Start with two bases, not seven meals
Beginners try to cook a whole week in one go, which takes five hours and produces food nobody wants by Thursday. Cook two flexible bases — a grain and a protein, or a curry and a soup — and build meals around them.
Cook once, portion immediately
Plate or box everything as soon as it is cool enough. Food left in a big pot gets eaten as a big pot. Portioning at the start is what makes a batch actually last.
Store in the container you will eat from
Fridge for two or three days, freezer beyond that. Label with the date. The point is to make the decision to eat it easier than the decision to order something.
Repeat the winners
Note which batch got eaten and which quietly died in the fridge, then rotate only the winners. Four reliable meals on repeat beats twelve adventurous ones thrown away.
Where this lives in a planner
Every technique above has a home on the Meal Planner — Warm Neutral — undated, A4, and ready for GoodNotes, Notability or a home printer. Not ready to buy? Download the free starter kit and try the method first.
