Each week, my goal is to plan simple, healthy meals that require the least amount of “active” time. Here are a few tips that I’ve learned along the way, ranging from how to pick what to make, how to simplify the shopping and planning process, and a few shortcuts to get food on the table quickly.
Deciding what to make:
- Think about what you like to order when you go out to eat, and then search for a copycat recipe online. My favorite is Chick-fil-a style grilled chicken!
- Follow food influencers on social media and save your favorite recipes to make the next week. My favorite is Jack Perez on Instagram.
- When looking for recipes, prioritize crockpot recipes, sheet pan dinners, or one pot meals.
- Look at active time, not just total time. Also how many ingredients does it need? And how many dirty dishes is it going to make?
- Consider starting with an “ingredient of the week” and thinking backwards. I usually start with a healthy base like lentils or sweet potatoes, but it could be as simple as picking what you already have on hand.
- Keep a list of your favorite recipes. Rotate, don’t re-invent!
Planning and shopping for the meal:
- Make a plan and save your recipes. There’s nothing worse than buying ingredients and then losing the recipe!
- Look for shortcuts! My favorite is buying pre-diced onions and pre-made sauces. I also keep minced garlic and lemon juice on hand.
- Shop online! You can shop for the best price, avoid junk food, and go back and forth to your pantry to see what ingredients your already have. I love to use Harris Teeter’s online pickup service!
- Look at Harris Teeter’s “FoodHealth Score” and it’ll recommend healthier options. I haven’t tested this feature yet but it seems that Harris Teeter also has a way to input a recipe and it’ll auto-add the ingredients.
- I’ll usually plan 2-3 meals at a time, with each meal making 6-8 servings. When thinking about which meal to make first, think about which ingredients will go bad first.
- Have one hustle meal in mind that you could make later in the week but also won’t go bad (maybe a frozen pizza?). Keep some backup options in the freezer if you run out.
- Buy staples like pasta and rice in bulk.
- Date everything in your fridge and pantry!
Shortcuts and tips for getting it on the table:
- Always use the air fryer or crockpot when possible– I hate cooking chicken on the stove.
- Use AI to fix annoying recipe formatting. Paste the link or text into ChatGPT or Gemini and ask it to embed the ingredient amounts directly into each instruction step. It can also scale the serving size up or down or as needed.
- Clean up as you go, and use parchment paper on baking sheets for easy clean up.
- Start potatoes in the microwave and finish them in the air fryer.
- Pre dice and pre portion chicken or ground beef before putting it in the freezer.
- Cook a large batch of chicken and use it for two meals. For example, if I’m grilling chicken, I may make half barbecue chicken and half Mediterranean chicken.
My favorite recipes so far..
Want more?
- Send me a message to join my weekly email with new recipes.
- Check out how my cooking style has changed since college. Previous blogs include “How to Food” and “Less than Four and Under 20.”
