World Environment Day: Meal Plans to help you #ThinkEatSave

I feel so bad, I never make meal plans! I need to get better at this!

i use leftovers and try to use water frugally, also.

This is very inspiring. I can't wait to try some of the ideas that are here. I travel so much for work, I hope to incorporate more home-made food and this seems like a good start!

Making meal plans ahead of time saves time at home and at the store. It also makes it easier to make things from "scratch" if you have a plan ahead of time--you'll be less tempted to buy the fast food!

Thank you so much for this post! We compost at our house, and often use leftovers to create several different meals throughout the week. I had not thought about actually making meal plans. That is a great idea, I will have to try it.

this is great idea i now gradn use to do this for all of the kid woudl come and eat all the time at her house

i watched that video. oh my gosh. those stats are horrific. i also shared the video and your article on my fb page. i have been wanting to make my own compost pile for several years now. i absolutely hate, hate, hate throwing stuff out that i know can be composted. the problem is that i dont live in one place long enough to get one done. i did not know that there are places that you can take your stuff to. i will be checking that out for my area.

Thanks for the meal plan. These recipes sound great.

Liked your article too Ricky!

Very interesting! :)
Cheers from Indonesia :)
http://rickylicious.blogspot.com/2013/02/if-food-had-feelings.html

Thanks for the great meal plan!

I love the idea of including the whole family in on the meal planning. Sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming but if I had their help it might be easier and more fun

Great ideas to compost and plan meals in advance. They help us cut back on food waste, too.

We compost in the back! I have a composter. Ever since I went and learn about the 4 R's I started! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and ROT!

We always try to reuse any left overs, then compost whatever else is left!

What a great post! These are good tips, and I have another one: If something you make doesn't work out or is no longer appetizing, don't just throw it out. Sick of chili? Turn it into chili mac. Tired of baked chicken? Take the rest and make soup.

For example. I made a bunch of stuffed peppers this weekend and they came out awful--not edible. I didn't want to throw out the food, so I repurposed most of the pieces of the meal and was able to make something really yummy. For me, the issue was not wanting to waste the money, but I also hate the idea of throwing out food.

What other tips do your readers have?

Thanks for all of the tips Tamara. We try to do a lot of the same things.

sounds delicious, especially since the ingredients are healthy and natural . I am a big fan of not wasting. Thank you for sharing!

I love these idea. Your meal plan looks delicious and creating one certainly does reduce food waste!

Yes! We often "recycle" old dishes into new ones! When planning meals I like to take that into account as well. If I plan curry and rice on 1 day, then next day I'll make a burrito bar and use the leftover rice from the day before!

I WISH we had chickens!

Thank you for sharing these ideas with us on our Wellness Wednesday link-up. I've found meal planning to have really cut down on our food waste. It makes a ton of difference!

Now that we have chickens they eat up most of our extra food scraps and the rest goes to compost. Nothing is put to waste.

I love your ideas on eliminating waste! We take our food scraps and either compost them (outside) or we give them to the chickens since they really love to eat veggie and fruit scraps. Also, I love to take leftovers every few days and either create a casserole or soup out of them which also saves money as well as prevents waste!