When you have kids, you have to be all about planning or you won’t make it. I am just joking, but it’s not completely false. Without a strict plan you will not be able to focus on anything, trust me. Having a plan helps me to remember all I have to do and to do more in my short day..
One thing that I find really useful is weekly family meal menu planning, so I wanted to share my tips with you. It’s good to use some of the best menu planning app or just take a piece of paper and start writing.
Why you should have a family meal menu plan? Family meal menu plan will take away the guesswork of what you will have for dinner as the evening approaches and you are getting ready to leave work for home. Then you start thinking about ingredients that you have in the refrigerator and try to think what can you do with that. Probably nothing, so you also need to go to the grocery store.. Etc Etc. At the end you will just end with some unhealthy takeaway. That is not really good for you or for your kids.
Menu planning is a great way to make sure you and your kids are eating a balanced diet. And, it can save you time and money.
Tips For Easy Family Meal Menu Planning
1. Every Monday, Thursday, Sunday or any other day that works for you sit down, take a piece of paper and a pencil and write down lunch ideas for every single day. You can use a printable menu planner too. Also, choose
If you’re more of a tech-savy person, you can choose a best menu planning app for you.
I truly recommend MealPlan. It’s such a great menu planning app. It’s awesome for first-time meal planners and you just need 5 minutes a day and your family meal menu will be ready.
You can also use it as a grocery list helper.
2. Try to include one new meal to your menu planning every week. You can find ideas for new meals on numerous food blogs that you can find on internet. For example, Wanda Ann from
You can find ideas for new meals on numerous food blogs that you can find on internet. For example, Wanda Ann from Memories by the Mile has amazing recipes you should check out! It’s easier to do that if you decide that one day a week will be your “New Meal Day”. When I read food blogs, I bookmark all the recipes I like, so when it’s my New Meal Day, I just browse through my bookmarks and find something I like. If the meal is successful then I put it into my cookbook.
If you would like to try something new today, go for my Savory Spinach Rolls – simple and tasty.
3. When you finish your family meal menu planning, put your printable menu planner on your fridge, so you can’t forget about it. And then, when you go shopping for groceries, buy only what you need for that week planned meals. I guarantee you that you will spend less money and the less food will be wasted!
4. At the end of the week, when it’s time to write a new family meal menu plan, look into your fridge and see what groceries can you use for next week meals.
5. If you want to save more money, then look online what kind of sale does your supermarket has this week, so plan your meals in the way that you include food products that are on sale this week. My favorite supermarket has sale on chicken breasts, so I will definitely have chicken two times this week!
That’s it! Simple as that! And don’t say: “I will do family meal menu planning next week!”… Do it now!! Now is a perfect moment to start a new habit!
Find some cool printable menu planner to make the family meal menu planning easier or install best family meal planning app. Trust me, in just few weeks you will forget how the life looked like before you started family meal menu planning.
I’m so guilty of putting it off all the time! I used to do a monthly plan and do groceries every week. But then, at month end, I wouldn’t have time to make a new meal plan and I’d let the ff month go by without it. I guess you’re right, we’ll try to do a weekly plan instead. Thanks for the push. We got to do it now!
It’s already that time of the year, lots of pinning, planning, and lists, I have lists to organize my lists lol. I’m going to check out the meal planner app, I tend to eat the same things over and over again, which is B-O-R-I-N-G Those savory spinach rolls look delicious 🙂
I am SLOWLY getting better about planning out our week, meal-wise. I have taken to pre-making meals at the end of each week, so all I have to do is warm up the main dishes each night… soooo much easier.. when I remember to do it, that is, haha! – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
Those savory spinach rolls looks divine! Yum! I am in a meal time rut and truthfully, I think it can all be blamed on the fact that my planning is not really working right now. Great tips! Thanks for sharing 🙂
My goal for myself and my little family (of just my husband and I) is to get more organized as we move forward. This will be so helpful, thank you!