The Realistic Meal Planning System I Use as a Busy College Student

I love eating delicious, homemade meals! The only problem is that in college, there's barely enough time in the day to go to classes, work, do homework, and have fun. Cooking and sometimes even eating gets put on the back burner. But you can still eat healthy, delicious meals even when your schedule is packed! Today, we're going to talk about meal planning for college students!

I don't eat out.

There's a variety of reasons why, but mainly, I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible. Like most college students, I also stick to a budget.

Plus, I eat a whole-food plant-based diet, but that's a totally different story.

The main point is that I have to cook my meals myself.

I also don't really like cooking (Yep, I said it), but I love homemade food, so I do a super easy method of meal planning that doesn't take very much time.

I started using this meal planning system as a freshman in college because I knew I was going to have to do a lot of cooking! Today, I'm still using the same meal planning system with a few tweaks along the way.

This is meal planning for college students who want to eat healthy but don't have time to cook daily!

Just a fair word of warning, I am a recipe repeater. I have a list of all the recipes I enjoy eating.

I enjoy eating the same meals regularly. I've mentioned my love of chickpeas before, and I've been eating them regularly (almost daily 😂) since I was in middle school.

Yes, I have variety in my diet. I just consider chickpeas to be a necessity at this point!

If you are going to cook from scratch, make a list of all of the recipes you want to make throughout the semester. I prefer finding super easy recipes, like one-pot meals. (If you aren't cooking from scratch, you can very easily do this, by listing what meals you are going to buy.)

Divide your list by meal type and make sure you have around the same number of recipes for each meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) if you like a lot of variety.

I'm content eating roughly the same breakfast every day for months, so I don't have that many breakfast recipes, but I have a lot of dinner recipes.

I like to make this list in my bullet journal every few semesters as you can see in the photos!

The benefit is that when I ask, "What do I want to have for dinner?" I already have a list of recipes that I know I'll enjoy eating. This makes meal planning as a college student much easier!

The next step in meal planning is making a staple grocery list! This makes grocery shopping so much faster.

I like to have a list on my phone's notes app with the staples that I buy every week. 

Additionally, I have a list on the same page with items that I need to buy when I run out but are easy to forget. I use this list to jog my memory.

This step in meal planning is essential for me! I have a specific folder on my phone gallery called "Recipes" that contains screenshots or photos of all of my recipes.

It's very handy because when I go grocery shopping, I can refer to it easily. I rarely forget to buy an ingredient for my recipes because I double check my recipes before I leave the store (usually while I'm standing in line).

Whenever I find a recipe I want to try, I screenshot the ingredient list. Then, when I want to see the whole recipe, I can easily click back to the website because my phone gallery links straight to the recipe on the blog it's from.

I say a couple of blogs, but let's be real, I get most of my recipes from my family. 😂

Other than that, I currently find most of my recipes on Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures because their recipes are fairly easy to make, and I enjoy eating them. Whenever I want to make a new recipe, I search on there for ingredients that I have or what I want to eat that week.

I don't subscribe to any recipe blogs currently because I try to receive as few emails to my inbox as possible, but if you want to be regularly reminded about new meals to make, it could be a good idea to subscribe.

I look for new recipes regularly, but I also have my staple recipes list!

To avoid repeating the same recipes over and over again, I use a meal planner. I do still eat the same breakfast on repeat though! 

My meal planner is really simple because I don't like to do elaborate planning when it comes to food. I just write down the "fancier" recipe that I'm making for that week, and that's it.

I don't use this meal planner all of the time, but I do use it when I'm trying to include more variety in my diet.

Every Saturday, I do my grocery shopping for the entire week. Every Sunday afternoon, I do my cooking and meal prep for the week.

I make my "fancier" recipe, and then I might also cut up some vegetables for other meals. It takes me around two hours to meal prep and then I'm done for the week, unless I decide to make something else!

When Monday comes around, I already know what's for dinner that week, and it's already made!

Meal planning as a college student doesn't have to be complicated! The best thing you can do as a college student is to create a simple routine that you follow on a regular basis.

I've found that by meal planning, I don't have to feel stressed about what I'm going to eat. I also eat healthier because I plan in advance. I don't have to ask myself, "What's for dinner?"

Meal planning as a college student gives me more time to focus during the week on school, events, and spontaneous activities!

Pick one or two of the tips below and start implementing them in your meal planning this weekend.

To recap, here are my tips on meal planning for college students!

I hope you enjoyed this post on meal planning for college students! Eating healthy starts with small changes, so start creating a meal planning system that will work for you today!

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