A Simple Way To Meal Plan

As we hunker down and hide from the Coronavirus taking over our everyday lives, I believe there is one way to survive this disruptive situation - to eat well.

Since we have to eat at home, we might as well cook well, eat good food, and

enjoy the process.

This means being organized and planning for easy, tasty recipes made with fresh, whole foods.

The best way to do this is with a meal plan. Yes, it does take a bit of time, but hey, it keeps dinners interesting, and ensures we eat foods that truly nourish our bodies.

If you follow my simple system of meal planning, I think you will actually find the process enjoyable, and start loving your cooking!

Take some time at the beginning of the week to meal plan. To start, grab your calendar and your recipe books or open your computer. Choose a few recipes that match the amount of time you have each evening to cook.

Once you find a recipe you want to include, write down where the recipe is (which website, or in which cookbook and on what page).

Next, decide on the side dishes you will prepare (why not make all the decisions now?) To make life interesting, plan to eat a variety of foods over the seven days.

Then, make one shopping list for the week. Finally, get out and do your grocery shopping and you are ready!

Place your meal plan on the refrigerator, so the first one home can start to cook

and enjoy a stress-free week! No more thinking about, “What am I going to cook for dinner tonight?”

If you use the Meal Planning Notepads, you can keep the meal plans, and rotate them throughout the year.

The notepads have a specific column for food categories and side dishes to help you do all your thinking and planning quickly.

I've used the weekly meal planning notepad and created a five-day meal plan to help relieve the stress of meal prep during. There are a variety of tasty recipes to keep meals your interesting and, of course, they are easy and yummy.

We start off the week with a terrific teriyaki cod recipe, which is fast and simple.

We switch things up the next night with a curry chicken, cooked with apples and raisins. Since it is autumn and apple season, there is a comforting spiced pork loin served with apple chutney.

Finally, for vegetarian meals, I have included two options. The family-friendly black bean chili is loaded with cheese, salsa and served on a baked potato.

And, there is a spinach-basil pesto pasta served with a spinach salad, topped with strawberries, mushrooms and sweet balsamic vinaigrette.

We finish the weekly meal plan off with an easy gingerbread cake, because we can’t forget dessert!