Feeding other humans is exhausting, but somehow deciding WHAT to feed them and WHEN can be the hardest part. Creating a meal plan for a family can seem like a time-consuming hassle, but it doesn’t have to be! Today, I’m sharing with you everything you need to know if you want to get started with meal planning.
The Importance of Meal Planning
My guess is that you already have an idea of the meal planning perks, but I wanted to do a quick outline of the benefits of meal planning, just in case.
Save Time
First and foremost, I talk about meal planning so much on this blog because I know that it saves SO much time in the long run. Taking a few minutes each week to map out your meals can save time by reducing mid-week trips to the grocery store, time spent cruising Pinterest for last-minute meal ideas, or waiting for carryout orders.
Save Money
Speaking of carryout orders, meal planning will reduce those costly trips to restaurants on nights when you didn’t plan dinner. When you meal plan, you will also save money on wasted food, because you’ll be grocery shopping with a plan in mind; you’ll buy less food that you DON’T need because you’ll know exactly what you DO need.
Eat Better
When there is very little time to get dinner on the table, the quick and easy foods we turn to are often lacking in nutrition or abundant in preservatives. By planning and shopping ahead of time, you will ensure that you have everything on hand to cook healthy meals at home.
Eat Together
This is, by far, my favorite benefit of meal planning. In the many years that I have been meal planning for my family, I have noticed that the weeks when I create a meal plan (and stick to it) are the weeks that we consistently sit down together as a family to eat our meals. This can be more difficult to do when running through the drive-thru or eating in shifts as the Hot Pockets come out of the microwave. (This is not a snarky or judgmental statement…I’m genuinely speaking from experience.)
Now that you know WHY meal planning is important, let’s discuss the HOW.
Meal Planning for Beginners
Whether you are meal planning for yourself or for a family, you’ll follow the same basic steps for creating a simple meal plan. However, there are a few more tips that I want to share when you’re meal planning for your family. Before we get to those ideas, I wanted to share a simple meal planning process with you.
How Do I Create a Simple Meal Plan?
By following the same easy pattern each week, you can have meal planning down to a science! It won’t take you much time at all to create a meal plan and grocery list for the week. In fact, it’s as easy as: A-B-C-D-E!
(If you prefer video, I’ve done a YouTube video all about my ABCDE meal planning method. You can click below to watch!)
– A –
The first step in meal planning is to look at what you ALREADY HAVE in your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. Not only will this help to avoid food waste, but it will also give you a few meal ideas without ever having to open your cookbooks!
– B –
The next step in meal planning is to look for BARGAINS. What’s on sale at your local grocery store this week? If chicken breasts are a great price, you might want to add a few chicken-based meals to your menu for the week. Shopping the sales will not only save money, but it should also spark a few meal ideas for your plan.
– C –
Did you think that C stands for “cookbooks” because it’s finally time to peruse recipes? Nope! In my world, C stands for CALENDAR. When meal planning, it’s important to take into consideration the activities going on that week. Will you have a late night at work? You might want a slow cooker recipe for that day. Will a particular family member be gone one night? Use that opportunity to cook a meal that they don’t love, since they won’t be there to complain.
Another way that I use the calendar when meal planning is to look at food-centered holidays when I’m stumped for ideas. Check out my blog post with 365 days of food holidays to help you meal plan! There’s even a cheat sheet that you can print off for easy reference when you’re meal planning.
– D –
Now it’s time to actually fill in your meal plan. D stands for DINNER because you’ll want to plan your dinners first. I think you’ll find that you already have ideas for most of your week’s dinners just by completing the first three steps. This is also when you’ll want to start jotting down the items you need from the grocery store in order to make each dinner (if you’re meal planning with a paper-pencil method).
Why plan all of the dinners first?
Dinners are typically the most ingredient-heavy meal. You can often create lunches (or even breakfasts) with leftover ingredients from your dinner prep. Also, you don’t really need to plan lunch on a day after a meal with a large amount of leftovers.
– E –
The final step to quickly create a simple meal plan is to write down EVERYTHING ELSE. After you’ve planned the dinners for the week, fill in breakfast and lunch if you’d like! (Note: I don’t “plan” lunches or breakfasts. We have our usual go-to items that I just keep on hand.)
“Everything Else” also stands for anything else you need from the grocery store. Are you running low on pantry staples? Are there snacks you always like to have on hand? Get those items written on your list!
As you get more comfortable with meal planning, this process will take just a few minutes each week. But it wouldn’t be Mommy Standard Time if I didn’t have some additional time-saving tips for you! Keep reading for how you can save even more time when meal planning for your family.
Family Meal Planning Ideas
For the rest of this meal planning guide, I’m going to be assuming that you are meal planning for a family. However, that doesn’t mean that these ideas can’t be used when meal planning for one!
Dinner Theme Nights
One of my FAVORITE ways to save time when meal planning is to have different themes for each night of the week. Think “Taco Tuesday” but MORE!
One of the biggest ways that I waste time when meal planning is when I fall into the recipe rabbit hole, trying to narrow down an overwhelming number of dinner ideas to one week’s worth! By having themes for each night of the week, the options are drastically reduced, making it easier to quickly decide.
Kids also love getting in on the fun of dinner theme nights! You could rotate the theme nights every few months and let the kids help to decide the meal themes. Check out my post where I outline over 50 dinner theme ideas to choose from!
Family Menu Board
This might seem like just an extra step, but writing down your meal plan on a family menu board will actually save time in the long run.
But how?
For just a second, think about how often during the week you answer the question: “What’s for dinner?”
Then, think about how much time you spend trying to avoid negotiations centering around your answer to that question.
There is something magical about the family menu board. Yes, there might be a few complaints when you initially write down the meals for the week. But I think you’ll find that the negotiation attempts are FAR fewer. The menu board becomes this sort of neutral third party that doesn’t field complaints or negotiations.
Having the meals written down where everyone can see them can also keep the meal plan on track. I’m much more likely to scrap my dinner plans when I haven’t mentioned them to the kids. However, when they’re looking forward to a particular meal after seeing it on the menu board, they hold me to it.
Would you like to start using a menu chalkboard but you don’t love your handwriting? Check out how I was able to dress up my meal planning chalkboard (with no artistic talent).
Digital Meal Planning Apps
One of my favorite ways to save time on meal planning for my family is to leverage a digital meal planning tool. I have been using the same all-in-one meal planning app – Plan to Eat – for years because it saves me so much time!
You can quickly clip and store recipes that you find online so you don’t have to scroll through saved social media posts or cluttered Pinterest boards.
You can drag and drop your saved recipes onto your calendar to create a meal plan for the week, the month, or longer!
The best part is that the app compiles the ingredients for all of your planned meals into one organized shopping list. You can even quickly type in any additional items you need to buy from the store.
Digital meal planners really are a game changer when it comes to meal planning for a family! If you’d like to take a closer look at my favorite meal planning app, check out my review of Plan to Eat.
Save These Tips for How to Mean Plan for a Family
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite meal planning board on Pinterest.
