Updated for 2018: This is my second year of meal planning and I absolutely love it! Below I’ve outlined my meal planning process and I invite you to join me this year in meal planning with my set of free printables! A variation of this post is featured on the Mommy Blogger Series.
Affiliate links included below which means if you click through or purchase something through my links, I’ll receive a small compensation at no cost to you. See full disclosure here.
I have made a printable calendar for each month of the year and I plan my dinner menu weekly. Meal planning has worked wonderfully since I started at the beginning of 2017 and it has radically changed my lack of motivation to make dinner.
I have reduced stress about what to make
I don’t have to worry at all about what’s for dinner because I already know. It has freed up my mind to focus on other tasks.
There is a handy reference on the fridge
My husband can come home and look at the calendar for reference so he knows exactly what’s for dinner and he can immediately start making it if I am busy with other tasks.
Here are some handy add-ons to enhance your meal planning, including pretty binder and magnet options, sparkle pencils to write in the meals and a check mark stamp to check each day off. I also found a magnetic fridge organizers to hold your writing utensils close by.
The ingredients are available
Since the menu is already planned for the week I have already looked over the recipes and made sure that I have all the ingredients and if not, I already made a trip to the store so they are readily available in our cupboards.
Related Post: A day in the life of lovely little lives
It is satisfying
Although my days are still hectic as a work at home mom, I have the satisfaction that dinner is planned and just that goes a long way in giving me the feeling of a larger sense of order throughout the day.
Here is the process I have adapted to make menu planning work for me.
Print out the menu calendar
I have created this calendar that I print out one month at a time and I keep it on the fridge. I schedule the meals out weekly because it’s too hard to schedule out the whole month, but I like to have the whole month on the same piece of paper so I can add to it each week and make sure I am not repeating meals too often. If you can plan out the whole month at once, then go for it!
Schedule a time to plan
During the weekend, (or Monday morning at the latest), I bring out my menu plan and figure out the meals for the upcoming week. I check the calendar to see what events we have coming up and how that might affect our dinner plans. For instance, if we are going to a friends house for dinner one night, then I write that on the printable calendar so I know I don’t have to plan a meal for that evening.
Decide the meals
I have a rotation of meals I make regularly so I look through that list and just plug them into the week. Since I am simultaneously looking at my family’s schedule for the week, I can decide which days I can make a more time-consuming meal or if I need to make a crockpot meal since I won’t be home all afternoon.
Also, I ask my husband if there is anything he wants to make or a specific day he wants to make it. For example, he really likes to make homemade pizza but I don’t always have the ingredients for it so I need to know that ahead of time in order to be prepared.
Grab your free meal planning packet for all 12 months of the year!Click To TweetLastly, I look at what ingredients we already have on hand and try to make meals that include groceries I already bought. That way nothing goes to waste and I don’t spend unnecessary money when I do go to the store.
Grocery shop
Once you have your meals written down, make a grocery list for the items you don’t have. I type in my grocery lists to the note section of my phone. Ideally, you want to get all your ingredients in one grocery trip so that you don’t have to go too often and can save money in the process.
Related Note: Have you heard of the Ibotta app? It allows you to earn free cash back just by shopping for groceries, clothes, household items, etc. You can sign up through my referral link and start earning free money the next time you go to the store!
Be flexible
No matter how much we plan, life tends to throw curve balls, so ideally you would write out your weekly menu in pencil so that you can erase or change a day if needed. For example, if you have an impromptu take-out dinner because you are too tired to make anything, or if you come down with the flu and have to take a rain check on making that fancy recipe.
I make sure to add one “leftover night” to each week so that if something comes up we have a free night of pre-made food, plus that way we are sure to eat all the leftovers before they spoil.
Create a meal rotation
Like I mentioned earlier, I have a rotation of meals I make regularly so I can just plug those in weekly. Included on my list is meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos, chicken pot pie, chicken enchiladas, pork roast, stir-fry, chicken alfredo, cheddar cheese potato soup and loaded shepherd’s pie.
If you have a running list of meals you usually make, then most of the groundwork is already done for you. A page to write out your rotation of meals is included in the menu planning packet with space to add new recipes and columns to categorize the type of meals including crock pot, soups, oven bakes, sides, ect.
My goal this year is to try out one new recipe a month, at least, and if it’s something we like as a family, I will add it to the menu plan rotation, if not, I won’t add it. I’ve included a new recipe section on the bottom of each month printable so you can write in the new recipes you are going to try out if you so choose.
If you make a certain meal often and you are getting tired of it, then just remove it from the rotation, either temporarily or permanently, and add a different one. I also rotate out meals depending on the season. For instance, I make soup often in the winter but in the summer, we take a break from soup and grill food more often.
