Meal planning has given me immense freedom, pleasure, and fulfillment in my eating habits. Scheduling my grocery shopping, weekday meals and cooking time has helped me eat balanced meals by including a variety of nutritional foods every day.

I have become health conscious in the last two years because of my body ailments. This has forced me to customize a diet with the help of meal planning. The first and last week of the month I don’t do grocery shopping, instead, I come up with a simple meal plan with the existing pantry. I shop on the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month. It includes vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy, snacks, and staples.

My typical Indian meal plan works around this format with simple changes based on product availability. I eat meat once or twice a month but include eggs regularly. I have shared my default template with you just to make you understand that I follow what I preach. This is a simple meal planning method for beginners looking for ideas to implement in their day to day lifestyle.

I work late at night, so I need an elaborate, nutritious, and filling breakfast. This has made me swap the traditional breakfast and lunch items. You can schedule it as per your liking. I hope this will help in planning meals based on your dietary preferences.

Diet Schedule:

11.30 Breakfast: Rice, Curry and vegetable fry

2.30 Lunch: Bread/ Poha/Oats/Noodles/Pasta/Dosa

3.30 Juice: Lemon/orange/grape

5.00 Snack: Coffee/Biscuit/Nuts/Pudding/Shake

9.00 Dinner: Chapati/curry/salad

11.30 Milk: Turmeric/almond

Produce at Home:

Produce	Fruits	Vegetables	Dairy	Protein	Carbs	Snacks
Variables	Banana Grapes Papaya	Lady’s finger Cucumber Carrot Cauliflower Potato Cabbage Brinjal Lemon Fenugreek leaves Green beans	Paneer Cheddar Butter	Eggs Chickpeas Green peas	Idly Batter Multigrain Bread Spaghetti Tortilla Poha	Roasted peanuts Chips Panipuri Biscuits French fries
Staples	Cashew Almond Prune Chia Pumpkin Sunflower Seeds	Onion Tomato Green Chili Ginger Garlic	Yogurt Milk	Lentils	Rice Wheat Flour Broken Wheat Vermicelli Rice Flour	Fox Nuts Chocolate

Weekly Meal Plan:

Days	Breakfast	Lunch	Juice	Snacks	Dinner	Bedtime
Wednesday	Lemon Rice, Beans Fry, Chickpeas Curry	Bread Chickpeas Curry	Lemon Mojito	Coffee with Biscuits	Dosa Chutney	Almond Milk and Banana
Thursday	Fenugreek leaves Pulao Cucumber Raita	Cauliflower Paratha Pickle	Lassi	Lemon Tea Roasted Peanuts	Spaghetti with Garlic bread	Turmeric Milk Banana
Friday	Carrot Sambar, Rice, Lady’s finger fry	Puffed rice Upma	Papaya	Tortilla Chips Salsa	Chapati Paneer Curry	Almond Milk Grapes
Saturday	Stuffed Brinjal, Rice, Papad	Aloo paratha Curd	Orange	Pani Puri	String Hoppers Coconut Milk	Coconut Milk Banana
Sunday	Egg Masala, Rice, Papad	Dosa with Egg Masala	Buttermilk	French Fries	Broken Wheat Upma	Papaya Chocolate
Monday	Cabbage dal, Rice, potato fry	Poha Roasted Foxnuts	Grape	Peas Sundal	VermicelliPulao Raita	Turmeric Milk

Meal Prep Day (Tuesday- 3 hours)

• Boil potatoes, soaked chickpeas, and peas. Strain, cool, and store in separate glass containers in the fridge.
• Wash, peel and cut carrots, cabbage, radish, brinjal, lady’s finger, cauliflower, and fenugreek leaves. Pat dry and store in separate zip-lock bags in the crisper drawer.
• Make wheat flour dough and store it in an air-tight container on the top shelf of the fridge.
• Boil Eggs and store it without peeling in a container.
• Boil milk with turmeric. Cooldown and store in a glass bottle.
• Fry papad for a week. Cool and store in an air-tight box on the kitchen counter.
• Make onion, tomato, garlic, and tomato masala for the entire week.
• Chop papaya, banana, orange, grapes, and store them in zip-lock bags in the freezer.

Things I do on the Weekdays:

• Cook rice every day.
• Season and fry cut vegetables.
• Use onion tomato masala to make dal, sambar, Stuffed brinjal, chickpeas curry, paneer, egg curry, puffed rice, salsa, and spaghetti.
• Make Aloo and Gobi stuffing. Whip up panipuri water and eat it with store-bought puri.
• Use the dough for parathas and chapati and batter for Dosa.
• Make smoothies or juices with frozen fruits.
• Reheat turmeric milk every night and add brown sugar as needed.

Cooking Time:

45 mins in the morning: Make breakfast, lunch, and juice. Refrigerate juice for later use.

5 mins in the evening: snacks

10 mins: Dinner and milk. Keep the milk warm in a flask.

What Do I Gain by Meal Planning?

• No chopping vegetables.
• Don’t spend 4-6 hours in the kitchen every day.
• No food wastes.
• Eat balanced meals.
• Spend less by not ordering in the midweek.

This is my traditional Indian meal planning method for a week. I alternate between two meal planning methods. This one includes the method of meal planning with the vegetables, fruits, and groceries I have in my pantry. The other is checking the fruits and vegetables in season and planning my weekly meals around a group of products I purchase for the week. I will post this meal planning method in the upcoming weeks.