Hey friends! I just made a new menu and I created this meal planning guide to fill you in on my process!  If you aren’t an experienced meal planner, it can feel overwhelming when you get started. Thinking about every meal and every snack every person in your family is going to eat every single day is a lot!

My life as a mom revolves around preserving my sanity and this approach to meal planning definitely accomplishes that. Although I have years of meal planning experience under my belt, I adopted this 5-week method about a year ago. I love it because I spend even less time stressing about what we’re going to eat and it helps us save money because we’re more mindful with our groceries.

Step 1: Easy Breakfasts, Lunches, and Snacks

It’s important to note that when I say “meal plan,” I’m mostly referring to dinner. We always have quick options on hand for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks so that dinner is the only time I’m truly cooking.

Breakfast is usually fruit with oatmeal, bagels, frozen waffles, or toast. Lunch is either leftovers from the previous night’s dinner or whatever arrangement of food the kids feel like packing in their lunch boxes.

We also make sure to have a variety of snacks on hand, often including fresh produce, goldfish, granola bars, string cheese, and crackers. I like to buy these items in bulk every few weeks and I make them accessible so my kids can help themselves.

Step 2: List of Dinners

To make our dinner menu, I start with a long list of meals that I can quickly and confidently put together. This list is an accumulation of years of trial and error. Each time my husband and I have seen an idea or recipe we liked, we just added it to our list. I have about 50 meals right now, and many of them are variations of each other. Nothing fancy, just great tasting, convenient food.

You probably won’t start with 50 meals right away. Just try a few new recipes each months and keep track of the ones that you enjoy making (and eating). Your list will grow before you know it!

Step 3: Choose Your Meals

Since I’m making a plan for five weeks and there are seven days in each week, I choose 35 meals from the list. Yes, we do plan to cook every single night, but we make exceptions for dates or special occasions.

To make it easier on myself, I usually take the last menu I made, change the dates, and then swap out any meals we’re tired of. Here’s what our current 5-week meal plan looks like:

At the beginning of the five weeks, I print the meal plan out and tape it the inside of our pantry door. As we go through each meal, I cross it off.

Step 4: Be Flexible

This is a flexible menu so I don’t assign any meals to any specific days. When I grocery shop once a week, I make sure we have the ingredients we need for the entire week. Then I cook the meals based on our mood, our schedule, or how soon ingredients need to be eaten. I try to save the easiest meals for evenings when we have extracurricular activities. At the end of the five weeks, I take down the old menu and put a new one up.

Step 5: Be Realistic

If you’re looking for meal planning inspiration, I encourage you to adapt a method that is realistic for your family. Maybe you only have 10 meals that your family enjoys. Maybe you can’t or don’t want to cook each day. Maybe you have an inconsistent schedule that doesn’t allow for long-term planning. This meal planning guide is what works for us, but every family is different and you’ll be happiest when you land on a practical solution for your home!

Here are a few of our favorite simple recipes to get you started: loaded nachos, vegetable soup, kale salad, and sweet potato quesadillas!

Talk to you soon!