by Olivia Barrera – Gleaners Nutrition Education Team
Making a meal plan is a sure-fire way to save time and money. The steps and tips below come from a Cooking Matters one-time lesson known as “No More Mealtime Madness”.
The first step in making a meal plan is making a grocery list and the first step in making your list is checking what you already have on-hand! Utilizing pantry staples, such as rice, canned goods, spices, and frozen foods, is a wonderful strategy for saving money and eliminating waste. One of the Cooking Matters core principles is “the most expensive food is the food you waste”. Let’s say I had half a block of sharp cheddar cheese and a container of fat free Greek yogurt in my fridge. I want to use these items up in the week ahead so I must keep them in mind as I’m planning meals. My cupboard is well stocked with spices, and I have a lot of canned beans, brown rice, pasta, and canned tomatoes. I am getting some ideas already and I’m sure you are too! This is the fun part, getting creative to use up the items you already have and choosing meals you like to eat. The first idea I have thought of is a curry stew with chickpeas, garnished by the Greek yogurt. Another meal I have many ingredients for already is a black bean chili. This would be a great use for my cheddar cheese to be shredded over as well as a dollop of Greek yogurt for a high protein, low fat replacement of sour cream.
Once you have checked your own pantry and freezer, you are ready to make your grocery list. When new to meal planning, try to make your list with only one meal in mind for each day to keep the task manageable, that’s what we will do in this blog. Another tip from Cooking Matters is to plan for the meal that is typically the most time-consuming to plan each day. If you tend to have the most difficulty in planning dinners, for example, then try to have a plan for dinner each day as you make your grocery list.
Here are my Dinners for the week:
Photo credit: eatfresh.org
Day 1. Vegetable Stew with Coconut Milk | EatFresh This recipe has the option to interchange the protein source. Chickpeas are the least expensive option, and I have some in my pantry already, so that is what we’ve used. Changing out the protein keeps this recipe fresh and new every time. The stew utilizes sweet potatoes which is also in Day 3’s recipe. Save time on prep and clean-up by peeling and chopping up 4 sweet potatoes on Day 1. The same applies to onion for this recipe, save your tears and cut up 3 onions today to prep for the whole week!
Photo credit: Olivia Barrera 2025
Day 2. Pasta salad with chickpeas – Use a can of chickpeas, quarter of a 1lb box of whole wheat penne pasta, 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, garlic powder, dried oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. I use fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in this recipe but do whatever sounds good or is in your fridge. Bell peppers, raw onion, fresh herbs, cheese (feta or Colby jack sound good), black olives, even carrots could be added to the mix. The leftovers taste even better than the original and last for days and this makes a great lunch for the week so feel free to double the recipe if you want even more leftovers! The other recipes in this meal plan will also likely yield delicious leftovers!
Photo credit: Cooking Matters
Day 3. Tofu and vegetable stir fry with noodles – Check out an instructional video for this recipe https://youtu.be/xtrENMTitQs?si=rM3nsDp5anGmVcA4 or if you prefer written instructions: Cooking Matters. Keep in mind that you can change up the rice for whole grain pasta! Spaghetti or linguini noodles give a lo-mein feel to stir fry and switching out ingredients just keeps recipes fresh and new.
Photo Credit: eatfresh.org
Day 4. Secret Ingredient Veggie Chili | EatFresh
Photo Credit: eatfresh.org
Day 5. Vegetable Pancakes (inspired by Paejeon) | EatFresh If you use similar veg from the stir fry earlier in the week, you have the option to prep them as well on day 3.
Grocery list for the 5 recipes above (assuming you don’t have any of the ingredients at home and use chickpeas for the protein in the stew from day 1), totaling $70.53 in January 2025:
You may have noticed this meal plan is high in fiber, read here to find out why we all need more fiber in our diets: How to Eat More Fiber | Gleaners Community Food Bank. As this article states, it’s important to increase water consumption as you add more fiber to your diet!
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