Simple Meal Planning in Minutes
This brilliant meal planning trick takes just minutes and will help you save both time and money by streamlining your weeknight dinners.
I have a confession to make. I hate meal planning.
You'd think a food blogger would enjoy picking out recipes to cook for her family, but it is possibly one of my least favorite chores of the week.
I enjoy the cooking, I hate the choosing.
Can you relate? Between managing your family's dietary restrictions and picky eating habits, sometimes setting a meal plan can make you lose the will to cook.
Does this sound like you?
- You feel resentful about the time wasted meal planning during the weekend when you'd rather be relaxing.
- Hunting recipes feels like a chore.
- The recipes you do find never fit your family's preferences.
- You feel like you rely on take out or drive-thru too much.
- You put off deciding what to make until right before you're in the kitchen to cook.
- You know your family would eat better if you cooked more at home but it all just feels too much.
Friend, I've been there. Especially when my girls were small and especially picky eaters.
Jump to:
- The 5-Minute Meal Plan Fix
- Why This Works
- The Best Nightly Meal Plan Themes
- Soup & Sandwich Night
- Taco Tuesday
- Appliance Night: Crockpot, Instant Pot, Air Fryer
- Pasta Night
- Chicken Night
- Meatless Night
- Pizza Night
- Date Night OR Family Snack Night
- Casserole Night
- International Night
- Salad for Dinner
- Grill Night
- Breakfast for Dinner
- Cookbook Night
- Picnic Night
- Ask Yourself These Questions First
- Want Some Help?
- 💬 Comments
The 5-Minute Meal Plan Fix
The solution to all your meal planning struggles is so ridiculously easy you're not going to believe me when I share it with you.
And all it takes is this simple trick:
Assign a theme to each day of the week.
Why This Works
I warned you. It sounds too easy.
But this is why this meal plan strategy works:
- 15 minutes: Once you have your weekly themes set, meal planning is just a matter of plugging in this week's picks on the appropriate day and writing your grocery list. You could do it once a week as part of your morning basket time.
- Less decision fatigue: Want something different than what you ate last week? You've narrowed down your choices for each night which makes your decision go faster. Instead of beef tacos for Taco Night, maybe make chicken fajitas this week.
- One trip to the grocery store: You've planned the week out, then do your shopping. You'll have everything you should need for a whole week!
- No more mental agony: I keep my menu printed on the fridge. Keep yours visible and you'll never have to guess what's for dinner again. Better yet -- your family won't have to ask, either!
- Easy prep ahead: If you're at home like me, seeing that printed reminder of what's for dinner on the fridge, you'll know exactly what prep work to do during small pockets of time throughout the day. Prep a veggie here, mix a marinade there, pull the pizza dough from the freezer for tomorrow.
The Best Nightly Meal Plan Themes
I'm going to share with you the meal plan categories that work best for our family.
You can copy this completely or tweak it with your own clever themes. Be sure to check out some alternative suggestions at the bottom of the post!
Soup & Sandwich Night
Pair any soup with any sandwich. Add some fruit or chips if you feel the need to round it out.
You can choose:
- a store bought soup
- make a homemade soup
- thaw a frozen soup from your freezer
The sandwich could be as easy as a pb&j or a grilled cheese or something that requires a little more effort like a sloppy joe sandwich or baked meatball subs.
Want more easy suggestions?
Check out my Soup & Sandwich indexes:
Taco Tuesday
Shhh: It doesn't *have* to be on Tuesday and it doesn't have to be tacos.
Pick one night for a Mexican food fiesta, you'll be sure that the kids will love at least one of your dinners!
You can find 30+ delicious Taco Tuesday recipes here.
But if you asked my kids, these are the recipes they'd point you to first:
Appliance Night: Crockpot, Instant Pot, Air Fryer
Choose your busiest night and plan to dig out those time-saving appliances hiding in your kitchen.
Not only will this ensure that they earn their keep, but you've likely forgotten how much they help to get dinner on the table quickly!
