Zero Waste Meal Plan System Plus A Free Printable
I’ve finally figured it out!
Picture this, it’s time to get the shopping for another busy week and you have no plan. You throw together a shopping list of a few different meats and vegetables, and hope you have the staples still in the cupboards.
Each day dinner time comes round after a busy day and crickets! You have no idea what to cook, you forgot to defrost that meat you’ve been meaning to use up, time is ticking and the kids have club, now you’re late.
This was me! Lol. Dinner time has been my biggest source of stress for so long. I’m simply not that person that can ‘throw something together’ with a pile of ingredients, I wish I was but I’m not. The result being that dinner time would often result in me getting super stressed and sometimes even having a melt down.
Well, I have finally figured out a simple meal planning and record keeping rhythm, that not only takes away my decision fatigue during the week but also helps me keep track of everything so nothing has to go to waste.
It’s so quick and easy but makes all the difference! Hopefully it can help you too. So here goes.
Step 1
Make a list of your family favourite meals.
Top tip! put them in category’s to help later.
Great questions to use for this are:
- Is it a quick and easy dinner?
- Is it a slow cooker dinner?
- Is it a new recipe?
- Is it something that takes a little bit longer to cook?
- Is it something that freezes well?
- Is it something that goes quite far?
- Is it a one pot dinner?
You can also separate your meals based on protein or grains, whatever you will find most helpful.
Step 2
Use ChatGPT to help put together some varied weekly meal plans, that you can use on rotation.
I have put together a free ChatGPT prompt cheat list that yo can access by clicking the link below to subscribe to my email list.
For me, we have a lot of clubs in the week, so I asked ChatGPT to make sure there’s at least one slow cooker meal a week and some quick and easy meals that I can choose from.
I like to to have a mixture of quick and easy meals and plan for about 4 or 5 days. This allows days for take out, left overs or that easy night that you just want to throw a couple of pizzas in the oven.
I also don’t assign days for each meal. This is because every day can be so different, unexpected things can happen, so I like my meal plan to be as flexible as possible.
This is when my free meal plan printable comes in.
Step 3
Use your new meal plan from ChatGPT to make your shopping list.
Make a note of your weekly meals on your meal planner printable.
Step 4
Once you’ve been shopping, go through all of the perishable items, such as meats, vegetables and dairy items and fill in the meal planner with the use by dates.
Now you’re all set for the week. You can easily see at a glance, what meals you have available and when you need to make them by.
Top tip! Make a note on your planner if any meals require something that needs defrosting.
Step 5
Each time you make a meal, make a note of the date on your meal planer.
Simply make sure you use the left overs before they go bad, usually this will be within a few days.
No more wondering if the left overs are any good because you’ve forgotten when you made them.
And there it is. It’s as simple as that! No more buying food and throwing it away because it's gone off in the fridge and you've forgotten about it. No more throwing away leftovers, that could’ve saved you cooking for another night.
Just click here to get access to the free meal planner printable along with the ChatGPT prompt cheat sheet. You’ll also get a cheeky 15% off your first order 😁
Also available right here on my website is this meal planner as a super handy tear off notepad.
I’d absolutely love to hear how you get on, so please DM me over on instagram or tag me in any social media 😀
Happy planning