Last Friday one of my friends texted me and asked for tips on meal planning. I got embarrassingly excited and sat down on Saturday night to purge my insights to her via email. HUGE Saturday night my friends. I then decided to turn it into a little blog post. So here it is.

Step 1: Ask SL (in your case – your significant other, fiancé, spouse, roommate, cell mate, etc) what they want for dinner that week. When they say, “I dunno…food” then just ask yourself what you want that week. Make you’re weekly menu.

Step 2: Peruse the weekly circular from your local grocery store. I get these in the mail most weeks but occasionally they miss my house so I check it out online. From here, make a list, go shopping and stick to the list!

Step 3: Prep, prep, prep when you get home from the grocery store. Chop veggies, make nut bags (that’s nuts in baggies for those of you with dirty minds) for on-the-go snacks, marinate chicken. Do whatever it is that you inevitably don’t want to do on a weeknight.

On Sundays I like to make something big like a vat of soup or chili or something in the crockpot. SL and I eat it for dinner on Sunday night then I pack the leftovers for weekday lunches at work.

Weekday morning are always super rushed for me so I stick to two different things for breakfast depending on what I’m feeling – a Shakeology shake or hard boiled egg (whites) and a piece of fruit. Shakeology takes about 4 seconds to put together (I love the vegan chocolate with almond milk and fruit) and hard boiled eggs (which I make on Sundays) fit in my pocket to take on the run.

I used to dread doing all of this work on Sunday’s and wished I could just sit on the couch and watch TV but now I really love it. Feeling accomplished and ready to start the week on the right foot is not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

What do you do for prep? Do you prep for the week or just wing it?