When it comes to meal planning, most blogs and websites suggest cooking one meal, dividing it into portions, and then re-heating them over the next 3 – 5 five days.  As a creature of habit, I sometimes don’t mind this approach.  It’s easy, and at the end of the day, I’m well fed.  Other times however, I find that eating the same thing over and over again can be quite boring, at which point I’m tempted to order in, because, better that than preparing a whole other meal from scratch.

I found myself in this predicament several times, and eventually decided there has to be another approach to meal planning. Sure, that casserole sounded like a good idea on Monday evening, but come Thursday, or Friday, and all of a sudden, not so much.

Initially, I started preparing smaller meals that I can finish over 2 days instead of 5, and then did takeout (or ate out) the rest of the week.  But after a while, that didn’t work either because I was craving more home cooked meals. So, in an attempt to maintain a healthy eating habit with minimum effort, I started snacking on things like carrot sticks, celery dipped in peanut butter, Greek yogurt and honey, and anything else I could find that didn’t require any actual prepping or cooking.

Then one day I looked in my fridge, and had just a couple of carrot sticks left, 1 cooked chicken breast and a small container of about half a cup of cooked rice. Not feeling much like ordering in, I julienned the carrots and sautéed them in a pan with oil, salt and pepper. Then added the rice, tossed them all together, and flavoured it with some soy sauce.  I reheated the chicken breast in the microwave and sliced it into strips. I transferred the rice and carrots to a bowl, topped it with the chicken and added a tiny bit more salt; it was delicious.

That was the start of my new meal planning strategy; rather than prepping a full-on meal, I now prep ingredients instead that I can mix and match into multiple dishes. The key, as always, is to plan ahead.  With just a couple of hours per week, you can have enough ingredients stored away that you can then assemble into a meal in less than 10 minutes.

How you choose to go about this is entirely up to you. To add more variety, I tend to change the ingredients around every week, but my method is always the same.  I typically settle on at least one type of protein (animal or plant based, such as chickpeas or lentils), vegetables (roasted or raw), and up to 2 types of carbohydrates, such as rice, potatoes, quinoa and occasionally, pasta. Once I have each of these prepped, cooked and stored away, it’s quite easy for me to assemble them together at any given moment, at which point, I mix and match the ingredients so that I can have a different meal each time.

Furthermore, I always make sure I have a few key items in my fridge or pantry that can easily be added to make my meals more flavoursome, these include avocados, homemade dressings and condiments, nuts, seeds, fresh and dried fruits and any type of nut butter. Of course, these also make for delicious snacks and breakfast items, so a major time saver all around!

There you have it; a whole new approach to meal planning. Let me know your thoughts, or if you have any questions in the comments below!