Meal planning isn't as daunting as it seems.  With a little bit of effort you can easily have healthy meals prepped for the week.  Here are the steps I personally take when I meal plan each week, that you can use as well.

1.  Write out a list.

First you want to sit down and make a list of what sounds most appealing to you for dinners/meals.  

This will probably depend on the season - salads and cold foods for summer and hot and comforting foods for winter.  Or it could be dependent on the type of cuisine you love.  For me, thats Mexican.  

Write out 4-5 meals and plan to make extra to either freeze or have as leftovers for a snack or lunch.  It's also best for your wallet to come up with meals that are complementary to each other, like making 2 or 3 meals that use brown rice, so you can make a big batches to save time.  When you plan on meals that use similar ingredients, it will save you time in the long run and you aren't buying thousands of ingredients.

Below I've listed out a few examples of complementary meals for a week of meal planning (recipes for these can be found in the detox recipe section and the  of this course)

Mexican/southwestern themed meals for the week:  taco salad, burrito bowls, southwestern stuffed peppers, 5 ingredient Mexican chicken soup, vegetable enchiladas.  

Summer themed meals for the week:  Asian chopped salad, detox salad, kale caesar salad, panzanella salad with roasted chickpeas and santa fe salad with avocado vinaigrette.

Chicken themed meals for the week:  Mediterranean chicken, easy spiced chicken, chicken and carrot stew, cauliflower fiesta bowls, lemon chicken soup.

As you can see, each of these have a theme, and will use similar ingredients.  

Next you want to write out a list of snack options for the week.  

These should be easy and not take too much time to make.  For this detox, a few of my favorite snacks are:

Lindbergh Organic Brown Rice Cakes with almond butter

Carrot sticks with Trader Joes Green Goddess dressing or guacamole 

Celery sticks with almond butter

Chopped tomato, chopped avocado, lime juice and a sprinkle of salt

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These snacks are filling and don't require a ton of ingredients.  

2.  Make your grocery list

Run through the ingredients of your meals and check to see what you have on hand, then write down what you need at the store.  

To make your life so much easier, write out your list in sections, preferably in the order of where things are in the grocery store.  

Make your list in these categories:  produce, meats, dry/canned goods, frozen foods, misc.  This way, as you walk through the store, you can easily find what you need on your list and not miss anything.

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Once you get to the store, be sure you stick to your list.  It's so easy to stray and buy things that look good in the moment, and they're generally not so great for you.  Also be sure not to go to the store on an empty stomach - if you're hungry, chances are you'll reach for that box of Goldfish for a quick snack on the ride home or mindlessly buy something not on your list.

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3.  Prepping the food

Prepping your food should take 1-2 hours, and the more you do it, the easier and faster it will be. 

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Let's say for example we are working with the Mexican themed meals for the week.  Those meals were taco salad, burrito bowls, southwestern stuffed peppers, 5 ingredient Mexican chicken soup and vegetable enchiladas.  

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The taco salad, burrito bowls and enchiladas all will use diced/chopped vegetables, some of which will be the same veggies for multiple meals, like chopped peppers for the enchiladas and the salad, so chop all your veggies, store them in ziplocks or glass Pyrex containers and then just grab what you need as you eat each meal.  The burrito bowls, stuffed peppers and vegetable enchiladas will all use rice, so make a big batch of that to store for the week as well.

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You don't necessarily have to have the meals 100% made and stored, although you can do that as well for even more time saving during the week.  Just as long as things are chopped and prepped will do, and it will be so much faster to whip up a meal.

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I also recommend putting snack fruits and vegetables sliced or chopped into glass containers, so that you can visually see them in the fridge. You'll be more likely to grab that over chips if it's visible AND pre-cut for you.

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4.  Keep a menu

To stay on track all week, post your menu or meal list to your fridge, so you can follow along with that.  

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That's it!  Meal planning doesn't have to be complicated 🙂