This post is all about getting organized to meal prep using a bullet journal!

There are many reasons why you would want to get into meal planning. Your schedule suddenly got a lot more packed, you want to keep your food budget under control, your work does not allow you to cook as much, or you’re on a health journey. The reasons for meal prepping can be numerous.

I tried several times to meal prep in the past, but never really stuck to it for more than 2 weeks. I think I lacked the real motivation to keep going. Today things have changed. I just became a first-time mom, and time has become a rare commodity.

The good news is that there is a solution to this problem: meal planning!

I’m looking forward to revisiting this whole meal-prepping idea because it will be a great way to save time in the kitchen.

Here are the best tips to start your bullet journal meal planner!

 

Meal plan bullet journal ideas

 

Why do you want to meal plan?

With anything that is going to require some effort on your part, it’s important to clarify the reason you’re doing it.

Keeping a bullet journal can be super fun, but also time-consuming. Maybe cooking is not your thing and it will require some extra effort on your part to keep going.

Whatever the reason you’re doing it for, it should be a strong driver. That way, if on a particularly difficult day, you want to give up, you can refer back to your “why” and find the energy to continue.

Pro tip: write your “why” at the beginning of your bullet journal or bullet journal section dedicated to meal planning. It will be easier to refer back to it when needed. 

 

Meal planning period

Meal planning can be done on various timelines: you could do a weekly meal plan or an entire month one if you are feeling confident. If this sounds like too much to start with, you can always start with planning your meals for a few days out of the week and see how it goes.

You could then gradually increase the number of days you meal plan for.

Do what works best for you and your lifestyle. You might have some events or obligations at certain times of the week/month. Take those into consideration and be realistic about what you will be able to achieve. Daily baby steps are better than quitting after 1 week because you were too ambitious with this new habit.

The most common is to do a weekly meal plan. This is how I’m doing it and the example we will keep for this post on bullet journaling.

At the end of the week, think to dedicate some time to plan for the upcoming meals. Sunday evening could be a great time to do it!

For your bullet journal, and depending on the period you decide to meal prep for, dedicate one page for all the days of the week, or a two-page spread for all the days of the month.

 

Start by listing your meal ideas

Now that you know the period you want to meal plan for, the next step is to figure out what you will be eating each day of the week.

Go through all your favorite recipes, snack ideas, food diary, and recipe cards to find the meals you want to be cooking for that specific week.

The idea is to have around 4 recipes for all the meals you are going to be having: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. One recipe can be doubled, allowing you to have some leftovers the next day. This is great to avoid any food waste and a very quick meal for a day when you don’t have time to cook.

Looking at all the meals you’ll have collected, you’ll assign each meal to a specific day and meal type (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack). That way you’ll know exactly what you’ll be eating for the entire week. One less decision to make!

Pro tip: if you are meal prepping for more than one, you could have your meal master list out in the kitchen, that way, everybody knows which meal is to be eaten on which day.

If this does not appeal to you, you could just keep the list of weekly meals and decide every day what you feel like eating and preparing.

For your bullet journal, a good idea would be to categorize your recipes by meal types (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, drinks…). Under each category list the recipes you are planning to make for that week or month.

 

Keep your recipes on hand

Once you have listed all the recipes you are planning to cook, you will need a system to quickly find them back.

There are so many different sources to get your recipes from. It could be from a physical book, a blog, a family recipe book, a video, or social media.

You could add recipe pages to your bullet journal with your go-to meals. This could also be the perfect time to create a recipe book (paper or virtual).

If this is not really your thing and you don’t want to spend time creating your recipe book, you can always use apps to collect your favorite recipes.

I like to use the Whisk app. I can add all my favorite recipes to the app just by browsing. It’s super easy and quick!

 

Create your grocery list 

Now that you have a list of meals, it’s time to create a list of ingredients you’ll need and that you will be able to bring with you to the grocery store.

For each recipe look at the ingredients list and determine what you already have in your pantry and what you will need from the store. This is also a great time to clear out your fridge and cupboard of any food that would have gone bad. Give everything a quick clean before bringing new fresh food back into it.

There are different ways to prepare this list.

If you prefer to use pen and paper, you could use some sticky notes to put down your grocery shopping list. In your bullet journal, you could dedicate a page for your grocery shopping list sticky note. That way you only have to switch out the stick note from one week to the next. This will make your bullet journaling more efficient.

Should you prefer to have your grocery list on your phone, you could use the Notes app to put down all the things you will need for that week. You could also put your list on a food tracker app which has the grocery list feature. I have been using the Whisk app lately. It allows me to store all my recipes and has an ingredient list feature.

 

Determine what you can prep in advance for each recipe

Once you have your list of meals, and you have your weekly spread of groceries, there is only one thing left to do: meal prep!

Depending on the recipes you are planning to make, you could either meal prep the whole meal or pack it in Tupperware. Another option could be to prep the ingredients and make the meal fresh on the day you decide to cook it.

The best way for me is to do a mix of both options: for certain meals, I’ll cook fully in advance, and for others, I just prep the ingredients and make it last minute on the day.

I prepare in advance the meals that would take too long to prepare on the day. For example, a chia pudding would need to be set in the fridge for a certain amount of hours, or a meat that would need to be marinated.

However, I also prefer to make the meals fresh when I can, that way they keep most of their nutritional value. That is for meals that would take less than 30 minutes to prepare. I make things easier for myself by doing some of the prep work like cutting vegetables, peeling garlic, and making spice blends…

In your bullet journal, you can have a section dedicated to your meal prep to do. That way you can indicate for each recipe what you are planning to prepare in advance.

 

Have the proper material to meal prep

You don’t need a ton of equipment for meal prepping. You of course have your cooking utensils, but this is not really specific to meal prepping.

The most useful thing you could get is storage containers of various sizes. You’ll need some to store fully prepared meals, and some for pre-cut ingredients. I prefer to use glass containers, rather than plastic ones. Here are the ones I use!

A lunchbox that you could take with you to work can also be very useful.

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A bullet journal can be a commitment: you have to keep it up to really call it a bullet journal. Otherwise, it just becomes a fancy to-do list. Also, you can spend a lot of time making it cute and colorful. It does not have to be that way. It could just be you writing things down with only a one-color pen.

The purpose is for the bullet journal to serve you, not to become your hobby!

 

This post has been all about the perfect solution to start a meal prep journey using a bullet journal!

 

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