Recipe Roundup
To help us all find some new meals to try, I asked my blogging friends to share their recipe posts. Please click through these as you are making your meal rotation list and print out some fresh ideas for your dinner table:
3 Protein-Based No-Recipe Crock Pot Meals
5 Hearty and Mostly Healthy Winter Meals
5 Hearty and Mostly Healthy Winter Meals Part II
5 Comfort Food Recipes for the Cold Weather Months
Baked Ziti with Oriental Slaw and Lemonade Pie Dessert
Cheesy Sausage and Broccoli Soup
Chicken Crockpot Dinner (includes instructions on making chicken bone broth)
Cilantro Lime Shrimp and White Beans
Homemade Mac and Cheese plus a Squash Casserole
Spaghetti Sauce with THM S Option
Sweet and Sour Muffin Meat Loaves
Sweet Potato, Feta and Nut Salad
Are you still with me? As a bonus here are 20 dessert recipes:
Chocolate Covered Banana Muffins
I hope you will try out this system and enjoy the results. If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” Philippians 4:8.
I admire your organization. I learned to cook from my Mom, who has kind of that old-school mentality to cooking – throw in a pinch of this and a little of that. It’s great when you’re feeling creative, but sometimes you just want a freakin’ recipe! Thanks for these links – they’ll be a big help.
Thank you, organization is one of my stronger traits and I try to share my tips when I can. I have to have recipes since I can not cook without one 🙂 We all have our own gifts for sure since that is amazing to me that you can cook without recipes!
This is GREAT! I love meal planning. This post is awesome and so well organized.
Aww, thank you so much, that speaks right to my organized loving heart 🙂
I think your approach to meal planning is great especially for those with children. While my hubby and I don’t have kids at home, sometimes we both are rather lax at trying to figure out who is going to cook. The kicker is that we both work from home, but become so enthralled with our computer screens, that it is often a last minute thing. On the plus side, we have started to eat much healthier in the past couple of months and I think meal planning will definitely help. Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome. Yeah it’s definitely a lot about mind set and planning ahead can help with having more organized and healthier dinners.
Yay, thank you so much for including so many of my recipes in such a comprehensive resource! This is a great guide & I can’t wait to try some of the other recipes. Good luck with your year of meal planning!
You are welcome! Hope you find some good recipes to try.
This is so helpful for my mom life! I also try to organize and plan my meals, but I often get burned out on the same old-same old. I definitely want to try your recipes AND your plan for meal rotation! I think it will definitely ease some of my meal planning stress!
Yay! Glad you found it helpful, I definitely have to switch up meals otherwise it does get old eating the same thing.
These are great tips. I’ve been sitting down and creating a meal plan for the week for a while now and we go grocery shopping on the weekends. It helps us out tremendously to have it all planned and ready to go. It makes my life so much less stressful in the afternoons. I may take it a step further and print out your calendar, too! I can’t wait to check out all those recipes!
Thanks! It does take a little more effort up front to get a meal planning system in place but once I’ve gotten the system down, each week is easier and quicker.
Love this post, thank you for the freebies! I find meal planning takes a lot of stress out of my life. I don’t do as well having a set in stone meal for each day, instead I brainstorm meals we can make first with things we have on hand and make a list of what needs to get bought to complete those meals/have enough meals for the week. Then I know I can make those things and have all the ingredients already and I can just pick one that suits my fancy that day. Another timesaver for me is to go ahead and put fresh meat in a ziploc bag with a marinade and freeze it so it’s all ready to go when I pull it out 🙂
I definitely try to use the ingredients we have on hand too because I try really hard to not let food spoil or go to waste! I have not tried the fresh meat with a marinade but that sounds like a great time saver idea!
WOW! What a comprehensive post with awesome free material! I love how organized you are, I’m definitely sharing with my momma friends!
Thank you so much! I am happy to help 🙂
Great ideas! I don’t meal plan, but can definitely see the benefits. I just haven’t committed to it yet! I love the calendar and thanks so much for all the great recipes!
You’re welcome.It’s definitely a hard thing to get motivated to do, at least for me it was but once I started I’ve been so rewarded with the results!
Great meal planner!!! I’ve been meal planning for a while now and beautiful pages help me stay motivated!!!!
Me too, let me know how you like the meal planning packet!
Great list of recipes! I will have to give some of them a try. I just started back meal planning (it’s one of my goals for the new year)!
Thanks, you and me both on starting to meal plan 😉 Virtual high five!
I love the idea of the reference. That’s a life saver. Thank you so much for sharing this. Totally helps. 🙂
Cass from sugarsaltspice.com
I’m so happy you found it helpful 🙂 I like to have a reference sheet b/c otherwise I forget what meals I usually make 🙂 #mombrainproblems haha
Love your site! And the meal planning guide is great! We get tired of eating the same old things all the time, so this could really breathe some life into our menus! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for the compliment 🙂 Hope you find some new favorites 🙂
Oooh! Recipes to look through! I think I just found what I’m doing this weekend. Thank you for sharing your tips and your planner, and the roundup of recipes with us!
You are welcome!
I have been sort-of meal planning for a while – compiling a list of meals that will last 2-3 weeks before shopping for groceries. My goal is to actually schedule them out on a calendar to be even more productive! I like the printouts that you made to place on the refrigerator.!
Great! Sounds like you already have a decent system in place 🙂
Thank you so much for this awesome resource. I try my best to meal plan but sometimes I get tired of trying to figure out what to cook.
