How to plan menus

• Try to plan meals for the week.
• Make a shopping list and stick to it.
• Decide on the main meal. The lighter meals such as lunch can be swapped about.
• Include a variety of filler foods. These are bread, cereal, potatoes, pasta, rice.
• Include a variety of protein foods. These are meat, poultry, fish, beans, pulses, eggs.
• Buy different types of vegetables. These can be boiled, stir fried, steamed or eaten raw.
• Write down the weekly menu. This shows how varied the meals are.
• Include high fibre breakfast cereals, wholemeal toast and fruit.
• Make as many homemade meals as possible. Convenience foods are expensive and can be high in fat, sugar and salt.
• Include plenty fruit and vegetables on your shopping list.
• Multi buy offers are only useful if you need these items, or they can be stored for future use.

Healthy meal planning ideas

• Have vegetable or pulse based soups (e.g. lentil/broth) rather than ‘cream of’ types. Have homemade soup rather than packets/tins.
• Have a range of main meals and vary between fish, poultry, vegetable and meat dishes.
• Add beans or pulses to meat/poultry dishes g. chilli con carne, curry with chick peas or lentils.  Eat less fatty processed meats like pies and sausage rolls.
• Make vegetarian dishes with pulses, beans or meat alternative in place of meat.
• Have potatoes (boiled/baked/mashed), pasta, rice or noodles rather than chips. Thick cut oven chips have less fat than thin cut chips.
• Avoid adding butter or margarine to potatoes or vegetables.
• Use reduced calorie salad dressings/mayonnaise.
• Use a smaller plate and fill this with plenty vegetables/salad to make the portion appear larger.

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