Pasta Night
I don't know about you, but my family could eat pasta every night of the week and be happy.
Having a dedicated pasta night ensures that my kids will have at least one night of the week with something "easy" and 100% acceptable on their plates.
Pair a new pasta dish with some garlic bread, Italian bread, or some breadsticks for a total crowd pleaser.
Chicken Night
America's favorite protein for a reason: it is light and healthy, budget-friendly, and totally versatile.
Plan one meal around this protein a week.
Add a simple side dish like:
- a bag of frozen veggies and/or frozen potatoes
- your favorite rice dish
- or top a salad with your chicken
Meatless Night
Trying to eat less meat as a family?
You don't need to go fully vegetarian to make an impact on your health and budget.
Choose one night a week to skip the traditional meat and plan something with fish or no meat at all.
Pizza Night
Many people turn to pizza out of desperation or exhaustion.
This week, give yourself to CHOOSE pizza on purpose and add this easy dinner to your rotation.
You can plan for:
- a frozen pizza
- order delivery pizza
- play with a homemade pizza recipe
We rotate through all three of those solutions.
When we make homemade, here are some of our very favorite homemade pizza recipes:
Date Night OR Family Snack Night
Plan a night completely off. Go out or order in but do it on purpose.
If you're feeling up to it, I absolutely love to plan a night for homemade appetizers and hearty snacks.
Especially during the holiday season, we enjoy making special treats to eat while we watch a family movie.
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Casserole Night
With extra time on Sundays, I love to do a traditional roasted meat & potatoes meal or if we're busy having fun, a casserole fresh or from the freezer.
This oftens buys me another night in the week where we can enjoy leftovers.
International Night
We love to eat a wide variety of foods: Greek, Chinese, Mexican, Thai.
I didn't want to be forced to rotate through each of those themes every week, so instead we pick one night to try a fun make-your-own takeout or new recipe.
Salad for Dinner
Plan for a big bowl of salad greens and just choose a new combination of toppings. This is the perfect solution especially for the warmer months.
Want some inspiration on dinner salads? Don't miss my salad index here:
Grill Night
It's totally ok to switch up your weekly theme nights based on the season.
During the warmer months, plan to fire up the grill with your favorite summer recipes.
Plan a grill night for one evening with a salad night the next evening and you can use whatever leftover meat you have for toppings on your dinner salad!
Breakfast for Dinner
We LOVE weekend breakfast foods but we rarely make time to do it.
Why not plan a breakfast for dinner with delicious pancakes, waffles, an egg casserole, or breakfast sandwiches??
Sample all the weekend brunch recipes you don't want to bother with on a lazy morning.
Cookbook Night
Choose your favorite cookbook and work your way through as many recipes in the year as you can on one dedicated night.
Or grab a copy of The Totally Awesome Ultimate Kids' Cookbook and have your kids make dinner one night a week!
Picnic Night
Pack a meal to eat from a cooler in your car when driving the kids on extra-busy nights.
Here are a few of my favorite portable meals for busy nights:
Ask Yourself These Questions First
1. What are my family's very favorite meals?
If I had all the time in the world and the ingredients were handed to me on a platter, what would we enjoy eating? Make a list! Ask your husband and kids to chime in.
2. Now look at that list, do you see any patterns?
Are they all chicken? Then it isn't exactly helpful to have a "Chicken Night" because it doesn't narrow your options. You want to consider themes that help you make your weekly decision more easily. It should be broad enough to give you options but narrow enough to shorten that list.
3. What do you need help remembering?
I needed help remembering particular recipe sources and gear. Maybe you need help to remember to eat a new protein? Or to try a new recipe? Use one night of your themes to help be your Post-It note reminder to work towards your goals.
5. Look at your schedule, which night is your busiest?
Do you have more than one? Consider time-saving meal themes. For me that was the crockpot but sandwiches, simple pastas, even breakfast for dinner are all themes that would work with a constricted time schedule. Or heck, give yourself a "Drive Thru" night but be intentional about it. It's amazing the guilt it relieves.
