Are you experiencing difficulties coming up with what to eat since you’re constantly busy with your online job? Is your perpetual answer to the question: “What do you want to eat?” always “kahit ano?” Do you even forget to eat sometimes as a result?
If so, what you need is a meal plan.
In a nutshell, a meal plan is a weekly menu designed to suit your nutritional needs. It helps you save time and money and gives you more opportunities to eat healthier meals.
Although often associated with people who are dieting or exercising, making a meal plan is something anyone can do, especially those looking to eat healthier meals on a budget.
So, how do you make one? To help you get started, here are some meal planning tips for beginners to follow when making your own.
Make Time to Make Your Plan.
The first step in making a meal plan is carving out time to develop one. It could be after your shift or during the weekend, so long as you have ample time to think.
If it’s your first time making one, you can look for examples of how others made meal plans online. You can base your first plan on theirs, but don’t forget to modify it to suit your needs later on.
Depending on your preferences, you can make plans for the entire month or just one week at a time.
The former takes more time initially since it requires making 4 different weekly plans, but it does set you up for the whole month. The latter is faster to compose and more flexible to changes, but you would have to make a new one every week.
Choose Your Recipes for the Week.
One of the most challenging parts of making a meal plan is selecting which dishes to include. To help you decide, here are some factors you should consider:
Your Budget.
One of the most vital questions you should ask when making a meal plan is how much you have allotted from your budget to buy the ingredients and/or tools you need.
Your available budget should be the first thing you consider before deciding which dishes to add to your plan – especially now that even basic necessities are so expensive.
If payday is still far off, select meals that don’t require expensive ingredients or better yet, those you already have ingredients for at home. Don’t forget to check your cupboards, freezer, and fridge to see what ingredients you already have. This saves money and reduces waste.
How Much Time You Have.
Many healthy meals aren’t made within ten to twenty minutes. And when you’re working at home, you may not have enough time to prepare and cook your meals from scratch.
So when choosing which recipes to include in your meal plan, consider the time you have on hand with which to make them. If you don’t have much time, avoid making meals that require plenty of preparation.
If you want to make these meals regardless, try to make them in advance.
Your Food Preferences.
Eating the same meals everyday can easily make you lose your appetite. So don’t be afraid to include some of your favorite meals so you won’t get tired of following your meal plan.
Are There Any Sales at Your Local Supermarket?
One tip to get the best bang for your buck is to time your purchase for when your local supermarket has a sale. Find recipes you like that match the items on sale so you can get more for less.
Make -and Stick- to Your Grocery List.
Once you’ve finished developing your meal plan, it’s time to go to the grocery and buy your ingredients.
But before you do, you should make a grocery list of all the ingredients to buy. Don’t forget to include how many you need of each and their estimated cost so you know how much money you need to bring to the supermarket.
This way, you can avoid buying unnecessary items and going over your budget.
And if the ingredients you need aren’t available at your local supermarket, you can try looking for them online. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a better deal there.
That said, remember to account for delays in shipping when ordering ingredients online. And once they arrive, either store the ingredients or use them immediately to avoid waste.
It’s Cooking Time!
After finishing your groceries, we’ve arrived at the fun part: cooking your meals.
To help speed up your cooking process, prepare all the ingredients you need for the day’s meals the night before so they’re ready.
And if you have leftovers, refrigerate them so you can eat them again. Remember to consume them within three days to prevent spoilage and waste.
Tara, Kain?
With how busy our working days usually are, having to think about what we should eat is yet another problem we don’t need. That is why most of us often just eat either leftovers or order delivery when faced with this question.
However, constantly doing so is impractical, and in the case of ordering, very expensive as well. But if you have a meal plan, it ceases to be a problem.
Of course, making a meal plan seems daunting at first. But by following the steps outlined above, you can produce your own with little to no trouble soon enough.
If you’re craving opportunities for an online job, Remote Staff is here to satisfy your needs. Our jobs list has many available positions you can apply for, so you won’t run out of opportunities to choose from. Good luck!
