Category Archives: Meal Planning

Three Tips to Help Stick to a Daily Meal Plan

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Sticking to a daily meal plan can be a major adjustment since many people are used to eating whatever they want, whenever they want. Having the specifics of breakfast, lunch, and dinner planned out forces us to pay close attention to what we are eating. This means no eating out or excessive snacking throughout the day. A healthy meal plan or even a 17 day diet meal plan can definitely be hard to follow at first. However, there are a few things we can do to help stay with it.

Daily Meal Plan Strategies

  1. Make a meal plan that is specifically designed and tailored to your weight loss goals. Consult a nutritionist or your trainer to make sure that you’re not taking in too much or too few calories. Then, write down everything you eat in your meal plan to make sure that you’re counting calories honestly and accurately. Don’t to forget to include drinks that are not zero calories when you’re adding up your calorie count for the day. Then, analyze the times when you go over your limit and ask yourself how you can change your behavior to prevent it from happening again.
  2. Prepare breakfast and lunch the night before. Healthy meal plans are sometimes hard to follow because of time constraints. If you have a busy schedule, cooking in the morning and in the middle of the day can be a huge hassle. That’s why so many of us end up grabbing a pastry at a coffee shop on the way to work and eating out for lunch. It’s better to prepare these meals when you have a little extra time in the evening. You can just put them in a Tupperware container and reheat the next day. This can be done every weeknight to help you stay on track with your weekly meal plan.
  3. Find a meal planning buddy. It’s easier to succeed if you aren’t doing it alone. Find a friend who will follow weekly meal plans with you. If you’re married, a spouse can be the perfect person to fill this role, since you probably always eat dinner together anyway. Spouses and friends can start diet meal plans together if they have a shared goal of losing weight. Researchers that study group diet meal plans, like Weight Watchers, have found that people who have moral support from peers with weight loss goals lose three times the amount that the loners lose in the first year and they keep it off, too. Get your friends and family involved and you’ll have more motivation to get and stay fit.
  4. Reward yourself if you’ve consistently followed your meal plan for a couple of weeks. You should give yourself incentives to successfully give up some of your favorite foods and stick to the plan. For instance, you could go to the movies, get a massage, or go shopping at your favorite retail store. Healthy meal planning generally saves you money in the long run because you are not buying unnecessary items at the grocery store. So, you’ll probably have a little bit of money saved up to treat yourself. Don’t, however, reward yourself by eating more! “People generally overestimate the calories they are burning with exercise, and they may reward themselves by eating more,” says lead researcher Tim Church, director of preventive-medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. Instead, stick to your meal plan, save up some money, and do something special for yourself.

Following a meal plan isn’t always a breeze. If you prepare your breakfast and lunch the night before you eat them, you won’t become stressed about making them when you are pressed for time. Rewarding yourself for not straying from your healthy meal plan can help keep you motivated and convincing a friend or spouse to follow meal plans with you can be a huge help. Next time you’re embarking on a new diet meal plan, keep these tips in mind for ultimate success.

Disease and Virus-Fighting Healthy Meal Planner

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In the United States, on average 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from seasonal flu-related complications. That’s a whole lot of sick time for those of us who get sick. Yes, getting the right amount of sleep and minimizing your stress levels are the keys to some aspects of your health, but ultimately it boils down to what you eat when it comes to determining your physical and mental health. The first step to a healthier you is making a meal planner, then filling it with superfoods that will help you ward of disease.

What is a meal planner?

A meal planner is a device that helps you plan out all of your meals. You can make a calendar or written meal planner if you feel more comfortable writing out your meal plans. If not, try finding a free downloadable meal planner online in which you can fill out your favorite superfoods and superfood meals.

Superfoods and Supermeals for Your Meal Planner

If you want to create a healthy meal planner that helps you keep your immune system strong, put some of these great, go-to superfoods on your grocery list:

  • Almonds: According to the University in California, the fiber in nuts may prevent the body from absorbing fat while speeding up weight loss. Almonds are also high in antioxidants, which may help reduce the risk of cancer. Put sliced almonds on your salad to create the ultimate supermeal.
  • Sprouts: This veggie has plenty of vitamin A and vitamin C. Additionally, sprouts offer a phytonutrient that can help clear carcinogenic substances out of the body.  Put sprouts on your sandwich to add some greenery and some phytonutrients.
  • Strawberries: Make sure to include strawberries in your meal planner, too. These berries are anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and heart-helpful. Strawberries also guard against rheumatoid arthritis, liver cancer, atherosclerosis, and other diseases and ailments. Make yourself a yogurt parfait with sliced strawberries or just eat them whole as a snack.
  • Garlic: Studies suggest the same sulphur compounds that cause odour may also stop cancer-causing substances from forming in your body, speed DNA repair and kill cancer cells. I guess we can live with stinky breath if we’re taking in cancer-causing garlic! One 2003 review of several garlic studies concluded that some compounds derived from garlic “have been found to retard the growth of chemically induced and transplantable tumors in several animal models. Therefore, the consumption of garlic may provide some kind of protection from cancer development.” Implement garlic into your healthy meal planner by putting it on pizza, cooking with it, or infusing your olive oil with roasted garlic cloves.
  • Broccoli: Health experts constantly discuss the health benefits of broccoli. “Broccoli is the best source of this particular compound,” says scientist Jed Fahey of broccoli’s sulphoraphane count. Sulphorane may reduce cancer risk by detoxifying harmful substances and operating as an antimicrobial agent by attacking various bacterium. Additionally, the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research contend that broccoli and its sister veggies are most protective against cancers of the mouth, oesophagus and stomach. Eat broccoli in a casserole, salad, or as a side with grilled chicken.
  • Exotic Berries: Berries like acai and gogi berries are full of antioxidants, which have disease fighting compounds that scientists believe repair or prevent the stress of oxidation, a process that occurs naturally during normal cell function. Therefore, antioxidants may reduce chances of heart disease, neurological diseases, and even cancer while increasing immunity. Implement antioxidants into your healthy meal planner by putting gogi berries and acai berry powder (below), and other berries in fruit smoothies and drinking them up for breakfast.

Eat these supermeals with disease-fighting superfoods to stay strong and healthy. These superfoods will make great additions to your healthy meal planner and may even cut down on your sick days.

Family Meal Planning for a Wonderful Family Barbecue

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Barbecue doesn’t just satisfy the appetite. It brings a smile to everyone’s face! That’s why it’s important to rally together the family for an outdoor BBQ every once and a while. Family meal planning can help you get everyone involved in cooking, and eating, your family BBQ. Whether you’re cooking a 4th of July feast or you’re just having the immediate family over for an impromptu dinner, take these tips into account before your next BBQ, family meal planning venture:

  • Coordinate a pot luck so that you don’t have to cook all the sides. Have aunts, cousins, and nieces each bring something: a coleslaw, fresh fruit salad, pasta salad, fresh greens salad, potato salad, and desserts! If no one wants to take dessert duty, just set up an ice cream sundae bar with bananas, whipped cream, hot fudge, sprinkles, and, most importantly, vanilla bean ice cream.
  • Get your family’s input when choosing a cut of meat. St. Louis ribs (pork spareribs that have been trimmed of rib tips, skirt meat, and point), baby back ribs, country-style ribs, Skirt steak (lose grain and intensely beefy, diaphragm muscle of the steer, used in fajitas), and pork spareribs (taken from the belly of the hog and cut close to the rib to leave the belly intact).
  • Divide up the responsibilities: Try making a meal plan, that lists each person in the family and their individual task. If one person can’t cook, they’re on dish duty. Other responsibilities may include going to the butchers and buying the meat, making the grocery list, or manning the grill.
  • Keep steak tips in mind when cooking up steak: Different cuts of steak cook at different times, so just make sure you look up the best way to cook up your steak. Some cooks rely on the “touch test.” According to Saveur magazine, “A rare steak is supposed to feel like the fleshy triangle of skin between the thumb and index finger of a relaxed hand; that same spot on a fist matches the firmness of a medium steak; if you want it well done, compare it to the feel of the tip of your nose.” While this may be a great option for some, get an instant-read thermometer if you want to judge the “doneness” of the steak.

If you keep these tips in mind, you’ll have a great BBQ filled with family fun. Give your family some bonding time this summer with a wonderful barbecue dinner complete with Southern-style sides and a dessert for an event to remember.

Three Types of Meal Planning Software

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We now spend almost half of out waking hours either online, on the phone, or watching TV according to a recent survey. This technology makes our lives extremely more efficient, even for domestic tasks, like meal planning. Meal planning software can help you with several aspects of your meal planning, whatever your specific needs may be. Here are three different types of meal planning software that could help you:

Meal Planning Software with Online Capabilities

There are plenty of reasons why you may need meal planning software that plugs into the cloud. If you’re social and like to exchange recipes then you may need to look at meal planning software that connects you to other users online. The software can, in some ways, act as a social network for meal planners — an online forum where members can chat, give feedback, rate and post meal plans, and give advice to other members. Online capabilities could also come in handy if you like to access your meal planning software from multiple locations or devices, like from your phone or tablet in addition to your desktop or laptop.