6. Which day of the week is best for you to grocery shop?
Plan your weekly rotation starting either that day or the next. I meal plan on Sunday, shop on Monday morning, the week starts Monday evening.
Want Some Help?
Feeling overwhelmed? Sometimes even easy fixes can feel like too much.
That's where I come in.
Join my FREE email newsletter and I'll send you a printable meal plan sheet and walk you through the tips and tricks for making this system work quickly for you and your family.
Thank you for a realistic, real-life approach to family blogging! It's so encouraging to see some sweet imperfections and getting ideas for how to manage them, instead of the spotless, glossy beauty of "amazing meals and photos of my kids enjoying every one of them!" THANK YOU! Can't wait to start implementing!
This has been so helpful! I too, had been a skeptic of themed nights for our family menu, but after reading your detailed explanation, it makes so much sense. I am excited to try it! Thanks for the tips.
Great article Tiffany, I love the story how you found the way to really enjoy the cooking. Cooking for family is a real game changer when it comes to finding motivation to spend time in the kitchen. I do prefer to organize theme food nights for my family, but this is not some type of rule we embedded into our weekly planning. Having all days organized by themes is a huge helper and as you said it eliminates the mental agony when we are about to decide what to cook next week. But first, I'll have to interview my family members before coming up with some food themes and recipes.
This is the most thorough blog entry about meal planning I've ever read. I love it! And thank you so much for your time and hard work you put into writing this out. You rock!
I dread meal planning but I might be able to stick to something like this.
Thanks again! >3
I love the idea but I'm wondering if my kids and husband will eat any of it. Do you have a back-up to prevent hungry picky kids? I can't even bribe my son to try new things right now 🙁
I was wondering if I would be able to share a link to this on my blog? I love what you have to say about bring family meals back. My family and I used your meal planning today, to plan our week. This is normally a big fight for us and you made it so easy to theme the days. I have shared with you my website so you can see I am not a "bash another blogger" type person. I just want to share with people where I got all the great ideas.
When I started reading, I felt like I was reading my story!! I had become so tired of cooking for nothing. Everyone is so picky. I believe this is going to help me turn it around. Thank you so much.
Kelly
I love your idea of sticking with a theme for every day, that could totally work for me and you are eating something different but still know what type of food/recipe to go for. So clever!
What a great idea having themes. Have never thought about doing it this way!
I can't tell you how much I love this idea. Planning out my themes now. This is genius.
My kids are a bit older (8th grade, 5th grade, 4th grade) and we cook and eat at home almost every night. I have been meal planning for a long time, now, and I love it. The kids' schedules have become more complicated and vary more. I make the busiest night of the week a crock pot night, too. The only suggestions I would add would be to leave at least one meal on the weekend for leftovers. Even with the kids and my husband and I taking leftovers for lunch most days, we almost always have at least 1-2 meals extra in leftovers each week. I also would suggest that you allow yourself a bit of wiggle room in your menu. For example, this week, I planned to make black bean and sweet potato burritos for supper on Monday. I got home late, made the speedy pasta planned for later in the week and saved the burritos for another night when I knew I would have more time. Happy Cooking!!
Great tips! I'd love for you to join the Pinworthy Projects party! http://www.atkinsondrive.com/pinworthy-projects-link-party-12/
It's like you know me personally and wrote this about me!!! I also lost interest in cooking a few years ago. My BF and my 6 year old wouldn't eat what I cooked, because it was HEALTHY! I think you may have kicked me back into meal planning and cooking mode hahaha.
This is brilliant. I have one fussy child and an even fussier husband. I am so over meal times and yet I am a foodie as is my other child, we love variety. This can work for us. Thank you
Thanks for this. I used to do this exact same method a while back, and it saved me so much time, stress, and money. Our themes were Crockpot night, soup night, pasta night, breakfast for dinner night, mexican night, asian night, pizza night, and leftover night.
