Have you ever considered making a 2-week meal plan? If you’re tired of making meal plans week after week but a month is just too far in advance to plan, a 2-week meal plan is the perfect middle ground. Here’s how to make this approach work for you!

1. Map out the days

Whether you use Google Calendar, a dedicated meal planning app, or paper and pencil, the first step is mapping out the days during the next two weeks. Take note of your plans during those days, marking off any days you are not eating at home (such as dinner with family members or nights you are dining out). Also mark days when you won’t have much time for cooking. 

2. Take stock of what you have

Before you start deciding what to cook each day and organising some meal plan ideas, take stock of what you have. Begin with anything that is going to expire soon, and add in a meal or two that uses up those ingredients. If you’re a pretty efficient meal planner, you might not have anything to use up. In that case, I like to tackle items that are taking up a lot of space in my cabinet, like an oversized bag of rice, or something I have too many of, like those eight tins of crushed tomatoes I’ve somehow accumulated.

3. Look for opportunities to batch cook

Batch cooking, as I’ve said many times, really is a game-changer, and it lends itself so well to a 2-week meal plan. How do I plan a meal for 2 weeks with batch cooking? When planning 14 days of meals, I like to choose 1 meal a week that can be doubled or tripled. This way, I a slowly but surely adding stock of ready-made meals to my freezer, which are perfect for those days when I have no time to cook.

4. Use your freezer stash

If you’ve taken my advice in step 4, make sure you have a look at your ‘freezer list’ (yes – do take note of what batch cooked meals you have in your freezer!) when you meal plan.
We all have days when we’re in no position to cook dinner. Pick a batch cooked meal from your ‘freezer list’ that you have prepared and frozen, and assign it to such a day. If you need a break mid-week, there’s no shame, assign another one 😉

5. Optimize your use of fresh ingredients

If you want to grocery shop just once every two weeks, you’ll need to plan to use your fresh ingredients wisely. For example, mushrooms and broccoli rot quickly, so if I’m using them for pasta, I’ll want to make it on one of the first few days after grocery shopping. And while some people decide to make a quick store run on the second week just to restock perishables, you might be able to avoid it by freezing some fresh fruit when you first bring it home or using things like browning bananas to make pancakes or muffins. 
Frozen vegetables are great to fall back on after you’ve run out of fresh produce, to last you till your next shop.

6. Have a backup meal

I like to be efficient, but even the best plans can sometimes be thrown for a loop. I always like to have the ingredients on hand for a “just in case” meal that I can fall back on if our plans change, I’ve forgotten an important ingredient, or I just don’t feel like making something that sounded good when I made the plan last week! For us, this is usually something with beans, like quesadillas, or some type of pasta I can make with pantry ingredients. If you don’t end up needing the backup meal, you’ve already got something to write in your meal plan next time around!

As you can see, a 2-week meal plan doesn’t have to be overwhelming. When you approach it methodically, you can cover every day in the schedule while minimising food waste and reducing your trips to the store!

I really hope this helps you! Come connect with me on Instagram, and let me know!

Love,

Nakita xxx