MEAL PLANNING

The daily routine can get very busy, leaving little room to plan what’s for dinner. It can be a struggle to find meal ideas that fit within a budget; to please the discerning taste buds of those you live with; or to find motivation if you are cooking for one.

Meal planning is one way to help take the pressure off in the late afternoon, when you are suddenly struck with the question, “what’s for dinner”?  Planning your meals in advance can save you time, money and meal-time stress by helping you buy only what you need, and eat what you buy. Here are our tips for doing it right.

The Pros of Meal Planning

• If you have a rough idea about what you are going to eat in the week, it helps to compile a grocery shopping list. This will help keep the number of visits to the supermarket down and you’re also likely to spend less money over the long term (you know what it’s like when you pop in to the grocery store for just a couple of top up items…).

• Set some time aside each week to buy ingredients, prepare and cook meals. Some people love doing this on a Sunday in preparation for the week ahead. The option of online grocery shopping can ease the stress, taking your time to order ingredients as you meal plan.

• Use low-cost items such as canned legumes, frozen vegetables, herbs and spices. These will help bulk you meals up and provide you lots of fibre and flavour.

• Make sure you have enough containers to store your delicious meals in. Reusable containers work out to be cost effective in the long run and are much better for reducing waste.

• Organise your fridge and freezer space. If you are going to eat the meals within 3 days, you can store your food in the fridge, however any longer, then store  in the freezer. Either way you will need to make space for the yummy meals to come.

• Having a ‘menu’ on display can let the household know in advance what you are having for dinner. This could be a chance to get input from others for meal ideas and share the load of cooking if there are people at home capable of helping out. 

Meal planning is a great way to check that you are getting variety across the week. For example, you can look to see how many meals include lean red meat in a week and see if this aligns with the recommendations (350-500g or around 3 portions of cooked lean red meat per week). It can also provide a structure to try a new recipe. This could be tweaking a favourite, such as substituting or adding some ingredients to bulk up a meal.

Want some help with your meal planning? Sign up to Myrecipes and access our meal planner, save your favourite recipes, and make mealtimes easy!

Putting together a meal

A meal can take on many forms and dinner can often be the one that has the most components. This means piecing together some key tasty ingredients to make a complete, nutritionally balanced meal. As a general rule of thumb, a healthy plate looks like ½ of the plate being non-starchy vegetables (e.g. salad, broccoli, and zucchini), ¼ plate carbohydrate (e.g. rice, pasta, kumara or potato) and ¼ plate protein (e.g. red meat). Our range of beef and lamb recipes do this but if you are ‘winging it’ and want to make your own delicious creation; take a look at the table below for some ideas on how to create a balanced meal.

Choose one item from each of the protein and carbohydrate columns (first and second columns) and at least 2 or 3 from the veges column (last column). 

Serving sizes are based on the Ministry of Health Eating and Activity Guidelines for New Zealand Adults.

A week of meat

The global recommendation is to enjoy 3 portions of lean red meat per week within a total range of 350-500g cooked weight (700-750g raw weight) per person. In other words, a portion is the size and thickness of your palm, or a deck of cards.

Click here to see what a weekly intake may look like. Below is a sample menu of red meat meals you could include in your week.

To achieve variety in the diet, it is a good idea to mix up the days that you have red meat rather than have it on consecutive days.

For these recipes and hundreds of others, go to recipes.co.nz. For extra seasonal vegetable options to have alongside your beef or lamb click here.

Want some help with your meal planning? Sign up to Myrecipes and access our meal planner, save your favourite recipes, and make mealtimes easy!