We recently moved and fell off track and I have been flailing, and buying a lot of pre-made stuff to microwave or heat up. Reading this post reminded me of what I had going and you have motivated me to get back to it. Also, I tweaked some of my themes after reading this. 🙂
Thanks!
I've been doing the same thing when I plan menus, but I do Soup and Sandwiches on separate nights. My goal is to try most of the recipes I've pinned on Pinterest. That should take a decade or so! Sadly, my kiddos are all older (college, high school, middle school) and my husband works out of town, so sitting down to dinner with all of us present is getting harder and harder to do. Still, leftovers make good lunches!
Oh my goodness, Nicole! I'm so sorry you had to do an obsessive google search! LOL. You super sleuth you! I actually got mine at Anthropologie so there's another option for you: http://bit.ly/171Zruq
Hope that helps! 🙂
Heather Woyak, I did an obsessive google search. It's from 1canoe2 on Etsy, 50 sheets on a magnetic strip with a tear away grocery list for $18 🙂
Love this post! Where did you get that super cute menu planner? There are only 2 nights of the weeks that are "permanently planned" for us - LOL Thursday night is leftovers/sandwiches night and Friday is our Movie night (pizza and popcorn). Getting the other days situated takes some time and thinking.
Where did you find the let's eat menu planner? I want something just like those!!!
Have seen theme nights for meals all over Pinterest, but your story and your themes really resonated with me. Thank you!
THANK YOU!! I have a family of 5 I am cooking for. My husband is no gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, or corn. My oldest and my youngest is a great eater. My middle child is very picky. I dread meals. We eat organic most of the time and I make a lot from scratch because of my husbands enormous food allergy problem. You ideas are short, sweet, and to the point. I like that you have a picky eater. Any ideas in that department would be greatly appreciated!!
I totally understand how difficult it is to try to plan meals with picky eaters who special dietary needs. My son is allergic to nuts and my daughter is going through a vegetarian phase. I've been using Foodniche.me which allows you to sort for recipes by special dietary needs. It's helped a lot.
Julie, I love those themes!! Quick Fix might be too loose, but if it is working it is a great idea. For your Burgers theme, I immediately think of Rachel Ray! Doesn't she have something like 1,000 different burger recipes?? You could totally be adventurous on that theme! I might have to add that to our summer rotation next year! I will consider your suggestion about wanting to do Sunday Dinner ahead of time. That gives me a challenge for future posts!! Hope you'll check back.
As far as our grocery service, it's actually our local grocery store, Harris Teeter! You can order online and they have drive-thru pick-up service. It was one of the very best things about our move to Charlotte, NC last year. I honestly don't know why more stores don't offer it.
This is what I do too! Except I haven't gotten the whole grocery shopping thing quite down yet, and I need to explore new recipes more often.
Our themes are a bit looser:
Monday - Chicken
Tuesday - Quick Fix (too loose. I should do International here or something)
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Burgers (this also needs a tweak)
Sunday - Crock Pot - unfortunately I have NO time on Sundays! I wish I could do a full traditional Sunday meal, and I'd love to find a way to "make ahead" that delicious mealtime from my childhood!
Thanks for this inspiration! (PS: What service do you use for grocery? I need to look into this!)
You can always make the traditional roast, potatoes and carrots in the crockpot or you can also blanch your potatoes and carrots and put in freezer bags along with your roast and then all you have to do is throw everything in a crockpot and let it cook! I love it!
This post is perfect at the moment, I also have been in a dinner rut! I went through cookbooks this past week and still have no inspiration. My family all are eating different things due to diet restrictions, so dinner is a struggle. I believe in family dinners, so it stressful. I'm going to read your post and get some inspiration. Hit the grocery store running tomorrow!!
Thanks for the post!
What a great idea! I have been stuck in a huge rut in meal planning for my family. I'm going to give this a try. Thank you!