Meal Planning Software with Default Diet Plans

If your goal is to lose weight or trim up, you may want to look into meal planning software that caters to these needs. Meal planning software can have default meal plans to lose weight, low fat meal plans, and even a body building meal plan for those that want to bulk up or build strength. These default plans should be constructed using the best resources on the particular subject, namely, statistics and data gathered by physicians and doctors. If a user does not like one of the default meal plans, they can at least use them as a starting point to develop their own meal plan.

Meal Planning Software with Nutritional Stat Tracker

If you’re not getting the right amounts of nutrients then a meal plan with nutritional data may be a great asset. Try seeking out meal planners formulated by dietitians and experts in the nutritional field. Make sure you’re getting enough calories and a balance of different nutrients to keep you energized and healthy. Also keep your eyes peeled for meal planning software that allows you to track your exercise, whether it be climbing the stairs at work or walking your pup.

Whatever your meal planning needs, make sure that your meal planning software caters to your individual, lifestyle. A meal planner could help you achieve your goals and get organized.

Meal Planning Ideas for Pairing Food and Wine

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David Lynch, a James Beard Award-winning sommelier and author of Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy is surprisingly cynical about wines for a wine expert. Lynch describes the typical scenario: “You’re in a restaurant that takes wine very seriously, one where a thick, leather-bound, 25-page book arrives with great fanfare–and a thud–at the table.” However, he realizes, the everyday person “[Doesn’t] come to your restaurant to read a book.” The truth is, all we need is a nice wine to go with our meal, not an enormous, daunting wine list handed to us by a pressed waiter with a pair of condescending eyes. And, lucky for us, if we know the secrets of wine pairing we can have that nice wine, and great meal, in the comfort of our own home. All you have to do is learn the basic rules for wine pairing and you can turn a Friday night into a romantic and festive evening. Just hand the kids off to your sister or aunt, set the table, and read up on these meal planning ideas for a wonderful night of food and wine.

Basic Rules of Wine Pairing

  1. Identify the properties and characteristics of the dish and go from there. Look at your grocery list ideas and then start thinking about what wine would best accompany those foods. For example, if you prepare a steak, couple it with a full wine. Both steaks and full wines are hearty and strong.
  2. When in doubt, match regional cuisine with their regional wines or with wines from grapes of a similar soil and climatic condition. A tomato sauce pasta dish, for example, tastes delectable alongside a Tuscan Chianti, however French chablis (the grapes of which grow in a climate that retains their tangy edge) will serve this dish just as nicely.
  3. Keep in mind that palates can be cleansed with either tannins or acids after a rich meal, like a steak or fried chicken dish. Tannins can come from the skins of the grapes used in winemaking or the wood barrels a wine may have been aged in. Tannin tastes similar to the flavor you would get if you sucked on a tea bag and causes a puckering of the gums. It’s this astringent flavor that helps strip the fats from your tongue and cleanses the palate after a fatty meal.
  4. Match acids with acids. Acidic wines and cream don’t mix, unlike acidic wines with shrimp and lemon pasta. Anything sauteed in a lemon-butter such as salmon and shrimp cakes sauce tastes great with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.

Last but not least, drink what you want and what makes you feel good! Your preferences should always take precedence over others’ recommendations, even if they’re coming from the mouth of a wine connoisseur.

A Meal Planning Chart and Other Organizational Tips for Your Kitchen

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If you do the majority of the cooking in your family, you know how difficult it can be to cook in a disorganized kitchen.  However, you don’t necessarily need a top-of-the-line professional kitchen to make delicious meals.  Before you invest in space saving appliances and have your cabinetry overhauled to accommodate your kitchen needs, simply un-clutter your counters, organize your pantry, and make a meal planning chart – you’ll feel like you’re cooking in a professional-style kitchen in no time.  Here are some meal prep organizational tips for any major cooking event:

  • The first thing to do when preparing a complex meal is to make a meal planning chart. So, what is a meal planning chart, exactly? This kitchen helper is simply a list or chart that you can make by hand (or computer) that lists the steps to your meal. These steps can be divided up into time and put in chronological order. The chart doesn’t have to be fancy, just something to help you stay focused as you cook and prepare everything in a timely, efficient, and orderly fashion. This will greatly assist your ability to make sure all the dishes are staged correctly and come out of the kitchen at the right time.  Tape your chart up on the pantry or cupboard where you’ll be cooking and check off each task as you go.
  • Before you even boil your water or preheat your oven make sure that you start with a completely cleared dishwasher. The last thing you want is to start cleanup only to realize that you never ran the dirty dishes through the wash cycle. This will result in a major dish pileup in the sink and a stressful after-cooking mess.
  • Put your trashcan directly under the ledge on which you’re cutting. This will help you cut and clean, simultaneously. Just chop, then throw the remnants into the garbage in one swoop.

