MYMDMP: My Mediterranean Diet Meal Planning

I assert there to be five primary goals of meal planning:

1. Keep our meals healthy and aligned with our Mediterranean way of eating.
2. Provide a variety of options to keep our meals exciting.
3. Control our spending, keep our food expenses within budget.
4. Make meal preparation simple.
5. Save time.

Secondly, there are three primary considerations before you start preparing a weekly meal plan:

1. What do I already have on hand and need to use?
   • I aspire to never let food go to waste, so I always start a weekly meal plan by reviewing the contents of my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer.
   • Meal planning helps you to buy only what you need and to use what you buy.
   • Sometimes you have to buy a larger amount than what is needed for a meal either because the portion sizes are too large or you may stock up on items when there is a good sale price. When this happens, you want to store the extras in a way that preserves them for future meals (See my article on maximizing your savings by better using your freezer.)
2. What is on sale at the grocery?
   • Take the time to review a grocery store flyer to see what fresh ingredients are on sale. (Produce, Dairy, and Meats.)
   • Use this information to inform your plan by selecting primary ingredients from the sale items.
   • You may want to purchase extra of the items on sale if you can preserve them for future meals. Grocery stores tend to follow a cycle for sales and once you learn this cycle, then you will know when to buy more for future weeks.
3. What meals did we have in the previous two weeks? No repeats!
   • Let’s face it, it’s not fun having the same meals over and over again.
   • I try to wait at least two-weeks between when I repeat a meal and ideally we wait at least 1 month.
   • I also constantly seek new recipes and then modify them with the Mediterranean influences to ensure they align with this healthy diet plan.
   • I also like to review previous meal plans to see if it is time to bring back a recipe that we loved.

Time to Start Planning

1. Do you have any special plans for the coming week that may affect your meal planning?
   • Will you get home late on any days? Or, will there be days that you only have a short time or no time to prepare?
   • Do you have plans to eat out at a restaurant this week?
   • Do you want or need leftovers for the following day (for lunch or dinner)?
   • Do you have any events that you need to bring a dish?
   • Any other special plans that you need to buy for?
2. Starting with the ingredients you have on hand, begin to plan some meals.
   • Do you already have a favorite recipe you want to use?
   • Go search on the internet for a new recipe using the ingredients you have on hand. For example, “Recipe using ground turkey, kale, and potatoes.”
3. Reference what’s on sale to create meal plans for other days.
   • If a whole chicken is on sale this week, make plans to cook/use a whole chicken.
   • Seek out new recipes. For example, “Creative ways to spice a whole chicken”
   • Or seek influences from another culture as you search online. For example, “Filipino chicken recipes” or “Middle Eastern seafood recipes.”
4. Write your meal plan down – and email yourself links to recipes.
   • Write down the meal options you want to have for breakfast and lunch.
   • Write down the dinners that you plan to make and make note when you expect to have leftovers to either repurpose for dinner again, eat for lunch, or pack away for a future freezer meal.
   • Write down the snacks you also want access to throughout the week.
5. Make your documented meal plan visible and easy to retrieve.
   • I like to post meal plans on a dry erase board on my refrigerator in my kitchen.
   • You can also send yourself an email or message on social media with the links to the recipes that you want to follow, which provides fast and easy access to the information you need when it’s time to prepare your planned meals.

I can’t say this enough – Keep Your Mediterranean Meal Plans interesting!

Search recipes from different locations and cultures. You will modify the recipe to use ingredients that align with the mediterranean influences.

• For example, you might replace white rice in a recipe with brown rice, farrow, or barley.
• Or, you will replace butter with olive oil, and cream with greek yogurt.
• You will also ‘vegify’ your meal by seeking opportunities to add more veggies to it than what is called for in the ingredient list.

There are also so many recipe sites for Mediterranean food, you can try new recipes weekly. Remember, Mediterranean foods come from a very large region of countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France (Southern Region), Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Lybia, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Palestine, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey,

Try searching for recipes from some of these countries! For example, “Moroccan chicken recipes” or, “Croatian Shrimp Recipes”.

You can also search cuisines from other cultures and apply your knowledge of the Mediterranean diet to make substitutions for ingredients that align with this way of eating. For example, search “Filipino chicken recipes” or “Chinese shrimp recipes” and then remove any ingredient that wouldn’t support the Mediterranean way of eating. Remember, Veggies are never a problem!

When I choose new recipes, I always read the comments from other people who have tried the recipe, then offer their opinions and recommendations for ingredients. You learn a lot from the comments.

Glance back through your plan and aspire to keep the entire weekly meal plan healthy.

Try to make each meal plate to have colors of the rainbow by adding colorful fresh food ingredients. Seek to add multiple veggies to each dish. I call it ‘vegetizing” my meal. Even if the recipe doesn’t call for it – Vegetize it!

Make your vegetables the star of your plate. Big shift here…Think of meat as a side dish instead of a main dish.

Plan for at least 2 vegetarian or vegan meals each week.

And, keep unhealthy ingredients off the plate!

My personal method…

I always look through my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer first to review my on-hand ingredients.

I get started by planning meals for the ingredients I already have.

Then, I choose ingredients that are on sale to be the star of other meals for that week.

I decide if I want to reuse any tried and true recipes from previous meal plans or find a new one.

I shop for my ingredients online for each meal individually as I plan.

I choose items for breakfasts, lunch, and dinners, and record my decisions in an email that I later send to myself which contains links to the recipes that I want to use.

Then I pay for the groceries online and pick them up the next day. The shoppers typically do a really good job at picking the items that I order and if I do receive a substandard product, then all of the groceries are willing to refund the item.

So that’s it…in summary:

Use what you already have.

Supplement what you have with what’s on sale at the grocery.

Seek ways to vegetize each meal.

Use the internet to search for exciting new recipes, including dishes from other cultures.

Plan each meal for the week, as well as, your breakfast, lunch, and snacks items.

Send yourself the links to recipes and ensure ease of access/visibility to your meal plan.