The magic of meal planning

By Dorothy Miles

There are lots of reasons why meal planning is a good habit to start this New Year. For many of us, the idea of meal planning has connotations of weight loss or a diet plan. It conjures up visions of weekends filled with meal prep and lots of Tupper-wares filled with pre-portioned meals to see you through a week of healthy eating. There’s no doubt that meal planning can be a really useful tool if you’re trying to shift some weight, but there are lots of other reasons why it can be a fantastic habit to start:

1. Fewer trips to the shops

This is something that we’re all mindful of these days. Popping into the supermarket on your way home from work doesn’t really fit our lifestyle anymore, so planning ahead can help you avoid unnecessary trips.

2. Less food waste

How many times have you found yourself throwing out some veg or meat because it’s past its best and you didn’t get round to using it. Food waste is something we should all be working hard to stop and meal planning can be the way to do it.

How do I start meal planning?

Beginning to make a meal plan begins with the important question: What do you fancy to eat? Pick one or two dishes that you really fancy then build the rest of your shopping list around the ingredients from those dishes.

I like to begin my meal plans from Friday, doing my planning on Thursday nights and then my shop on Friday after work. I love the feeling of going into the weekend knowing that my fridge is stocked full of delicious things that I’m excited to eat. Plus, over the weekend you’re more likely to have a little extra time on your hands to do some investment cooking: dishes that take a bit more time and effort that will leave you with some killer leftovers for future dinners and weekday lunches.

Leftovers are your friend

Never put excess food in the bin! Not only are you throwing away money, but you’re also throwing away so many delicious possibilities, especially for making tasty lunches. Leftovers doesn’t just refer to the bits of a meal you don’t eat, but also the ingredients that you have leftover from making a recipe. For example, I really fancied coleslaw this week so I’ve got a cabbage on my shopping list. All that means is that I need to find a couple of other recipes that use my cabbage! Thinking about your ingredients like this can really help you add some variety to your weeknight meals as you have to get creative.

Now I’ve got my meal plan, it’s onto the shopping list. I go through each dish and all of the ingredients I’ll need, mentally crossing off the things I know I already have in my cupboards and jotting down everything else, along with the weekly staples such as bread, cheese, milk, fruit, teabags and other such sundries.

Here’s my shopping list for two people for a week:

• 1 whole free-range chicken 
• 12 eggs
• 2 x ciabatta rolls (or burger buns)
• Lettuce
• 1kg carrots
• 1 small red cabbage
• Pack of 6 sausages
• Red onions
• Spinach
• Dried puy lentils
• Potatoes
• Large cauliflower
• Cheddar cheese
• Small pot cream
• Frozen prawns
• Corianderr
• Lime
• Lemon
• Cucumber
• Bread
• Ham
• Bananas
• Apples
• Satsumas
• Yogurts
• Cereal
• Tea bags
• Fruit juice
• Milk
• Tomato puree

Chicken Burger with Homemade Coleslaw

Serves 2

• 1/3 small red cabbage
• 1 carrot
• ½ red onion
• 2 dessert spoons mayo
• 2 free range skinless chicken breasts
• 1 egg
• 60ml milk
• 60g cornflour
• 60g plain flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• Sunflower oil
• Siracha sauce
• Mayo
• Lettuce
• Gherkins

Six minutes, then turn to reveal a golden crust. Six minutes more, then out of the oil and onto a plate to rest. Check the chicken is cooked through using a digital meat probe (it should read 74) or a skewer in the thickest part to check the juices are clear.

I pop the ciabatta rolls into the oven to warm for a couple of minutes, thinly slice some gherkins – you can’t have a burger without gherkins – and shred some lettuce.

To make the sauce – arguably the most important part of a burger – I squirt 1 tbsp siracha into a small bowl and 2 dessert spoons mayo and mix them together.

Sauce goes first, slathered onto the warm, crisp bread. Then lettuce and gherkin and finally the crunchy, succulent chicken. I press the lid down firmly so that the spicy mayo squelches out the edge and begins to leak down the side.

I pour a beer and settle down on the sofa for a box set binge whilst I devour my burger. Happy Friday!