With food bills rising by 20%, and the average family throwing away £700 worth of food each year, have you made it a New Year’s Resolution to get more organised in the kitchen?  If so, planning your meals is a great place to start.  Not only does it make it easier to buy just the food you need, avoiding impulse shopping and waste, but you’ll also find that you can eat more healthily by planning ahead.  You should also feel more in control, with no more frantic supermarket shopping at 5pm! So here are our top meal planning tips.

Tip 1: Write a list of the family meals everyone likes – that way you can just cook the one meal each evening, saving your time and money on gas/electricity.

Tip 2: If you’re stuck in a rut of the same dinners, resolve to try one new recipe each week, but make it quick and easy to avoid stress.

Tip 3: Consider your family’s schedule for the week.  When will you need a quick meal?  Will everyone need feeding each night?

Tip 4: Plan a suitable meal for each day, ensuring that you have a good balance of protein (eg meats, fish, pulses), carbohydrates (eg potatoes, rice, pasta), and vegetables.  Think about a range of interesting tastes and textures.

Tip 5: Plan in leftovers.  Could you make a roast chicken on Sunday and use the leftovers for risotto on Monday? Could you build in leftovers for lunch the following day?

Tip 6: Go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer.  What is lurking that needs to be eaten up?  Don’t bother buying items you already have.

Tip 7: Once you’ve made your plan, stick it on the fridge!

Tip 8: Use your plan to make your shopping list, adding in household extras.

And if you’d like to make meal planning REALLY easy, why not give Menus4Mums a go?  Find out about our membership plans and start getting organised in the kitchen now!