It’s that time of the week!
Time to plan out your meals so that you can get ready for all those mouths to feed!
These weekly meal plan ideas are meant to make your planning easier!
It’s a total breeze once you get the hang of meal planning! It’s a time-saver, money saver, and sanity saver, too!
Every week is a great way to plan out the meals so that it’s one less thing that you have to stress over.
I’ve been meal planning for years, and I STILL love it!
But just because I’ve been doing it forever doesn’t mean I know everything about it all!
This is still a journey that I’m on myself, but I thought it would be super fun for us all to do it together!
People love to bond over food, and that’s 100% true!
Can anyone meal plan?
YES, YES YES! Meal planning can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. (so make it easy!)
Breakfast meal plans
We keep it simple in our house. I don’t meal plan breakfast. Period.
Instead, we rely on cereal, oatmeal, eggs, toast – that sort of food.
Meal planning for lunch
The same pattern follows for lunch.
Anything leftover is fair game, or the kids can make a sandwich and enjoy that.
The real meal planning in our house is for dinner.
Dinner Meal Planning
Since most of us are busing during the week and running around, it just makes sense to come together and plan out the meal at night.
It’s a time for us to slow down, eat together, and catch up.
Below is a quick recipe view of delicious options, but make sure to scroll down to the bottom to see pictures of the yummy dishes!
Monday: Crock Pot Spiral Sliced Glazed Ham
Tuesday: Mushroom Chicken
Wednesday: Grilled Pepperoni Pizza Sandwich Recipe
Thursday: Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings
Friday: Grilled Chicken Pineapple Kabobs Recipe
Saturday: Open
Sunday: Bonus Night (make sure to scroll down to the bottom to find out what a Bonus night is!)
Printable Grocery List
Below is a free and simple grocery list that you can print out and use to keep track of all the ingredients that you’re going to need for the week.
This is my go-to for keeping a list of items I need from the store, so I don’t overspend and buy something impulsively.
Ways to Reuse Leftovers
- Cook chicken in the crockpot – Great and simple tip! There are so many ways to use chicken in recipes so if you can cook a batch, you can then disperse it and use it in so many dishes throughout the week!
- Change up the side dish – If you have enough leftovers to serve again the next day, switch up the side dish option so that it’s new flavors added in with the repeat.
- Make one of your meal planning nights a “leftover night” – This is a smart way to let everyone know that “whatever night” every week is the night to eat all the leftovers. This is a great way to cut down on the waste.
Meal Planning Weekly Schedule
Grab your free printable shopping list and take it with you to the store to easily grab everything you’ll need to make the following meals this week.
Crock Pot Spiral Sliced Glazed Ham
Start the week with a crockpot meal, and you’ll have leftovers to enjoy all week long, too!
Add some creamy mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and buttermilk biscuits for a well rounded comfort meal.
Mushroom Chicken
This copycat recipe will have you stopping takeout and making your own from here on out.
All you need is some white or brown rice to go with it.
Grilled Pepperoni Pizza Sandwich Recipe
Put a fun spin on pizza with this easy sandwich recipe.
Pair with a side salad for a little bit of health!
Crockpot Chicken and Dumpings
The perfect comfort food. A little bit of this, and you’ll be ready to snuggle in for the night.
Grilled Chicken Pineapple Kabobs Recipe
It’s so much fun to eat off a stick! The flavor of the chicken and pineapple is the best! Grab and go!
Printable Grocery Shopping List
I don’t have the weekends planned because we tend to go off the rail and do something fun like ordering pizza or sometimes even going out to eat.
Sunday is church day, and that means we grab some food and typically eat leftovers as well.
What is a Bonus Day?
This is a day where it’s the family’s choice!
Eating out, eating popcorn, eating cookies (well, maybe not that big of choice!), but you get where I’m going with it!
Or you can use this night to try any of the recipes from our Recipe Index that you want.
If you make any of these recipes, I would love to hear how you liked them.
Feel free to join us in the private Cooking Club FB Group here and share a photo of any of your meals with everyone else. This is a great place to get or give encouragement to others on the same mission to Saving Dinner!
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