6 Steps to Weekly Meal Planning

Weekly meal planning can be a little intimidating for some. I once tried the full blown meal prepping where you prep everything on Sunday and portion out every meal for the week. This lasted only about a week or two before I decided it just wasn’t for me. While I am a planner, it didn’t offer much variety and flexibility.

So, I developed my own way of meal planning that works for me when things are constantly changing between appointments and kids’ extracurricular activities. Meal planning is beneficial because it creates less food waste, saves money on groceries, and allows you to be more efficient with your evenings.

Download my free weekly meal planner below and follow each step to create your perfect menu for the week. I tend to only use this for dinners but you can consult my Quick School Lunches post if you need some ideas planning lunch meals.

Step 1: Write down appointments/events

First step when meal planning is to consult your calendar and see what is scheduled for the week. These are things that absolutely cannot be moved. For example, I love to go to the theater so there are some evenings that are entirely held up with that. I like to write these appointments or events all out just so I can start mentally planning what the week might look like.

Step 2: Write down kid extracurriculars

If you are planning to try making a brand new meal, it is important to not schedule that for a day when the kids have soccer and a two-hour ballet performance. That would be a day you might need to have a quick meal or a something you could make ahead. It is important to note which extracurriculars might be flexible so you can plan your week most efficiently for the meals you are trying to make.

Step 3: Plan a variety of meals

If you have picky eaters in your family, it is important to get them involved with planning the meals each week as then they are more likely to eat it. When thinking about what to put on the menu, I always ask my family what they would like to eat. Everybody then gets to pick one meal that they will love and get to look forward to. This is a great starting off point and then I fill in the rest of the week’s meals with some variety. So, if my family happens to all pick chicken meals, I try to balance out the rest of the week with seafood, vegetarian, or meat options. At this point, I am just looking for a variety of meals to fill seven days.

Step 4: Schedule meals for each day

Now that I know what is on the calendar and what meals I would like to plan, the next step is to fill in one dinner per day. I make these decisions based on how long I think each meal will take to make. I can whip together spaghetti and meatballs pretty quickly, so that meal tends to get planned on the days that kids have a lot of extracurriculars. On the other hand, if I am trying a brand new recipe, I know that might take me a little longer to cook and I schedule it for a day that we don’t have anything else on the calendar.

Step 5: Create grocery list

Once I know what meals I am making for the week, I create my grocery list based on what is needed for each meal. It helps me figure out quantities and make sure that I don’t miss anything. You can then take this list and just add any other pantry staples you need to stock up on.

Hot tip: Create a menu that uses similar ingredients to save on money. For example, if you are going to purchase a big bag of spinach for your lasagna, perhaps you create a side salad another night to use the remaining ingredients.

Step 6: Keep frozen options available

What makes this style of meal planning successful is that it can be fairly flexible. Appointments might run long or kids might end up scheduling a play date, so I find myself sometimes shifting the meal I planned for Friday to Tuesday to fit our updated schedule. It is not a big hassle because I know I already have all the ingredients on hand.

Nevertheless, there are always going to be days when you just don’t want to cook. Sometimes that means you might end up ordering pizza or going out to dinner, but there is no shame in just heating up some chicken nuggets and fries. We always have frozen food items on hand and also a pantry filled with ramen bowls. While it may not be the healthiest option, having these items on hand make for stress free dinners on the days you simply don’t have time or the energy to cook a full meal.

And that’s it! I recommend you figure out what works for you as this style of meal planning has a lot of flexibility. If you need some ideas for quick and easy meals, check out my Meal Planning or Pinterest page.