How-To: Meal Plan with Bin-Dinns

March 21, 2021

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I thought it was time for a fresh approach to meal planning that makes meal time more manageable for home cooks. Enter: BIN-DINNS! Read on to find out the system that is saving me when it comes to meal planning.

Physical + Visual Organization

Let’s break down how to save precious dinner prep minutes by organizing and prepping ingredients beforehand. It comes down to physically and visually organizing recipes. With a set of refrigerator bins and pantry bins, I like to unload my grocery bags straight into their respective daily bins. Benefits include easier organization, better refrigerator and pantry management, less food waste, and an easy way to map out a week of meals. The goal is to prep each recipe 70% in advance which significantly reduces cooking time.

How it Works

Each day I pull out the daily bin from both the refrigerator and the pantry at dinnertime. By having all of the ingredients organized, it makes the whole process feel more manageable. The bins can also be organized by recipe rather than day and labeled with dry-erase labels making it easy to switch out weekly charges.

Step-By-Step

Start with a clean slate by cleaning out your pantry and refrigerator. Invest in bins to organize both spaces depending on how many days you cook each week. You could also include bins for snacks, leftovers, or lunches. The system can easily accommodate anyone’s style of cooking.
Map out your meal plan and head to the market. Once back, simply unload your groceries directly into their respective bins separating dry and refrigerated ingredients. If time allows, you can prep a few things as well, like veggies for a stir-fry, or a chimichurri for skirt steak.
As mealtime approaches each day, simply pull out both of the bins for each respective day and begin cooking. You’ll shave off precious minutes by having all of the ingredients pulled together from the get go. Before meal planning for the next week, remember to “shop your kitchen” for ingredients you have on hand that you’d like to use up.