A printable meal planner is a great way to stay organized during the week. A weekly meal planner is typical, but a monthly menu plan is sometimes preferred by those who like to see the big picture at a glance. The one I’ve uploaded here has two weeks of meal planning, which is useful to avoid excessive meal repetition and to enable more efficient grocery shopping trips.
Simply print the meal planner chart (it’s a pdf document) and pencil in your meals for the days you’ll be cooking or eating at home, or packing lunches for school or work. Some families just write in the main dish for each meal, but I like to add my plans for the side dishes too so I can write a detailed shopping list for my monthly and sometimes twice-monthly big grocery shopping trips.
I’ve found that keeping certain staples always on hand, including a freezer full of grass-fed beef and chicken and plenty of long-grain rice, olive oil and artichoke hearts in the cupboard, and sour cream and chicken stock in the fridge makes menu planning and last-minute meals easier.
Do you use a printable meal planner? Where do you get menu ideas?
Recommended Reading & Resources:
- Weekly Menu Planning Made Easy: Blog post on how to navigate the challenges of menu planning to make it work for your family.
- Menu in a Box: Online meal planning that is done for you. What could be easier?
- Family Menu Planning: Tips on meal planning, with sample dinner entrees menu.
[...] chart in your hands. There’s this freeweekly menu planner, or you might prefer the two-week printable meal planner. Or just use an ordinary piece of paper. Write the days of the week along the left-hand side with [...]