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8 great reasons why you need yummy meal planning recipes!

8 reasons why you need to meal plan

Have you been wondering how to plan your meals?

Of course, weekly meal planning is easier said than done, which is why we created FiveDinners.com – meal plan recipes help you get out of that dinnertime rut, adding variety to your meals while reducing the stress of deciding what to cook every night.

Weekly meal planning is to ensure you wouldn’t need to start from scratch each time. Without it, you’re most likely to:

  • Shop ingredients that you don’t need
  • Overeat or undereat (without realising it!)
  • Waste both cooked and uncooked food
  • Spend more than your budget
  • Order food from restaurants, making your diet unhealthy and imbalanced
  • Eat the same food over and over again, having no clue about the calorie intake
  • Make mistakes in cooking similar meals (adding too much salt, not boiling well, excess sugar, etc.)

With meal planning, you can cut through the worry of having a perfect, well-balanced diet. It can be very time consuming; working out what meals to have, trying to bring all those ingredients together into one shopping list, being honest – it can take hours out of your day. Which is why we started FiveDinners.com – so we can do all the heavy lifting for you – all you need to do is choose how many you want to cook for and press a button to get your shopping list and meal plan recipes for the week!

Why meal planning is good for you

Not only is meal planning super delicious for your family, it has so many endless benefits!

Meal plan recipes don’t take extra effort to cook. And almost all of them can be made within half an hour! You can also save time and money spent shopping for unnecessary ingredients and determining how to keep well-balanced nutrients in your diet. It’s not just great for you, but also for all the family members.

1. More meal planning recipes, more cost-effective food!

Keeping some ingredients in mind will allow you to save plenty of money!

Effective meal planning is all about using everyday ingredients to come up with recipes for the entire week!

How many times have you told yourself, “I would need more of this item,” or maybe “I will run out of this soon”?

When it comes to meals, we’ve all been in a situation where we’ve bought unnecessary ingredients, sometimes even exceeding our budget! Whether it’s herbs, dairy products, or essential items like baking soda, stocking too much of anything is never a good idea.

So with meal plan recipes, you will also not have to order extra items or even readymade food. Imagine how much you can save, especially if you’ve always wanted to buy that sofa you really loved (or something else).

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2. Want less food waste? Meal plan recipes are for you

Without planning, so much food can go to waste!

Excess food and unnecessary ingredients contribute to global waste, causing harm to the environment.

Overbuying is one of the most common causes of food waste. Meal plan recipes allow you to shop only the food and ingredients you need.

When you shop for unnecessary ingredients, the food would most probably stay longer on the shelf, in the fridge, or in the freezer. And of course, neither of us would want that to happen!

With weekly meal planning, you will no longer have to worry about food getting expired. Instead, you’ll be using all the ingredients as soon as possible, so no food waste. And this also means you’ll be contributing to the environment, so meal planning recipes are super eco-friendly!

3. Meal planning recipes = A healthy, personalised diet

What is better than having complete control over your diet?

A personalised diet is more focused and well-balanced, tailored to an individual’s needs.

We’ve all heard about having a healthy, well-balanced diet. Perhaps most of us have even dreamt about it (literally). But when it comes to taking action, maintaining a proper diet program can be pretty puzzling.

Meal planning recipes are more than different dishes brought together casually – all recipes on FiveDinners have a nutritional breakdown showing you calories, protein, carbs, etc.. You can also customise your weekly meal plans with the recipes you like by browsing via category; low-calorie, GF, DF, etc. It’s about personalising your meal plans to what you like; while keeping one eye on the nutritional breakdown. These meals are all about personalisation, so you can enjoy your week without spending time worrying about what to eat or your calorie intake.

Swedish Meatballs
Everyone loves our Swedish meatballs on FiveDinners.com

4. Improve your cooking skills with meal plan recipes

Are you an absolute beginner in cooking?

For beginners in cooking, knowing the ingredients, the nutrients, and how to cook great food can be very difficultbut we’ve got your back! Every member on FiveDinners.com gets access to our exclusive text-hotline; meaning you can text our chefs (for free) for real-time help in the kitchen.

Be it a cooking question, something about the ingredients or just a quick question to clarify something – we’re only one text away!

With meal planning recipes you can take your cooking skills to the next level. But, even if you’re not a beginner, you may find it hard to cook something in the heat of the moment.

Perhaps, you even ask yourself questions like:

  • What are the essential ingredients?
  • How much of something do you need?
  • What are the minimum costs you should be spending?
  • What are the different methods of cooking?

Cooking is like a blend of science and art. And meal plan recipes will help you figure out the answers to all the above questions. Not just that, but you’ll learn how the majority of the recipes have pretty similar instructions.

For instance, you could be cooking one meal that includes boiling and frying, and another similar meal would have the same process. All it takes is a difference in some ingredients and perhaps some tweaking in the stirring, frying, boiling, cutting, etc. Hence, meal planning recipes take your learning curve higher and beyond the basics of cooking.

5 star reviews from FiveDinners.com members

5. You get more organised at meal planning (and shopping!)

A healthy diet is just one part of meal planning recipes. What about grocery shopping? We don’t want to brag – but we thought of that as well – with our weekly meal plan recipes you just need one click of a button and we’ll automatically generate a weekly shopping list for all the ingredients you need for the week!

You can change the serving sizes of your meal plan and the shopping list updates; and we’ve even put the list of ingredients into the different shopping isles to make life even easier (i.e. Fresh Produce, Frozen section, Meat, Fish, Bakery, etc.) and if you’ve already got a bunch of the ingredients; simply tick them off our shopping list!

