The Template

The meal Plan template

The template is where I start my meal planning. I have written a few articles on this previously, it is such an important aspect for my planning.

The template is the guide you use to help you draw up well balanced weekly meal s. It helps you organise your thoughts and meals and makes feeding fussy eaters just a little easier.

My template changes from time to time, mostly because I enjoy cooking and like experimenting but the basic principle stays the same.

For the last year or so my dinner template has been:

Monday- Vegan (meat-free)

Tuesday – Fish/vegetarian

Wednesday – mince, this includes anything made with ground meat/chicken

Thursday and Friday I alternate between red meat and chicken

The weekends are basically fending for yourself days. If there are leftovers help yourselves otherwise there is cereal or eggs.

This year based around my meal plan I will be making foods from around the world, so each week we will be trying a traditional food from another country or inspired by the flavours of another country.

The template can be made to fit either dinner only or you can add lunches to the plan.

Remember the template is only a suggestion of the main ingredient, what you add to it is what makes your meal memorable.

The template also works if you hate meal planning and prefer to wing it.

You know that Tuesday is fish, so after work, you step into the store, no plan in place. The first thing you need to do is choose your fish, from there you can wander the aisles.

Choosing what you are going to make with the fish that you just chose became easier.

I even know of someone who does not cook at all but eats all meals out, what they did with the template is choose eating places that have specials on those nights. So it’s Spur for Monday, John Dory for Tuesday etc.

While this may work for you, especially if you are single or a couple without children, it may be a little too disorganised for some.

Since I am feeding between 6-8 mouths most nights, I use my template to draw up a complete menu, find my recipes and create my shopping lists.

Here are some links to articles I have previously written on this topic.10 things you need to know about being a working parent and meal planning

How would you use the template?