The Holistic Series: Meal Planning

Welcome to the Holistic Series!

While The Vocationist is dedicated to building fulfilling careers, we also believe that your holistic wellbeing – how you feel overall in life – directly affects how you feel about your career, your confidence and your ability to take (healthy) risks.

How you nourish, strengthen, rest, plan your finances and relate to the people in your personal life will have a major impact on how you show up at work. The Holistic Series is dedicated to exploring areas of life where you can take action to feel better in life and in work.

I love food! I love cooking! But leaving decisions to the last minute and having to start cooking a meal when you are already starving is no fun.

The solution: MEAL PLANNING.

How to meal plan:

Step 1: Plan out the specific meals you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. 

Step 2: Review the recipes for each meal and check if you already have the ingredients in your fridge / pantry.

Step 3: Make a grocery list of all the items you need.

Step 4: Grocery shopping. 

Step 5: Prep ingredients and make meals.  

Step 6: Store for future enjoyment.

Some of you might be excited by this process, some of you may be horrified. But the following tips are designed to make this process more enjoyable and efficient!

TIP 1: Start with dinner

Dinners are the first meals I plan. These tend to be the most elaborate meals, so I will start with the 4-5 dinners I want to eat in a week.

TIP 2: Select recipes with overlapping ingredients

You choose a recipe for enchilada casserole (yum) that needs cilantro. You know from past experience that cilantro is sold in large quantities – more than you need for one recipe. You also know that many cilantro bunches have died sad and soggy deaths in your fridge because you only used a little bit. BUT – there is hope for the cilantro! You can find another recipe (or two) that call for cilantro. Maybe a nice chicken tortilla soup, or a stir-fry, or a green salad.

Cilantro is just an example here, but you can apply this to carrots, potatoes, proteins, so that you are using one ingredient in a few different dishes. This can help make your groceries more cost efficient, less wasteful and may also lead to discovering delicious new recipes based on shared ingredients.

TIP 3: Use dinner leftovers for lunch

Make enough dinner to have leftovers! Portion your dinners so you can use the leftovers for lunch.

There are two people in my household, so I cook dinners that will yield four portions. Two for dinner and two for lunches the next day. This is another reason way I start planning with dinners – because most lunches, especially weekday lunches – will be dinner leftovers. This reduces the amount of meals you have to cook and plan.

TIP 4: Prep and store your produce to last

When you come home from the grocery store, take care of your produce! If you have ingredients you won’t use right away, ensure they are stored for longevity. Wash them, allow them to air dry on a clean towel, and then store them in a sealed container.

·      Some items, such as herbs, will last longer if they are cleaned, picked on the stem and dried before you store them in the fridge.

·      Other produce, such as carrots and celery, are happiest stored in water (once peeled, cleaned and chopped).

·      Some produce, such as avocados and tomatoes, should live at room temperature, moving to a fridge only to prevent over-ripening.

·      Potatoes, garlic and onions should live in a cool dark place with air flow.

If you have trouble using produce before it spoils, consider frozen foods! Many fruits, vegetables and herbs are available in the freezer aisle. I love to keep frozen peas and corn on hand for occasional inclusion in a soup or casserole. This allows you to take what you need and leave the rest for the next time. 

TIP 5: Maintaining deliciousness when planning / making ahead

While I am a fan of planning and making meals ahead, it is true that not all meals will maintain their deliciousness over several days.

Option #1 for dealing with this is to prep ingredients without making the meal. This way your veggies/herbs/seasonings are ready to go. Prepped ingredients decrease cooking time and also you to eat the meals fresh.

Option #2 is to select a couple meals that do well in the fridge. I find soups and stews are good for this. A soup is often delicious even after a few days in the fridge (or when frozen then thawed). Please do not eat suspiciously old soup, but making a soup on Sunday that can be enjoyed on Wednesday is a delicious investment. **My list of favourite soup recipes is at the bottom of the article.**

TIP 6: Shop and prep on the weekends

Whatever your schedule is, I suggest making a plan and purchasing supplies on your days off. Making meal decisions during less stressful times will simplify life later in the week. It will also decrease the temptation to have food delivered because you have an empty fridge.

TIP 7: Keep a record of your favourite recipes

Have a word document or an email to yourself where you track your favourite recipes. If there are some food blogs you love, favourite them so you know where to turn for inspiration. Or, you could even do the old fashioned route and collect hard copies of your best dinners and snacks in a cookbook binder. If you’ve found a gem of a recipe, make sure you keep track of it digitally or on paper so you can enjoy it again.

Those are my tips for meal prepping! Enjoy!

P.S. As promised – my most favourite soups:

Lemony Chicken and Orzo Soup by Bon Appetit

Greek Red Lentil Soup with Lemon, Rosemary and Feta, originally from the Rebar cookbook

Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup by Gimme Some Oven (one of my go-to food blogs)