Weekly Menu Planning - Healthy Foods Instead of Fast Food

Is going through the drive through of one of your local fast food restaurants becoming a way of life for you? Do you wish you had more time to pack your lunch daily or prepare a good meal for your family at night?

Well, you can do both, and it won't take all day. One of the best ways to prepare your lunch daily and your dinners weekly is to plan. A good plan gets you where you want to be. Someone once said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Don't be a failure when it comes to preparing meals for yourself and your family.

Meal planning is a task that can easily become a part of your routine and it will save you time and money. Here's how to get started today.

Take one week at a time. So not to get overwhelmed from the beginning try planning meals for one week at first before tackling 2 week or even monthly meal planning. One week's meals planned and a matching grocery list will have you on your way to great homemade meals in no time.

Make out a menu. That's right, sit down with a pen and paper make columns and rows and write out meals for each meal for everyday of the week. You know muffins for breakfast, a green salad for lunch, a hearty beef stew dinner in the crock pot for your evening meal, continue for every day of the week, taking into account busier nights so that you have time to prepare.

Write a coinciding grocery list. Using your meal plan write out a grocery list for the items not already in your pantry. A list saves you the time of wandering the isles trying to remember what you need for your meals for the week.

Stick to it! Living life with a meal plan takes some getting used to, so give it time. You might not accomplish successful meals everyday of the first week, but as time goes by you'll grow to love having a plan set when you are hungry for dinner.

Menu planning really is a popular concept that more and more people are buying into; you can even find programs out there that will plan your meals for you. So, if you hate to plan hire someone to do it for you. Either way, make a plan so that you will have healthy meals every day of the week.