes to your relationship with food, not judgement.
Here are mine, what are yours? 👇🏼👇🏼 . Here are mine, what are yours? 👇🏼👇🏼
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🙏🏼I hope if you’re stuck on what to make for the week, this can give you some inspiration.
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🙌🏼These are all easy, versatile and the types of meals I make when I need a break from recipe development - which sometimes requires me (and my assistant developer) to eat food we aren’t necessarily in the mood for. It’s part of the job!
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Stay tuned in stories to watch my meal prep session go down today!! Looking forward to this week already... hoping it’s better than the first week of 2021 🙏🏼
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RECIPES for these meals can be found in the WWL Program for members (except for the freezer preps - they’re not ready yet). Learn more about our weekly flexible meal plans, recipes and grocery lists in my bio link! You can jump in on a free trial before you commit.
Last Saturday I prepped 32 dinners for the freezer Last Saturday I prepped 32 dinners for the freezer and we cracked into a few of them this week! 😅Here’s how the freezer prep stir fry went down.👇🏼
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🥦I froze chopped chicken in soy sauce and honey (a very easy stir fry sauce), along with bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, garlic and ginger.
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😮You’re SUPPOSED to blanch veggies (flash cook them in boiling water) prior to freezing, but I didn’t. And it was fine.
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⏰We took the stir fry bag out of the freezer and put it in the fridge at 12pm and cooked at 6pm that day. So the ingredients were partially frozen. I think that’s why I overcooked my chicken - I thought it was more frozen than it was. This takes practice!
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🍜We cooked noodles on the side (my partner is obsessed with noodles) to go with this meal.
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👩🏻‍🍳Was it the best stir fry I ever had? No, mostly because of my chicken mistake. But it was still WAY better than the stir fries I tried to make when I first learned how to cook. And I’m excited to eat it again in a few weeks since we have another batch waiting for us in the freezer!
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🤷🏻‍♀️Also - we got 3 servings out of this. Not 2 like I was hoping for. But I’m not complaining! My partner enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day.
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👉🏼You don’t have to use a plastic bag for these freezer meals. As I explained in my previous post about freezer meals, this was our first go at this and I want to make sure we LIKE this method of cooking before investing money into specific reusable bags and containers for this. I’m all for using less plastic. And saving money. And being practical.
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🙏🏼I hope you find my sharing this experience useful! If you can’t prep full meals on the weekend, this method of freezer prep still helps save time, money and mental energy on busy weeknights.
It doesn’t matter how real I try to keep it here It doesn’t matter how real I try to keep it here on IG, it’s impossible to share everything. So this is a reminder that IG content is never the full picture! And perfect eating does. Not. Exist.
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😤Finding balance is soooo hard. And once you find it, something in life changes and you’re thrown off again. Circumstances change. Priorities change. The weather changes. And we can only control so much.
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🌮For me, balance is very much about meal prepping to reduce the stress of figuring out and dealing with every meal while leaving room for spontaneity.
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🗓If you’ve been here for awhile, you know I leave 1/3 of meals in my personal weekly plan open for random meals, takeout, etc.
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👉🏼Even in the WWL Program (more info in my bio link), our meal plans consist of 14-16 out of 21 planned meals per week (that you can change of course!) because planning every meal is unrealistic, miserable and will eventually lead to food waste.
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🍔I even plan around my cravings! If I’m craving a burger on a Tuesday but still have meals to eat that I prepped, I pencil in a burger date with my partner for later in the week. It helps us avoid food waste AND honor cravings. I’m not restricting by not “allowing” myself to eat a burger the moment I want it - I’m being practical and eating the food available to me first and having a burger later. This is a way I’ve built trust around my body and its cravings.
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💕TL/DR: food choices are personal. They’re different for everyone. You know what’s best for you. And You can never know the full story based on one IG post or one meal your friend/family member orders at a restaurant.
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Hope you have a relaxing weekend 🙌🏼
If you’re a member of the WWL Program this brand If you’re a member of the WWL Program this brand new meal plan is waiting for you in your inbox! 💌
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🌮Every week we share new and updated recipes so you never get bored and don’t have to spend too much time searching for meals that will inspire you (and also work for meal prep). I’m so excited for you to try our new curry taco recipe!!
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👉🏼About the WWL Program:
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🙌🏼It’s not a diet or lifestyle or reset or rigid plan. We provide a little structure but ultimately you choose what’s on your plate. The goal is to save you time, money and mental energy while eating homecooked food. NOT weight loss. 👉🏼We don’t even include calories or macros in the recipes.
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🗓Each meal plan we send covers 15/21 meals for the week. We leave meals open for you to move things around - also planning every meal for every day is miserable and unrealistic. So we don’t recommend it.
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✏️You can make your OWN custom meal plans and change the one we send out with our meal planning tools that work well on mobile, tablet and desktop.
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🍏A grocery list that you can change and email to yourself will automatically generate no matter how you change the meal plans making the process super fast and easy.
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👯‍♀️Lastly, we have an incredible private community for members that’s completely safe for those in eating disorder recovery. We just talk about meal prep and cooking, not dieting/restriction/weight loss etc. it’s pretty amazing!
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🔗Join today in my bio link! We offer a 7 day free trial and discounted long term memberships if you’re not into subscriptions.
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❓Got questions about this plan or the WWL Program? Drop them below!
Who here has been personally victimized by diet ad Who here has been personally victimized by diet ads in the last few weeks? 🙋‍♀️
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I've seen them on my feeds for intermittent fasting, keto, whole30 and more.
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Seeing these ads only adds fuel to the fire of wanting to overhaul everything in the new year, especially the way we eat and move.
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I'm here to tell you right now: there's absolutely nothing you *need* to fix about the way you eat and move right now.
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Overhauling doesn't work anyway. Too many changes at once lands you right back to where ou started in a few weeks or days.
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Instead, let's continue eating "normally" whatever that looks like for you. And if there's anything you want to adjust so you can feel better on the inside (feel more awake, feel more energized, feel more satisfied etc) do it in baby steps. Maybe that means actually eating breakfast in the morning. Maybe it means ending work 15 minutes early to get a satisfying dinner ready to go.
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Be realistic.
Be compassionate with yourself.
Lower the stakes.
Lower your expectations.
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I need to hear this advice too! I'm still struggling to get into a workout routine that feels doable. My sleep schedule is a mess. I have no idea how to relax properly. Luckily with meal prep, the way I eat is very consistent. 
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We already have enough stress on our plates with the new year and getting back into work and school. Eat the way you normally eat because we all have bigger fish to fry in 2021 than trying to arbitrarily shrink our bodies to meet today's insane beauty standards.
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