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Meal Planning like a Boss

I can’t even begin to imagine a life without meal planning. I know that sounds a little dramatic, but it makes me anxious just thinking about it!

Life without meal planning would go something like this: I’d head to the grocery store, with not a clue for what to even buy. I’d wander around the aisles, picking up random things that looked good. I would probably be hungry and that would cause me to buy literally everything I laid my eyes on. I would finally decide to check out, spending way more money than necessary. I’d get home and ask myself: “Self, what’s for dinner?” I’d then struggle to try to come up with meals to make from the ingredients I bought. I’d probably decide to go out to dinner and spend even more money. Days would pass and the produce and meat I purchased would begin to go bad. I’d then be angry at myself for not thinking my weekly meal planning through. Doesn’t that sound terrible?

Meal planning helps me be more organized, saves me money, helps me feed my family healthier meals, and keeps my sanity. I would go legit go insane without a meal plan.

Free Printable Meal Planner + Grocery List

The first thing you will need to successfully meal plan is my free meal planning and grocery list printable. You’ll find that at the end of this post. I like to keep my meal planning and grocery list all in one place and that’s why I created these printables. You can scroll down to download that now if you’d like – I’ll be right here waiting to share all of my meal planning tips with you!

It’s worth mentioning that I typically only plan for dinners. You can plan your breakfasts and lunches too using this same method. 

Meal Planning Tips

Choose a day to meal plan. Typically, my day for meal planning is Thursday. I only work a half a day on these days so that gives me a chance to sit down and think about what kinds of meals I want to prepare for the weekend and coming week. Maybe your day will be Saturday or Sunday; whatever it is, choose a day that works for you.

Only plan 3-4 meals at a time. If you are a master food planner, you might be able to plan an entire weeks worth of meals, but that is not me. I like to stick to 3-4 and that works really well for my family. Less food goes to waste and if something comes up during the week that interrupts the meal plan (we all have those nights we just don’t want to cook, don’t we?!) you can rearrange and not accidentally waste food.

Keep your meal plans! So many times I have created a meal plan for the week and then thrown it away when I was done with it. Why, oh, why did I think that was a good idea? If you keep your meal plans, you can recycle them in a few weeks, saving yourself even more time!

Be flexible. It’s totally okay if you decide you don’t want salmon and Brussel sprouts on Monday. Maybe you had a rough day that calls for something like the tacos you had planned for Tuesday. If you’re flexible with your plan, you’re more likely to stick to it since you won’t feel like you fell completely off track.

Meal prep on a day that you have some extra time. For me, this is usually Sunday. I don’t obligate myself to a whole lot on Sundays because I know I need to get prepared for the week ahead. Whatever day you choose, do things like chop onions, marinate meat and cut up potatoes. This saves a ton of time on a busy week night when my children want my attention after a day of day care.

Keep a list of family favorite meals. If there are meals that your family is always happy to eat, rotate those into your meal plan frequently! Some of our favorites include Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Parmesan and Shepherd’s pie. I know that when I make these, everyone is happy! This makes dinner time much more relaxing because I don’t have to beg my children to eat.

Go with a theme. When I feel like I just don’t know what to make or where to start when meal planning, I go with some kind of theme that offers a basic guideline. For example, if I were to start with”meatless Monday”, all of the sudden I have lots of ideas for meals that I can make that are meatless! Try doing taco Tuesday, (we don’t always have tacos;  I switch out things like quesadillas, enchiladas, and nachos.) Seafood Saturday, a slow cooker or instant pot day, a salad day or an Italian or Asian day. This is a technique that I use almost every week.

Don’t forget about variety! When meal planning, sometimes I lay the plan out like this: Monday is a chicken meal, Tuesday is beef, Wednesday is seafood, Thursday is pasta night and Friday is take out/pizza night, and so on. This is another trick that I use to help me come up with ideas for meals.

Your meal plan and grocery list go hand in hand!  My meal planning process goes like this: I go through my fridge and cupboards to see what I currently have that needs to be used. With that in my head, I sit down (usually on Pinterest because that’s where I have tons and tons of recipes and meal ideas!) and use the tips above to create a meal plan for the week ahead. Once my meal plan is complete, I then go through each meal and add any ingredients I need to buy to the grocery list. I head to the store with the meal plan and grocery list in hand. That way, I can reference my meal plan if needed, or improvise if the store is out of something I need for a particular meal. I stick to what I need (if I’m lucky!) and get in and out as soon as I can.

And that, my friends, is how to meal plan like a boss. Now, grab a copy of this free printable for yourself and start meal planning!