  • Designate a “chop time” in your meal planning chart and do all your cutting at once. While you cut, put a dishtowel under your cutting board to prevent it from shifting under you. Doing all off your cutting at one time will save you time in the long haul. After chopping up all of your ingredients, put them in separate bowls, throw a piece of saran wrap over each bowl, and pop them in the fridge until you’re ready to use each ingredient. This will keep all of your items fresh until their use.
  • Make sure that you’re cleaning up as you go. This includes keeping surfaces sanitized and disinfected (especially if you’re cooking with raw meats!), throwing pits, ends, stubs, bones, and fats in the trash as you go, or even quickly cleaning knives and soaking pots and pans while the main dish is cooking. Since you have (hopefully) completely cleared your dishwasher before cooking, you can easily throw any bowls, utensils, or pans in the dishwasher while you cook. Find a gap in your meal planning chart in which you can designate a “clean-up time.” This designated clean-up time will allow you to clear counters and cut out some after-cooking cleaning.
  • After your dish is finally completed, it’s time to store your leftovers. Make sure to label and date all food: a sharpie is a Chef’s best friend! If you have any extra chopped items, store them in individual baggies or in aluminum foil for your next cooking venture.

Overall, a meal planning chart, staging cooking and clean up, and strategic cooking will help you keep your kitchen area clean and tidy. After having a clean, professional-style kitchen, you’ll never be able to go back!

Tips to Compare Free Meal Planning Software

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Celebrities, models, and athletes are now having their entire diet planned out for them, prepackaged, and sent directly to their doorstep as a way to keep in shape, look fit, and take all thought out of meal planning. These gourmet meal planning services may make meal planning a no-brainer, but they also cost their celebrity clientele anywhere from $25 to $50 a day. Meanwhile, we’re angrily writing out a grocery list, storming to the grocery store, sulking in the checkout line, swiping our cards, and slaving over the stove only to find that we’ve forgotten about five items we need for dinner. The truth is: we don’t need celeb food services to plan great meals with ease. There are plenty of free meal planning services out in cyberspace, ripe for the picking. Our meal planning regiment just got a whole lot more glamorous.

What Are My Meal Planning Options?

Meal planning services usually come in the form of apps, websites, or software that you download to your computer. Their perks or objectives differ depending on each service. Dictate ahead of time what you need from a service (Do you want to lose weight, save money, or simply plan meals ahead?) and research from there.

  • Apps: If you are constantly on your Blackberry, iPhone, or Android, you should definitely look into a meal planning app for your free meal planning. Apps usually have the ability to connect to a local supermarket so that you can tune into savings at your nearest store. These apps may or may not also have access to an archive of recipes. Try to find an app whose recipes are developed by chefs.
  • Websites: There are plenty of websites that are dedicated to efficient and/or healthy meal planning. The great thing about websites is that you can get updates on your meals straight to your inbox. Usually, websites contain a huge database of fellow users, so if you’re looking into connecting with a community of meal planners, a website could be beneficial to your meal planning goals. Personalize a profile with your meals and recipes when planning out your week. For those of us plugged into cyberspace, a website meal planner could be just the thing to make our grocery shopping a lot more organized.
  • Software: Meal planning software is rarely free, but you can get some softwares for as inexpensive as $30.00, while they generally run around $50.00. Softwares usually include video, nutritional facts, monthly planners, ingredient databases, printable formatting, cost calculations, kitchen inventory management, and aisle organization. Before buying softwares, see if you can download a free trial online, or consult the company directly and ask for a free trial.

Whether you’re examining an app, website, or software for free meal planning services, make sure you analyze an array of factors, including approachability, ease of use, and cohesiveness. You also want a service that’s reliable, which can be a problem with some websites and apps. While researching and trying out free meal planning services may seem time-consuming, whichever service you choose will save you tons of time in the future and take the thought out of planning for the week. For us busy moms, there’s nothing better than that.

