Meal Prep Planner

Cook once, then know what you are eating

Two parts. A batch cook list, for what goes in the oven on prep day, and a grid underneath where each dish gets a row and each day of the week a column — tick the days that dish covers.

Pick your prep day. Sunday is the default because that is when most people do it, but the sheet does not care.

The grid is the part that stops the waste

The failure mode of batch cooking is not the cooking. It is that four containers of chilli come out of the freezer on Wednesday because nobody knew what was in there or what it was for.

A row per dish and a tick per day answers both questions at a glance. It also makes the arithmetic visible: eight portions across five dinners does not work, and you can see that on the sheet before you cook rather than on Thursday when you run out.

Count portions, not dishes

The commonest planning error is treating one recipe as one meal.

A chilli that yields six portions covers three dinners for two people. Write the yield next to the dish on the batch list and the grid stops being a wish and becomes a plan. If a dish covers three days, tick three.

Leave gaps deliberately

Batch cooking every meal in a week is how people give it up after a fortnight, because eating the same three things in rotation gets grim faster than anyone expects.

Cover four or five dinners and leave the rest. The gaps are where the takeaway, the leftovers and the thing you actually fancy go, and a plan with room for those survives.

What to cook in bulk, and what not to

Things that reheat well and improve overnight: stews, chilli, curry, ragu, soup, roasted vegetables, grains.

Things that do not: anything crisp, most fish, salad leaves, pasta already sauced. Cook the sauce in bulk and the pasta fresh — it takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a meal and a penance.

Controls and printing

A title, the prep day, how many dish rows (four to twelve), and the batch list on or off. A4 or US Letter.

Six rows is the default and about right for a week. More than eight and you are cooking for longer than most people's prep day allows.

Stick it on the freezer door, not in a drawer. The sheet only works if it is where the containers are. Print at 100%.