Meal planning is a task you absolutely LOVE or totally HATE. There truly is no in-between.
When my husband and I were first married, I rarely planned much of anything and was a bit scared to cook. Now with a family of four, I LOVE to cook and planning out a menu for the week helps this Momma Bear keep her life in order!
I’ve told my best friend about my master plan and she said I should share so here it is! My simple weekly meal plan.
For each dinner, I start by choosing a main dish then add sides to make sure I’m including all food groups. Here is how it works.
Monday’s are for Italian cuisine. Our ‘go to’ is usually spaghetti, roasted carrots, Cesar salad and a Sister Schubert roll. Below I’ve listed some our family favorites.
Main Dish: spaghetti, lasagna, Parmesan chicken, ravioli
Veggies: roasted carrots, brussel sprouts, green beans
Salad: Caesar or Olive Garden copy cat salad
Bread: yeast roll, garlic bread or cheesy bread stick
Tuesdays are for TACOS and all our favorite Mexican entrees! I could probably make Mexican food every night and the family would be happy!
Main Dish: Tacos, Nachos, Pablano Chicken, Enchiladas, Wonton Tacos, Chicken Fajita.
Sides: Spanish rice, black beans, re-fried beans, Mexican Salad or street Corn.
Wednesdays consist of soup and sandwiches! During summer months, I tend to stick to sandwiches. We dine on warm soothing soups when winter rolls in. Gourmet grilled cheese and tomato basil Soup is the family favorite for Wednesdays.
Sandwich: hot ham & cheese, grilled cheese, Italian sub, tuna melt
Soup: Tomato Basil, broccoli and cheese, chicken noodle, loaded veggie Ramen or Miso
Sides: roasted veggies, pasta salad, fries, sushi
Thursdays are reserved for the classic Meat and Three. Those are my husbands favorite nights! I normally let him pick the main dish and start building from there.
Main Dish: meatloaf, Salisbury steak, beef stroganoff, steak, fried chicken, steak
Sides: mashed potato, green beans, corn on the cob, sweet carrots, green peas, baked potato
Bread: yeast roll, bread stick, garlic bread
Salad: Cesar, classic, spinach
Fridays are ‘kid friendly’ meals. Friday nights are also family movie nights. Sometimes I plan ahead and coordinate the movie with the meal. We have Spaghetti if we are watching Lady and the Tramp or we make ghost cookies when we watch Hocus Pocus. That takes some extra Pinterest planning so most times, I just let the kiddos pick it all .
Main Dish: Hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza (‘Mommy pizza’ to be exact), Taco Wontons, corndogs, so many other choices
Sides: fries, cheese fries, pasta salad, popcorn, countless other choices here too.
Finally it’s time for the weekend !!! Weekends are for lazy meals. I refuse to work at this point. On Saturdays, I cook an extremely large meal in the slow cooker so that there are plenty of leftovers on Sunday.
Favorites include: Aunt Martha’s soup and jalapeno cornbread, roast beef with carrots and potatoes, veggie stew with sweet rolls, mushroom pork chops with potatoes, poor mans stew with cornbread.
The easiest is a big pot of chili on Saturday with Chili dogs for Sunday Night Football.
Why do I like planning this way? Most weeks I set aside time to research recipes on Pinterest or leisurely leaf through cookbooks or good ‘ole family recipes. I can make my weekly menu as extravagant as I want or simple and budget friendly if needed.
Why don’t you see a lot of Asisan Meals? Right now, all I know how to make is Ramen. My chicken fried rice is disgusting!!!!! Once I learn to make amazing egg rolls, fried rice, wontons, dumplin’s etc. Then there will be more to chose from.
I have one more trick up my sleeve when it comes to weekly meal planning. I’m not a great cook and I get bored repeating the same old meals. When this happens, I hop over to Emeals. You can choose from categories like kid friendly, Mediterranean, gluten free, heart healthy, keto, paleo…. there are so many to choose from.
You simply pick the number of people in your household and then pick the grocery store you shop from. Emeals searches your chosen store for sale items as they plan your weekly menu. Meals are perfectly portioned for the household size you select. Here’s where it gets really good!!!
Not only do they send you recipes and a weekly grocery list for your chosen plan, they can send your grocery list to your ‘cart’ if you have your chosen store’s app. It’s absolutely amazing. I use Emeals a lot in the summer when the kiddos are out of school and I have more time to review recipes as I cook.
Hope you find this helpful! It’s an easy meal planning method that’s worked well for me. Now to go search Pinterest for some excellent Asian recipes !!!
Have fun meal planning until we meet again!