The Perfect Timeline for Family Meal Planners

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Are you the meal planner in your family? It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. Being the designated “meal planner” usually means that you’re in charge of dinner parties and big holiday meals: the cooking, the cleaning, the works. There’s a reason why about 90% of Americans feel increased stress during December holidays, according to Consumer Reports. The cooking alone is enough to turn anyone into the Grinch. Whether you’re planning a dinner party or you have to prepare the big Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, the best way to eliminate stress is to make a timeline. Starting early will make even amateur meal planners execute large meals with ease.

A month ahead:

About a month before the big meal, you should be establishing that a meal will be served and taking care of factors that don’t involve much of the cooking. Try cracking down on some of these things four weeks before the meal:

  • Pick a menu
  • Prepare pie crusts and cookie dough, vacuum seal, and put them in the freezer
  • Decide on table decor
  • Make your guest list and send out invites

A couple of weeks ahead:

The real prep begins just a few weeks ahead of the meal when you should:

  • Make shopping lists
  • Find recipes for your menu, print, and make detailed lists for recipes
  • Make suggestions as to what your guests should bring, if they offer to bring a dish

5 days ahead:

Five days ahead you may be starting to panic. Never fear! Call up your guests and complete these tasks to ease your stress:

  • Call guests who have not RSVPed and ask them if they will be attending
  • Make relishes, sauces, and vinaigrettes
  • Purchase meats if you’re planning on using large cuts of meat and throw them in freezer with pie crusts

3 days ahead:

After confirming guest lists, preparing sauces, and buying meat, you should try to accomplish these tasks:

  • Thaw meat
  • Gather equipment
  • Polish silver, arrange decorations, clean the house

2 days ahead:

It’s almost here! You can do a lot of your perishable grocery shopping days before the big event so that you can rest easy the day before the big meal:

  • Prepare items that you can make immediately and store accordingly
  • Do your perishable grocery shopping

Day before:

The day before the event is the time to chop, clean, and do all the prep work for the meal:

  • Do prep chopping, washing, etc.
  • Prepare punch
  • Make plan that indicates what time you should cook each dish
  • Prepare baked goods

Day of:

  • Put on your game-face and make it all come to life!

Being a menu planner may not be simple, but if you make a month-long plan ahead of time, you’ll be able to execute your dinner with ease.

Seasonal Meal Plans

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For some of us, eating seasonally is a no-brainer. You can save plenty of money on your produce by going straight to the seasonal stuff whenever you can. Even further, shopping seasonally is better for the environment and beneficial to the local economy. When you shop seasonally, your food is traveling shorter distances and, therefore, fewer pollutants are emitted in the process. The best part? Seasonal fruits taste better, too! While seasonal products do vary slightly from state to state, generally, the US has pretty standard seasonal produce cycles. Here are examples of seasonal produce for each season, with meals for each one:

Winter

  • Broccoli: Try making a warm broccoli casserole, or pair some broccoli rabe with Italian sausages and polenta.
  • Sweet Potatoes: Sweet potatoes are great in the winter time. Make a warm sweet potato pie with whipped meringue on top, or a creamy sweet potato soup.

Spring

  • Zucchini: Fried zucchini, grilled zucchini, however you make it, this vegetable is great in the spring. Try serving honey glazed chicken with a side of roasted zucchini, onion, and yellow bell peppers, seasoned with olive oil and peppers.
  • Lettuce: Lettuce is ripe and ready in the spring time so use this veggie for your lunch salads during the springtime months. Arugula, baby spinach, chives, herbs, sliced almonds, and goat cheese could be combined make a mouthwatering side dish.

Summer

  • Corn: Corn is a classic summer dish. Try making summer corn chowder with bacon, or simply serve your corn on the cob with garlic butter for a great side at an outdoor BBQ.
  • Watermelon: Cool down in the summer months with watermelon sorbet that’s the perfect, healthy dessert for warm summer nights. You can also make a watermelon, pecan, and gorgonzola salad that works great on a bed of fresh lettuce.

Autumn

  • Cranberries: Cranberry sauce goes great with turkey on Thanksgiving, but it can also be made into an autumn strudel with squash and cranberries, or a cranberry beef stew. The cranberry stew can be made with an economical chuck roast, beef broth, pearl onions, mushrooms, egg noodles, and, of course, cranberry sauce.
  • Pumpkin: Around Halloween and Thanksgiving, everyone has a hankering for pumpkin pie. Bursting with flavor, this veggie can be introduced to practically any dish, sweet and savory alike. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin oatmeal muffins, and best of all, pumpkin pie all taste great when the leaves are falling from the trees.

