Did you know that in American landfills food takes up more space than anything else that is thrown away? In fact, each year in the US about 80 billion pounds of food is thrown out! Food waste is a very large issue in this country, and it is also an issue that needs to be worked on sooner rather than later. Not to mention the fact that it’s basically just throwing away your money. One of the easiest first steps in fixing this issue (in my opinion) is to create a solid meal-planning routine in your weekly schedule! 

For years I have struggled with not knowing exactly what to buy when I go to the grocery store, and then I buy too many things that end up rotting before I can add them to a recipe. Over time I began becoming upset and annoyed with myself for wasting so much food each month, so I decided it was time to get serious about meal planning.  

Now I get it, meal planning can seem annoying, or overwhelming, but trust me, the small amount of time you have to spend planning a few of your meals each week definitely outweighs the consequences of throwing out a bunch of food. And I’ve found that meal planning typically only takes me about 15-30min once a week, and that’s about it, so totally worth the time! 

I have found that Pinterest is a huge help in the meal-planning process. I have three separate food boards that I use to help speed up this process;

1. “Favorite Recipes”; My first board is for all my favorite recipes that I’ve made over the years. 

2. “Fun Meal Ideas”; My second board is for recipes that I’ve found online that I would like to make eventually. 

3. “Meals for the Week”; my third board is where I save the recipes that I will be making for that week (I clear this board out each week after I’ve cooked each meal).  

With these boards, it only takes me a few short minutes to scroll through meal ideas that I have saved previously, decide what looks tasty for the coming week, and then re-save it to my “meals for the week” board. There are lots of different ways to efficiently meal-plan, but I’ve found this works best for me. 

When meal planning, whether on Pinterest or anywhere else, here are a few simple things to keep in mind. 

Look for meals that you’ll actually have the energy to cook

Sometimes we can find a recipe that looks so good and fun to make, but in reality, it takes over an hour to make and includes over twenty ingredients. Most of us are mentally and/or physically exhausted after a long day at work, so it is more than okay to be realistic with ourselves and only plan on making recipes that take under an hour and have a short and simple ingredients list. Otherwise, we end up being too exhausted to cook that difficult meal and all those ingredients go to waste. 

Try and pick out recipes that have similar ingredients 

I can’t count the number of times that a recipe calls for half of an onion, or only two carrots, and afterward I’m left with a whole bag of carrots, onion, potatoes, etc, that I never get through fast enough and then it goes to waste. What really helps (as an example) is if you have a recipe that calls for three carrots, but you have a whole bag of them, then look for one or two other recipes that use carrots just to use them all up before they go to waste. 

Only plan out 4-5 meals for the week rather than 7 

I’ve learned that it is best to only plan for 4-5 meals in a week, that way you have some days to either finish off leftovers, go out to eat, order take-out, etc. When I plan a meal for all seven days I typically end up not cooking all of them, and then sometimes I’ll forget to include those leftover meals into the following week's meal plan. 

Remember to eat those leftovers 

Not finishing off leftovers is one of the things I am most guilty of. I’ve gotten better at learning to bring leftovers with me to work the next day (which also saves me money), or eat them as a snack at a different time. However, the better you become at planning meals over time and portioning your sizes the less you will have leftovers. 

Make a grocery list before going to the store 

Personally, I find that making a list helps me stick to only buying what I need and it saves me a lot of time while I’m in the grocery store. Especially if you’ve saved all your recipes on Pinterest or anywhere online, it’s a lot easier to just put all those ingredients on one list rather than having to open up each recipe while in the store.

Don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry! 

Seriously, don’t go shopping when you are hungry. This is where a lot of people waste food because in the moment so many things that you don’t need to buy look delicious, and then you get home and never eat most of them. Plan out your shopping day, and go when you have already eaten, this will help you stick to your list. 

It may seem silly to consider meal planning an eco-friendly habit, but once you see how much food you will eat, rather than throwing it out, you will feel a lot better about your impact on the environment.