How To Meal Plan With Sourdough Starter (Meal Plan Included)
Last Updated on July 5, 2025 by Jamie Saechao
Craving more sourdough baking in your everyday routine? This post is for you! Learn how to meal plan with your sourdough starter- easily!
Today, I’m teaching you how I’ve replaced all our store-bought baked goods with homemade bread made from scratch.
I know baking bread can be intimidating when you first start, but if you keep going you will learn quickly! In a few months you will be in a sourdough baking routine that produces delicious bread, pancakes, and meals for your family.
Here are my best tips for learning to meal plan around sourdough, which will enable you to eventually replace all your store-bought baked goods.
Feeding your starter: I feed my sourdough starter everyday, so this routine is based off of having a lot of sourdough discard. You can adjust these tips to your schedule, however: just keep your sourdough starter in the fridge. When you are ready to use it take it out, feed it, and bake in bulk for your week!
1. Embrace Simple Recipes
There are so many philosophies on sourdough that learning how to bake bread can be overwhelming if you try to follow and understand every single method.
To grow in your baking journey and get bread on the table, I encourage you to find a simple method that works for you and stick with it.
By the way, don’t let the complicated videos or super-long recipes overwhelm you! Sourdough is, at the end of the day, very basic: water, flour, salt, and active starter.
Sure, there is a complex scientific reaction behind that beautiful, bubbly starter… but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to produce beautiful bread.
Find a few simple recipes and make them several times a week until you master them.
My family of six consumes about 2-3 loaves of bread per week (usually two). So, I only needed to bake a few loaves of bread weekly to replace the store-bought version I was buying!
From there, I slowly built up my baking skills to include rolls, bagels, and biscuits.
Easy bread loaf recipes to use:
- Sourdough sandwich bread
- Everyday sourdough boule
- Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Croissant loaf (easy and delicious)
Remember, just pick a few sandwich breads and master them. Once you gain some experience, you can add a few more recipes to your repertoire.
Learn how to feed and maintain your sourdough starter here.
Tips 2: Replace One Thing At A Time
Have you ever heard the phrase, how do you eat an elephant? The answer is one bite at a time! The same is true for replacing all of your baked goods with homemade products.
Don’t try to tackle everything at once; it’s overwhelming.
Start with just replacing your weekly bread. Once you’ve done that, you can begin working on other baked goods as you grow in confidence.
When ready to replace some of your baked goods with homemade sourdough versions, write out your weekly menu, or a rough idea of the meals you want to make that week if you aren’t the meal planning type.
Pick ONE recipe to work on replacing that week, such as bagels or hamburger buns. Build that recipe in your weekly meal plan.
Here are a few ideas:
- Bagels for Sunday morning breakfast sandwiches
- Hamburger buns for a weeknight burger bash
- A new bread recipe for grilled cheese sandwiches
- Delicious homemade rolls with a roast or chicken
Focus on working just ONE recipe into your schedule. Make it for several weeks in a row until you really get the hang of it.
Remember to plan in advance so that your sourdough is ripe and bubbly when you want to bake with it. Before you know it, making your hamburger buns or rolls from scratch will feel like a piece of cake.
Tip 3: Take Advantage Of Sourdough Discard Recipes
Sourdough discard is the underrated secret weapon of the sourdough world.
Want to whip up some crackers or muffins? You can do that with discard.
Pancakes, crepes, or waffles? You can quickly whip up these recipes with just starter—no flour needed!
I keep a jar in my fridge just to store discarded sourdough. Today, we made cheesy discard crackers and cornbread with discard. Tomorrow, I might throw together some pancakes for breakfast.
In order to have a large amount of discard on hand, I usually feed my starter every single day. I am feeding four kids around the clock so we end up using a lot of discard.
I love using discard-only recipes because the flour is fully fermented at this point, adding all the benefits of sourdough.
Tip 4: Keep Plenty Of Supplies On Hand
Keeping your pantry well stocked is essential for frequent baking.
You’ll need a hefty supply of bread and all-purpose flour, sea salt, butter, eggs, vanilla, and honey.
You will also need a few simple supplies like a scale, some tea towels, and a Dutch oven.
Those six ingredients can be used to make a fantastic variety of rolls, bread, cookies, and breakfast goods
Tip 5: Bake Ahead + Freeze
If you work full-time outside the home, pick a day to bake in bulk and freeze your bread.
Sourdough bread slices and waffles reheat beautifully in the toaster, making for a fast addition to breakfast.
Remember to feed your starter enough flour and water to bake multiple loaves.
You can also bake and freeze delicious treats like sourdough cookies and brownies. Just double wrap them in plastic to prevent freezer burn.
Sample Sourdough Meal Plan
Here is an easy weekly menu that includes baking all of your own goods at home. This is very similar to how my children and I eat during the week (except they eat a lot more carbs than I do!).
During this week, I made one loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread, one loaf of sourdough sandwich bread, and hamburger buns.
Make sure to give yourself enough time for the bread to rise- some breads need a second time to rise the next morning, which can affect your schedule.
Monday: Sourdough discard crepes
Boiled eggs, fruit, salad
Meatloaf, rice + green beans
*Start a loaf of whole wheat sourdough boule or sandwich bread in the evening.
Tuesday: Scrambled eggs, fruit, whole wheat sandwich bread
Mac N Cheese, saurkraut, veggies + lunch meat
Hamburgers with sourdough buns
Wednesday: Yogurt + berries
Tuna sandwiches on whole wheat sandwich bread
Chili, sourdough discard cornbread, green beans
Thursday: Sourdough discard waffles + eggs
Fruit, veggie + meat tray (with cheese)
Dinner OUT (we usually get pho once or twice a month)
Friday: Eggs, fruit, and sourdough granola bars
Leftover chili, rice, and frozen fruit
Sourdough tortillas with ground beef, cheese, and veggies
Night: Start a loaf of sourdough sandwich bread to bake the next morning.
Saturday: French toast
Sandwiches with easy sourdough sandwich bread
Chef’s salad, fruit, and sourdough discard crackers
Prepare bagels in the evening to bake for Sunday morning.
Sunday: Eggs + fruit
Brunch: Sourdough bagel breakfast sandwich
Chicken wings, rice, salad
