Step 1 - Pick your Staple Meals

​The first step in starting the Minimalist Meal Plan is choosing your staple meals. I like to call this creating my capsule meal plan. It involves picking a staple meal for breakfast & dinner, Monday through Friday. Dinners are our variable meal, as well as meals on the weekends.  

For our family, our go-to breakfast is always eggs in some form - most often scrambled or fried. For a long time, my personal breakfast was a green smoothie but sourcing quality ingredients became challenging while traveling.  Lunches involve sandwiches with a fresh vegetable side & bone broth or leftovers. My husband usually has a post-workout smoothie. 

For dinners, I employ simple meal planning. We have a list of recipes that I rotate throughout the days of the week. They are all simple, nourishing, and well-loved by the whole family.

sample weekly meal plan for dinners: 

Monday: Rotisserie Chicken with roast potatoes & salad

Tuesday: Leftover chicken meat stir fry with rice

Wednesday: Steak with sweet potato & vegetables

Thursday: Burgers with sweet potatoes fries & salad

Friday: Sourdough Pizza Friday

Our other favorite meals include salmon, stews, chili, and other minimalist recipes. With this structure, dinner time is the only time I spend more than 15mins on food preparation. It is the only meal I actually plan for. The rest are staples that we repeat on a daily basis. 

On the weekends, we leave space for flexibility. We might have sourdough pancakes for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and eat out with friends for dinner. If I have new recipes I want to try, the weekend is the time to try them out. In those instances, I'm cooking for the pleasure I get from it, not just to nourish my family. 

Your turn! Grab a sheet of paper and pick an easy recipe for each day of the week. Don't look too far into the future, just focus on a single week. It will serve as a test week. You can see which recipes you want to include on a regular basis, and which to leave out. The most important thing is that your family loves them and they only require simple ingredients to make.

Step 2 - Craft your Grocery List 

As a general rule, when we go grocery shopping, we shop for the entire week. Sometimes we need one additional grocery run per week if we run out of any staples. Most of our food is made from scratch. My grocery food items almost never involve processed foods but focus on real food instead. I never buy random ingredients, and always stick to my list pretty closely. 

Writing out your grocery list will get much quicker with time. Now, I don't have to reference our meal plan for the week anymore to know exactly what groceries we need. However I still make my list every time, otherwise I'm bound to get distracted and forget an essential item. This approach has saved me a lot of money over the years. Don't forget staples like olive oil, peanut butter, black coffee, herbal tea, etc.

Your turn! Start by writing out the groceries you will need for your breakfast & lunch default meal. Make sure to multiply by the number of people you'll be feeding and the number of days you need your groceries to last. Then move on to the dinners and write out everything you will need for the coming week. At first, it's best to compile your list while you're still at home. This way you can reference your pantry & fridge to see what you might be out of. In time you will come to have what I call a capsule pantry - but more on that later.

Step 3 - Get groceries & all supplies 

You are almost done with the prep phase! After you put away all the groceries, make sure to check and see if you have all the supplies needed to cook your staple meals. For example, if you're making rotisserie chicken, make sure you have a roasting pan on hand. It is the worst feeling when all your ingredients are mixed and ready - only to realize that the Dutch oven you need is at your friend's house.

Step 4 - Follow the plan & see what works 

Now just get to cooking and eating. Don't be discouraged if a meal you picked takes too long to make or your family doesn't enjoy it. Make a note, and adjust for next week. This simple approach will ensure that you will have your own minimalist meal plan in a matter of weeks.