Weekly Meal Planning
Planning a weekly menu is a great way to save money and not waste food. Here are a few tips to help you plan your weekly menu in a snap:
Ingredients/Write it Out
This sounds simple but write it out, whether you prefer a paper notebook or a digital note, just write it down. Once you plan meal ideas for each day then do a separate section to list out the ingredients your actually need. Don’t forget to double check your pantry, refrigerator and the recipe to make sure you listed out all your ingredients.
Easy Meal on Fridays
Since Friday is usually a busy day (or at least an exhausting day!) as we finish the work week or school week, it makes it easy to have two simple meals to rotate on Fridays. For example, my family loves pizza and hot dogs. So every week I just rotate these meals for Friday dinners. It makes it easy and the kids enjoy making the pizzas with me.
Taco Day
If your kids are like mine, Tuesday or Thursday taco night is a highly requested meal. There are endless options for taco recipes so this is an easy one to have on each week’s menu. Sometimes my kids prefer soft tortilla tacos and other weeks they want crunchy ones. And of course we change out the weekly toppings too!
Leftover Meals
This is an easy one to help decrease how many days per week you need to cook. I usually try to do at least one to two leftovers meals per week. Of course some families don’t like leftovers but if they do, this is a great way to help not waste food too!
Breakfast/Lunch
As for breakfast and lunch, I usually don’t plan it day by day but make sure I have options available for the family such as sandwich and salad options. However, if you have the time or energy to plan out these meals too that is a great way to make sure you use up all your weekly groceries. Some easy ideas for breakfast is overnight oats or batch cooking over the weekend. For example, make extra waffles or pancakes over the weekend, and then your kids have leftovers for the school mornings. Another easy idea is hard boiled eggs for breakfast or lunch.
Meal Service
Lastly, if it is in your family budget adding a meal service plan is extremely helpful. My family subscribes to HelloFresh, and we have enjoyed this convenience. We only get two dinners per week, but it definitely makes our week night dinners easier and cuts down on waste too.
I hope this helps you plan your weekly menu or inspires you to start planning a menu so you can save time and money! I hope you have a lovely week.
