Meal planning is a beneficial activity. Regardless of the number of people one is cooking for, taking time to sit and plan future meals will save time, effort and money while improving eating habits. Modern times have made people lazier, which essentially affect their feeding habits and in the long haul their general health. Over the weekends most find it more convenient to lounge on the couch and enjoy movie marathons instead of going to the local market to shop.
What most people fail to realize is that, taking one trip to the market over the weekend is easier and more convenient than going to shop for groceries multiple times a week during the working week. If one makes a grocery list and makes a meal plan, the shopping for grocery becomes an even easier task without the stress of coming home in the evenings and staring at the fridge aimlessly wondering what’s for dinner.
Reasons to plan meals
It guarantees healthy eating
Having a menu of the types of food one intends on preparing for the next few days spares one from having to resort to eating takeout or eating out. Most fast foods and restaurants rarely serve nutritious food. Unfortunately after having a busy day and coming home late and tired and too busy to manage to buy groceries, the easiest option is usually ordering a pizza, a cheeseburger or a bucket of chicken. Prepackaged meals are also not healthy. Most TV and microwaved dinners are just as bad seeing as they have already been so over processed that they lose their nutritional value. Meal planning ensures that one avoids these non-nutritious foods and one can instead spend time thinking of well balanced meals and how to prepare them.
It helps one shop more efficiently
Meal planning makes shopping for groceries easier as one already knows what ingredients are necessary in making the day’s meal. This also eliminates the inefficiency of starting to cook only to get stuck in the middle when you realize you have run out of ingredients. Naturally shopping with the help of a pre-planned menu and grocery list eliminates the wastage of groceries.
It helps save more money
Meal planning automatically means one is eating out less and shopping for groceries more efficiently. This saves money and one can go the extra mile to include costs in meal planning. Once one is also sure of what groceries are needed to make a planned meal, then one can also look for places that offer these products at affordable prices.
It ensures that one enjoys variety
Meal planning ensures one gets to enjoy a variety of meals and not get stuck eating the same meal five times in a week. Having a pre-planned menu ensures that one can always enjoy something new. One can choose something different for each day of the week when planning meals. It is also very helpful to plan meals especially when one has very picky children. One can also ask for children and spouses or roommates preferences when meals planning to ensure people enjoy their meals.
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