You are welcome 🙂
This is an amazing resource, Hannah!! I’ll be sharing later! And scheduling to pin! Thanks for including my recipes! 🙂
Thanks!
Some of these recipes look sooooo good. What a great idea.
Thanks!
Sounds like a great idea
sheismelrose.net
Thanks!
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays..
[url=https://twitter.com/choise_hard]zakariakl[/url]
Thanks. It is a free theme through WordPress.
Meal planning has always seemed so intimidating to me, but you make it sound easy!
Haha thanks, it was intimidating to me too until I came up with this system and its working like a breeze once I made it part of my weekly routine
I’ve just downloaded this because my husband and I have been saying for ages that we need to meal plan, and since going to the doctors yesterday it seems as though we DO need to meal plan for my health (as well as the health of our son), so I’m going to be getting on top of it this weekend. Thank you so much for linking this up! Can’t wait to see what you have to share next week 🙂
Great! So glad to help. I was excited to find your link up, it looks like a good one 🙂
Great idea! I did something similar when my children were young. What a stress-reliever it was! Thanks for sharing this. Now that my children are grown, I don’t need to do quite as much planning. Glad to be following you at Lori’s today!
Thanks for reading! Yes it is making a world of difference for me, that is for sure.
I’ve been wanting to get more organized in my meal planning… This is perfect timing!
Awesome! Best of luck and let me know if you have any questions 🙂
Thank you so much for posting this at the Party in Your PJs Link party! I’m only a few months late getting this habit started, but I really could use a roadmap to my cooking this year! Planning on printing this out ASAP!
If you’re ever looking for another link party to post on, I run the #FanDayFriday Link Party and would love to help you share your posts with the other party members! http://iamzoewatson.com/category/fandayfriday-link-party/
Great thanks, I’ll look into it 🙂
Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this
site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very difficult to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and appearance.
I must say that you’ve done a awesome job with this.
Also, the blog loads super quick for me on Chrome. Exceptional Blog!
Thank you, that is great to hear.
So nice to meet another woman who’s not very big on cooking. This is amazing and might be something I need to look into. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yes haha I am so not a kitchen person 😉 Glad you found it helpful, I am loving it so far.
Flexibility is definitely the key for me!!! I meal plan a little differently than you, but we still get the same effect. 🙂
There are plenty of ways to plan 😉
This is awesome! Meal planning and cooking are some of my least favorite things to do. Thanks for this great resource!
Me too! haha that is why I put together this resource for my own sanity 😉
This is such a great setup!! I’m actually getting excited for the new year!
Thanks. the new year is a great time to set some goals.
I love meal planning, but a meal rotation is a good idea. I always seem to start anew every two weeks which isn’t ideal.
Yeah I really like the meal rotation, it helps me tremendously.
Thank you! This is perfect! My husband and I need to start planning our meals!
You are welcome.
I plan my meals weekly now, which has been a great step forward. I love having all the product in the house and the fact that it makes life so much easier. This looks great, I’m thinking I need to do more when I look at this. Awesome!
Thanks. I like planning weekly too.
Wow! This meal planner looks like a great variety & so helpful! Serving our families is always worthwhile!
Thanks. meal planning has definitely helped me serve my family better
I love to meal prep! It’s one of the easiest things to do to help with the week. Usually it’s always the, “what do you want for dinner?” and everyone groans. This way, you have everything you need and no hassle to figure it out since it’s all right there on a handy sheet!
Yeah, it can really add order to my week too.
You really made meal planning easier for the rest of us. Thanks for the tips and recipes!
Thanks. I’m glad it is helpful.
Getting paid once a month, this resource would help out a lot. Thanks so much for sharing.
Yeah, you can really save on groceries if you meal plan and use the groceries you have.
This looks super helpful, Hannah! I do something like this with our family. I have to have a plan with 7 of us. I usually just use a notebook and plan out my week on Sunday and run to the store.
That works too 🙂 I say go with whatever works best for you!
Wow — this is so organized! I love how you have really thought about all the details! I never would have thought to include deserts in a meal plan😳 I love this, thanks for creating it!
You are welcome! I’m glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for this! Meal planning keeps me sane! I also have one child who is VERY detail orientated, and likes to know what is for dinner like, next week. This would be super handy to have on the fridge so she can just read instead of asking me the menu for the next week! Lol! Just as long as I don’t change anything up on her, I should be good to go!
My daughter is like that too, she likes to know what is for dinner. I guess she got that from me 😉
Meal planning is so stressful for me! I end up getting overwhelmed and in a rut of making the same simple things over and over again! Excited for your meal planning ideas to change that in 2018!
That’s how I felt too until I started using this system and the printables. I hope they can help you too!
Thanks! I have become so used to it, I don’t know what to do without it either.
Thank you. Anything to help create order with a newborn in the house 😉
Thank you. I hope this post helps you.
Yes, it is rewarding and practice makes perfect 😉
I try to minimize my grocery trips as well. Meal planning makes it easier.
Thanks, I hope you can have success with it 🙂
You are welcome. What a good idea for a monthly club!