If you’ve already read my post about how I meal plan, then you know I’m all about meal planning because it makes my life easier with fewer trips to the grocery. When I don’t have a plan, I use more time making extra trips to the store and end up spending more overall. I save a lot of time when I make a plan first, shop second.
Creating a plan with meal ideas takes me about 30 minutes to an hour each week.
I leave room for changes in case we decide to switch up any meals or on occasion eat out, but overall I have a plan and all of the ingredients needed going into each week. This gives me more time to free up time with my family or get extra blog tasks in. It takes up less space on my mental checklist when I sit down and plan out our meals once a week.
WEEK ONE
Day 1: Sunday
Breakfast: Omelette with Green Smoothie
Lunch: Snack for early dinner
Dinner: Chicken Crockpot Tacos
Pico De Gallo + Tortilla Chips
Guacamole
Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Day 2: Monday
Breakfast: Yogurt + Berries + Homemade Granola Bar or Granola
Lunch: Fresh Garden Salad with Homemade Dijon Dressing
Dinner: Healthy Homemade Chicken Pot Pie + Fresh Arugula Salad
Day 3: Tuesday
Breakfast: Omelette
Lunch: Avocado Toast + Healthy Protein Smoothie
Dinner: Leftover Chicken Pot Pie
Day 4: Wednesday
Breakfast: Cinnamon Oatmeal with Pecans
Lunch: Avocado Green Smoothie
Dinner: Tomato Soup with Sourdough Grilled Cheese
Day 5: Thursday
Breakfast: Yogurt with Honey & Fresh Fruit
Lunch: Leftover tomato soup
Dinner: Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce with Penne Pasta and Fresh Arugula Salad
Day 6: Friday
Breakfast: Healthy Protein Smoothie
Lunch: Cucumbers + Hummus, homemade granola bars for snacks
Dinner: Dinner out as a family
Day 7: New Weekly Meal Plan + Grocery Trip
Follow my Weekly Meal Plan Board for the remaining weeks and full recipes for more ideas for your weekly meals at home.
Tips For Making a Grocery List
It’s helpful to keep a running list on your fridge or on your phone of items that you run out of on a weekly basis. You can consult your list as a reminder to grab those items during your next shopping trip. I try to make a habit of checking our list before I head to the grocery to avoid missing an item and having to make a special trip later on. Here are some items to check before leaving for the store in case some of them didn’t make your running list, but you happen to have run out of:
- Fresh Ingredients - These are ingredients that need to be purchased weekly such as produce, bread, meat, or maybe a new ingredient for a specific recipe that you otherwise don’t keep on hand.
- Bi-Weekly Ingredients - These are ingredients such as milk and peanut butter that you don’t run out of weekly, but need to stock up once or twice a month. Some families go through milk more quickly than others. We don’t drink a ton of it besides Almond Milk in our smoothies, so we have to buy these items bi-weekly instead of weekly.
- Bulk Items - These are items such as canned goods and frozen fruit that you can purchase in bulk or large quantities.
- Stock Items - These are items such as aluminum foil, olive oil, and protein powder that you buy once a month or once every few months. Once you buy this item, you won’t need to purchase it again for the next few trips.