Having a seasonal healthy meal planner and shopping seasonally can help you cut down your grocery store bill while getting fresher and riper food straight to your table. Don’t hesitate to make traditions around your house based on these seasonal treats.

Easy Meal Planning: Guide to Perishable Foods and Preventing Food Waste

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No one likes to see food waste away in the fridge. As we all know, food waste is considered a huge problem in America. A study in Tompkins Country, NY, showed that 40 % of food waste occurred in the home and another study by Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab found that 93% of respondents acknowledge buying foods they never use. Books have been written about it, research has been procured, and plans to convert our enormous amounts of wasted food into energy have been initiated–yet still, the average American wastes much of their food.

While letting food go to waste may be bad for the environment, it’s also bad for our wallets. When we throw a head of lettuce or some rotten apples in the garbage, we’re really throwing our money right into the dumpster. Instead of letting food rot in the fridge, gauge your easy meal planning based on the shelf-life or fridge-life of fruits and veggies. This will allow you to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to your grocery shopping and, most importantly, adequately meal plan. If you buy an extremely perishable vegetable, for example, you should put it in your meals at the beginning of the week, whereas veggies with more longevity can be eaten on the weekend.

Fruits and Veggies that You Should Eat First

These produce items are healthy and wonderful buys, but you should plan to put them in meals that occur at the beginning of the week. If you’re doing your grocery shopping on the weekend, for example, plan on serving or eating these fruits in the beginning of the week. Plan to eat these fruits and veggies straight out of the grocery cart, as they’ll perish in a heartbeat:

  • Artichokes: Great for making artichoke dips or even eating with a drizzle of olive oil straight off the grill, they’ll start tasting a bit funky after about five days.
  • Asparagus: Raw asparagus is best used within two to three days for maximum freshness.
  • Avocados: If you’ve already cut an avocado, take out the pit and rub the surface generously with lemon juice to prevent browning. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. The avocado probably won’t last any longer than 36 hours.
  • Bananas: Buy your bananas a bit green at the grocery story if you plan on using them later in the week. Don’t throw out your old bananas! Overripe bananas can be used to make banana breads, muffins, or even banana ice cream.
  • Basil: Wrap the ends of basil in a wet paper towel to keep them moist. Even with proper refrigeration and storage, basil won’t last any longer than 4-5 days.
  • Green beans: This versatile veggie with probably only last in your fridge for several days without getting a rather off-putting sticky film. Not attractive. Plan to make your green bean casserole at the beginning of the week to avoid this refrigerator mess.
  • Mushrooms: Mushrooms, like green beans, are going to get a bit slimy if they’re bad. Make your mushroom-cream sauces or throw sautéed mushrooms into an omelet but don’t keep ‘em past five days.
  • Strawberries: Alas, this vitamin C-filled treasure is extremely perishable, only lasting us about 6 days, at best. Make strawberries into ice cream to preserve them, whip up some strawberry jam, or just throw the bulk of them into a fruit smoothie before they go bad.

Fruits and Veggies with Longevity for Easy Meal Planning

Plan to use these fruits and veggies at the end of the week. They’ll taste just as good as when you bought them!

  • Apples: Apples last weeks and weeks. Store your apples in a crisper drawer of your fridge to retain maximum freshness. When they’re getting a little testy, slice them and make them into applesauce.
  • Oranges: Oranges will last you about 4 weeks, whether you store them at room temperature or in the fridge.
  • Blueberries: When you’re blueberries are getting to the point of questionability, you can freeze them on a cookie sheet, then put them into a Ziploc bag. Use your frozen blueberries as ice cubes for lemonade in the summers–they’ll last for six months or so. Fresh berries should be eaten within about 9 days.
  • Grapefruit: Grapefruit keeps for about 2-3 weeks in the fridge. Eat with plain sugar, throw it in a fruit salad, or make a grapefruit cocktail.
  • Lemons: The basic rule of thumb for lemons is that they’re fine until they don’t look fine (shriveled, moldy, or brown). Throw leftover lemons in your drinks for a kick of vitamin C. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
  • Pears: Pears are great until they’re a bit yellow or soft. You’ll know that a pear is still good to eat when it has a great aroma and it’s barely tender.

Keep in mind that you can always get frozen veggies or canned fruits for your extremely perishable goods. When you’re drafting out your easy meal planning, make sure that you keep perishable produce in mind and plan from there. Knowing your food timelines will make easy meal planning easier than ever!