Weekly meal planning recipes allow you to brush up on your organising skills. In general, shopping becomes a breeze as you’re armed and ready to go!

You can’t go wrong with meal planning recipes, as they are scheduled for the entire week. But, seeing how things work, you’ll get to manage your shopping lists and align the items with your budget!

If you’re someone who makes long grocery lists, you’ll love the help of our automated shopping list.

6. Each meal plan recipe gives you new food to taste

You never know what’s coming up next!

Meal plan recipes combine a variety of food. This also brings together dishes from other parts of the world, adding to the overall flavour and splendour.

Ah, the excitement of new food. Who says each weekly plan needs to have repetitive meal planning recipes? As you get to explore fresh food, you also open up to various flavours and cultures from across the globe!

You can taste Spanish cuisine one day and try out American the next. There are endless possibilities, and you’ll get to learn and appreciate other cultures as well.

But we also know everyone has their favourite recipes; so with one click of a button (or in this case a heart) you save your favourite recipes for future meal plans.

7. Know your eating habits with meal planning recipes

Get to learn about your portions and eating habits!

Meal planning recipes allow you to explore your eating habits, which may have been unhealthy previously. Moreover, each person’s diet needs to be customised according to their health condition.

Meal plan recipes help you keep an eye on your calorie intake and give you a ‘birds eye view’ of what you’re eating for the whole week. Plus each suggested meal plan by FiveDinners has a well balanced week of meals including meat-free day, fish day and a mix throughout the rest of the week. This ensures you don’t end up eating the same thing all week – just in different dishes (chicken bake, stir fried chicken, chicken soup… you get the idea..) weekly meal planning really helps to achieve a well balanced week of variety, ingredients and nutrients. You may never know if you might be overeating or undereating.

Not everybody needs the same amount of calories. Not only does it depend on age, but also the health conditions of a person.

So meal plan recipes lets you see what your calorie intake (amongst other nutritional needs) are for the week. It doesn’t matter if you’re getting meal plans just for yourself or for the entire family.

Andrea McLean Sneaky Vegetable Spag Bol FiveDinners.com
Guest chef recipe – Vegetarian Spag Bol FiveDinners.com

8. With meal plans, make time for your family

All the time you save goes to your family too!

With meal planning, you can decrease the time spent on coming up with new ideas for meals, deciding what ingredients you need, making shopping lists or experimenting with new recipes to find out they don’t work… (you’re in safe hands – our chef is well acclaimed!)

With meal planning recipes, you don’t just save the cost of food; you also get to save time! And while time is money, it is also equally needed just to enjoy life.

Picture all the time you could save to spend with your family. No last-minute hassles, no confusion – only you, some excellent food, and quality time in the dining room!

We can help craft your weekly meal plan recipes!

Meal planning recipes at Five Dinners are the most interactive you’ll find. We have something for every kind of taste! Whether you’re looking for vegetarian, GF, flexitarian or any other meal type. We make sure each meal in your weekly plan is super fast to cook (in 30 minutes or less) and packed with healthy nutrients!

Also, bid farewell to the chaos of creating shopping lists. You shouldn’t be buying what you don’t need, so you can count on our automated shopping list to fulfil your every need (while saving you money, time and reducing your time spent shopping on for your weekly meal plans).

Choose from our monthly or annual membership, with the flexibility to cancel anytime. With our meal planning recipes, you have the added advantage of getting help in real-time. So let’s start our journey of weekly meal planning dinner recipes together!

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Don’t take our word for it either – here’s what other members have to say!

Great inspiration.

11/07/2023

I have already tried two recipes, both a success with my teenagers…hurray!

Will definitely be trying some more, thank you folks 🙂

Avatar for Sasha.
Sasha.

Response from Five Dinners Meal Planner

Thank you Sasha! So pleased you and teenagers loved it! More coming soon!

Yum and easy!

17/06/2023

Just done my first meal and love how simple and tasty it was – great stuff. Thank you!

One suggestion, is there a way to favourite a recipe so that you can easily come back to it?

Avatar for Tisha
Tisha

Response from Five Dinners Meal Planner

Yes! If you click on the ‘heart’ on the recipe that will add it to your favourites. To access your favourites; simply login, go to the meal plan page and click on ‘Favourites’ in the list of categories.

Maple pork chops

07/06/2023

Just wanted to say thank you, I have just made my first recipe…Maple pork chops. The sauce for the chops was amazing. As I live on my own I have cooked 4 chops and split them into tubs…looking forward to my next serving. It was quick and easy and I actually enjoyed cooking it. I am determined to do more and get back into the habit of meal planning and batch cooking. So glad I found this 🙂

Avatar for Joanne
Joanne

Response from Five Dinners Meal Planner

So pleased you enjoyed them Joanne!

Fantastic!

25/05/2023

I’ve been meal planning for years but 5 dinners has still made a massive difference for me. The recipes are so easy and quick to prepare. As long as you have basic cooking skills these recipes can be accomplished with no bother. The plans have introduced me to vegetables I’ve never bought and I’ve so enjoyed trying all these new foods. I’ve been telling everyone about 5 dinners and I’m so grateful for the free membership. I appreciate the hard work involved in creating a new plan each week and I’m really happy I signed up.

Avatar for Kerry
Kerry

Response from Five Dinners Meal Planner

THank you so much for your lovely feedback! I really appreciate your comments!

Great, flavoursome recipes – something for everyone.

07/03/2023

Great selection of recipes and has hugely helped the dinner time ‘rut’ that we seemed to fall into. Easy to follow and all have tasted great!

Avatar for JS
JS

Response from Five Dinners Meal Planner

Thank you so much! We’re so pleased you’re enjoying them!

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