How to meal plan/take a recipe and make it your meal
So, your dietitian gave you a meal plan, and now how in the heck do you follow this? I know creating meal ideas, taking recipes online, and creating them into meals can be hard. I wanted to walk you through some steps I do from finding recipes to making sure they are full meals and putting the weeks’ worth of ideas together. Let’s dive in!
I always start online for some inspiration on what I want to eat. I try to think about a few things when planning my meals for the week:
What sounds good to me? Cold, hot, comfort, new foods?
I like to eat with the weather sometimes, so I might consider is going to be hot, or cold this week?
How much time do I have to cook this week?
If I have more time, I might be more willing to try something new and cook a bit more
What do I have at home I could use?
Do I have leftovers or something in my pantry/ freezer I can use
Am I going to have to pack my meals for to-go options or am I going to be able to eat at home more?
Online I consider these options, what might be a good leftover meal, what can make extra for leftovers this week if I am busy? These are some of the sites I like to check out:
Pinterest - it has everything type in quick dinners, and casserole meals you will find something
Recipe Runner - easy quick meals, that have yet to fail me.
Allrecipes - I love that I can search by the occasion or ingredient I am looking for.
Tasty - Watching the video on how to make the meal helps me see how the meal “should” come together
Half Baked Harvest - I use this one if I want to feel fancy when I am cooking, the recipes can be a bit more in-depth
I have to be honest here, as an RD even, I am a lazy cook and I don’t love spending time cooking/ meal planning. So, I try to make it as easy as possible. I personally use an app called “Copy Me That” but there are so many recipe planners. “Paprika” is popular as well. Feel free to look around and find a system that will work best for you- it can even be paper!
What I have found helpful with these options are:
Adding recipes on the go when I find something on any site on my phone.
Edit ingredients out like cilantro (yes I don’t like cilantro)
Add recipes to a meal plan within in the app- so I know what I have for the week.
Adding recipes/ individual ingredients to my shopping list that is categorized and easy for me to click off the items as I put them in my cart.
Plus then I have a recipe bank of recipes I liked that I can easily scroll through and add to next week’s meal plan!
When I am looking at recipe’s some things look or just seem easy for the week but they are not a full meal. I put them in my app! Then I look through the recipe and think: what am I missing in this recipe to meet my nutritional needs? Protein, carbs, veggies, fat?
Let’s look at one of my go-to recipes and see how I would make this a full meal:
The ingredients include quinoa (grain), celery (veg), green onion (veg), apple (fruit), pecans (fat), dried cranberries (fruit); and a dressing (fat). But this recipe serving size says 4-6 (*not always accurate but I know it’s not a one-serving size meal). I think to myself one apple and half a cup of veggies are not going to equal my nutritional needs for this meal.
I know I have some fruit, and grains that might be okay. I think I will need some protein, and veggies to round out this meal. I like to grill my chicken, so I use the spices in the recipe for the dressing to flavor my chicken and grill that. Or I could bake it in the oven the same way. Then I toss that chicken into the salad. When I serve the meal, I make sure I have all the options in the salad, added chicken, put over a bed of lettuce, and toss with a bit more dressing to accommodate for the salad and ensure I get my fat sources.
For the week I like to come up with at least 3-4 recipes for dinner/ leftover lunches that I have thought through making sure I am adding all the sources of my meal plan I need. I plan my breakfast ideas separately. I also make sure I have snacks on hand to grab throughout the day. My go-to snacks might be nuts, cheese sticks, crackers, hummus, or popcorn.
When I get home, this is the most important part for me setting up my week to be smooth. I wash and cut all my vegetables, and fruit (if needed). If I need veggies diced for a recipe, I will dice them now so that later in the week I can just toss them in when cooking. As I mentioned I like to grill my meat, so I will often prepare all my meat, season it, and then cook it all so when cooking I am just tossing it in to heat it up and spending less time cooking on busy nights.
Meal planning and looking through recipes can be hard, but I think taking that second to see what parts of your meal plan are in the recipe already and using the spices in the recipe to flavor your meat, or adding a side of veggies or fat to make sure you are meeting your needs. Taking pictures of your food to share with your dietitian can be super helpful to discuss!
Follow along with this blog we want to help find recipes that are fun, and how we can build them out to be fully balanced meals!
Written By: Analeis Masters, MS, RD
Dietitian - ReavealED
