I think we are all looking for the answer to the age-old question…
“What’s for dinner?!!”
As a mom, I feel the pressure of this question.
“Agh! I don’t have a plan! I’m lacking in my responsibilities as a mother and wife!” The adversary likes to fill my head with all kinds of garbage that JUST ISN’T TRUE!
My ability to plan ahead for meals, or be a spur-of-the-moment type cook doesn’t define how I love my family.
However, I have discovered that I do feel less stressed when I have some sort of plan. And that goes for multiple areas of my life, not just meal planning. We recently took a mini-vacation to Utah and I was all about having a plan! Plans just help to make things (all kinds of things) go smoother.
There have been various times of my life when my desire to meal plan has waxed and waned. With this past school year being so chaotic due to Covid, homeschooling, my church calling, my desire to become a little better each day, etc… I’ve tried to help myself out a little by making some sort of meal plan. It’s not perfect. It’s a work in progress. Some weeks, or months, I don’t do anything. But I keep coming back to it. I know it will help me.
After years of trying out different shopping lists, menu planning worksheets, etc. I’ve compiled some of my favorite ideas and made them into a printable document that I’m sharing with you. For FREE! 😉
I like to have a printed document. I prefer to write things out by hand. I’ve tried several apps, and online lists, but they just don’t work for me. Plus, I’m trying to spend less time on my phone, not more. With my printed version I have a visual reminder to make a plan, stick to the plan (somewhat), and it allows the rest of the family to see the plan and I can more easily avoid the daily “what’s for dinner ?”. I hang my planner page on the side of one of my kitchen cabinets, but taped to the inside of a cabinet door would work well, too. A little less visible, but still close at hand. Do what works for you.
I like to laminate my weekly planner. I use wipe-off markers so I can reuse the same sheet each week.
Now, as I stated above, I am a work in progress. In more areas than one. My goal is to use my meal planner on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. I make a month-long plan. Just planning dinner for each day. I don’t typically plan out breakfast and lunch, but that may change some now that we are heading into summer. Then each week I write down those already planned meals and make a shopping list. And each day I hope to check my plan and be prepared, instead of rushing and stressing in the evening, right before dinner time. However, I don’t always fill out EVERY day of the plan. Sometimes, I might not be sure what our plans are. Maybe we want to do date night, but don’t have a plan yet. Sometimes, I just don’t feel like eating what I have scheduled for that day. I allow myself some flexibility. No one is checking up on me to see if I followed my plan!! Thank goodness. Haha.
I also like to plan left-overs nights occasionally. My mom taught me to cook for a crowd, so we typically have stuff leftover, and I DO NOT LIKE wasting food! So we try and eat everything, even if it is on “International-Smorgasborg-Night.” But, I write those nights on the schedule, too.
I’ve also found that by having a plan, I am much less stressed when I have prepared earlier in the day and put that night’s meat out to thaw, or done whatever prep is needed. Or have the crockpot meal going early enough in the day. If I don’t think about those things until dinner time, it’s a lot harder to thaw and cook chicken for chicken parmigiana at 5:00 and eat at 5:30. Again, a little advanced thinking and planning makes me less stressed. When mom is less stressed everyone else seems a lot happier, too. Weird.
Click each image below to access each printable.
I’d love to hear if these are helpful to you! Leave me a comment and tell me what works for you in the meal planning department. Thanks for reading along here. I appreciate your time. 😉
These are the type of clipboards I currently use. This is the laminator I have. These are the Expo Markers I use.
I do use affiliate links. This just means that if you purchase any items through my links I will earn a small percentage for your referral, at NO cost to you! Thanks!
