Quarantine Work From Home Meal Planner

Welcome to week 7 of the quarantine life! It’s been pretty tough for us to get to grocery stores and find all the ingredients we want, that we’re used to having in the house. Whenever we are able to get groceries, I try to make sure we use every last item we’ve bought. Once the week gets started and we’re in the “swing” of things, it can be hard to remember all the items you bought that you shoved in drawers and cupboards (after sanitizing them of course). So I came up with a work from home meal planner!

This is what works for us. I make sure to include all the major ingredients that we have, and try to put the perishable ones in recipes at the beginning of the week to make sure they don’t go bad and that we’re not eating all the junk food first. It’s not exactly fool proof. After all, we’re human and if I feel like having chips and salsa, I am going to have chips and salsa.

This work from home meal planner has been a fun way to stay on track. It allows me to get creative in the kitchen and not feel overwhelmed at 5 o’clock when I’ve just been working all day and don’t really want to come up with a fun new recipe for dinner. Planning ahead actually saves time in the long run!

If you need some help getting started, think about what your main staple ingredients are that you like to buy for yourself, your partner or your family. Do you always have chicken in the house? Do you sometimes have fresh fruit and veggies but lately it’s been more frozen and canned food? It doesn’t matter what you have, what matters is that you assess what you have so you can think about how to pair the items you want to get rid of quicker (perishables) and create some fun and exciting dishes from there!

I need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know a lot of people to skip one but that is not how I operate best. I also need snacks in between meals. Nothing crazy, but I like to nibble and snack every few hours, so this meal planner is super helpful for me to refer back to when I am feeling like having a snack and reminds me to go for the piece of fruit instead of the bag of chips. This quarantine time can be really difficult for so many people. Being locked in your house with endless amounts of food sounds nice, but can also be challenging if you are trying to be healthy and feel good!

I hope this meal planner helps you to think a bit more about what you are buying at the grocery store and how you can pair what you already have in your house to make some really awesome dishes you may have never tried before. If you are looking for delicious plant based meals, bonberi.com is one of my favorite food bloggers to follow. Her recipes are easy, healthy and delicious!

As always, thank you for being you & for being here. This work from home meal planner was so fun to create! I hope you guys have some fun as you create your own meal plan! I’m always available to help you create some ideas for your own meal plan if you need any help or would like to use the template I created!