How to Shop for a Week and a Half Worth of Food

It can be exceedingly difficult to figure out what to meal prep for yourself when you’re trying to keep your grocery trips as in frequent as possible…let alone for a family of three or four mouths to feed…plus a pet or two. 

Plus, it can feel like a jigsaw puzzle (you might be familiar with playing those more recently!) trying to figure out not just meals, but healthy meals that will appeal to every taste preference you need to satisfy. 

In this article, we’ll go over some tips and tricks for how to meal plan like a pro and what’s more, how to go into the grocery store with a plan of action that will yield a week to a week and a half worth of meals. 

Gather some data

The first step to figuring out what to make and then what to buy is figuring out what everyone likes. Now, if you’re just shopping for yourself, this will be pretty straightforward. But maybe you’re also cooking for a partner and two kids. 

Sit everyone down before you go out to the store and take a poll on what everyone is craving as of recently. Generally, people stick to the same breakfast every day, whereas lunch and dinner tend to vary.

Of course, you can’t be a short-order cook (nor should you have to be!), so keep their preferences in mind within reason- there is always room to compromise, even with the pickiest of eaters. 

Make a plan of action

Now that you’ve gathered some ideas, you can more thoroughly outline what you’d like to make, which will help you figure out what ingredients you’ll need.

Keep in mind that rarely does anything ever go *exactly* to plan, but this will be a baseline of what you’d like to make throughout the week.

You’ll know what you’ll need for breakfast pretty easily, and for kids’ lunches, you can even keep as close to what they were eating in school as possible. Then the rest is just snacks and dinners!

If you want to do a few fun new recipes that maybe require a little more effort than normal, go for it. Make sure to sprinkle in a few go-to dinners (think chickpea pasta with a good tomato sauce and greens, a hearty chili or soup, or a protein with a veggie and starch, like sweet potato fries). Not everything has to be a new meal every single day! Just be sure that you’re including foods that you enjoy and truly want to make.

If you need help finding some new recipes to try out, be sure to check out our recipe section or peruse these sites:

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Ideas:

Dessert Ideas:

Another thing you’ll need to address is what you’d like to prep ahead of time and what you’ll make at the moment. Typically, you can make pasta at moment (fresh or frozen), and you might prepare your kids’ breakfasts at the moment too, but maybe you plan on prepping yours. Or maybe you want to prepare a big soup. 

Develop your list

Once you’ve listed out a few meals you want to make, what everyone wants to eat for breakfast and lunch, and then some staple meals you plan on making, it’s time to organize what ingredients you’ll need!

Do a quick run-through of your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Take note of what you have, what you didn’t use yet (to gauge how much you’ll need to get for the following weeks), and what you need to restock up on. This is also a great time to go through any toiletries you may need or any other household items, including pet food.

Now go through each recipe and determine how much you’ll need to get of each ingredient. Of course, you can get creative here: if you’re making something later in the week that requires spinach, you might consider buying frozen spinach or purchasing fresh spinach and then freezing it for later usage. 

Also, figure out how much you’ll need to get for lunch and other staple meals. Once you’ve determined your list, now you’re ready to shop! Keep in mind that you’re aiming to just hit the grocery store once every week or even a week and a half (two if you can), so know that you’ll be stocking up on a lot of pantry staples (see the list below) as well as frozen food. You can also freeze fresh food too if there are none in stock.

Meal prep!

You’ve shopped, you’ve unloaded, and now you’re ready to prep some items! A few good ingredients to always have ready to go are baked sweet potatoes, chopped vegetables (that way you can just throw them into a saute pan to cook on the fly or roast however you like them), cooked rice or quinoa, cooked beans or lentils, and maybe even some breakfasts for those busy mornings where you’re organizing everyone.

Meal prepping can be as easy or as extensive as you’d like to make it. We have a bunch of articles on how to meal prep so be sure to check those out!

List of Pantry Staples:

Now that we’ve gone over the ins and outs of how to determine what to make throughout the week, let’s go over a few pantry (and freezer!) staples to have on hand and stocked up in plenty:

Dry Goods:

Oils, Vinegar, Sauces:

*note that some of these need to be refrigerated after opening

Herbs & Spices

Canned & Jarred Goods:

Fridge:

Freezer: