(If left up to me, we’d have chicken every night for a week. This step will help you avoid monotony within any one week’s meal plan. Group your favorite meals into categories by theme (Italian, Asian, Mexican, American, etc.).

And don’t be afraid to list “breakfast” or “pizza!”Īim for listing at least 20 different dinner ideas, and you’re set! That’s a different meal for each weeknight in a month, with room to repeat your very favorites.įeeling fancy? For extra credit, categorize.The go-to recipes you don’t even have to read anymore.

The one your kids are always asking for.If you don’t know what recipes to plug in, I encourage you to whip out a sheet of paper (or make a note in your phone) and write down a list of your favorite dinner recipes. Whatever your week looks like, plan your menu around your busy schedule and you’re much more likely to stick to it! Name the “events” after the recipe and make them recurring (every first Tuesday, etc.) so you don’t have to repeat this step next month if you don’t want to do that. I’m home all day and usually have the least on my to-do list on Fridays, so on that night I’m always game for trying out a new recipe I’ve pinned on Pinterest because I’m rested and have the time to invest learning something new (and there’s no work lunch to pack for my husband the next day, so if dinner is a dud, no worries!).For instance, for me this means having a family favorite with lots of helpings on Sunday nights, because that simplifies packing lunches throughout the week.Think about the days of your week and what would make dinner a success. This second step takes the most amount of time but is worth the investment. Always eat out together on Saturdays? Then don’t worry about assigning a recipe to that day! Create your meal plan calendar using recurring all-day eventsįirst, block off nights you know you don’t have to cook!įor example, in my family, Thursdays are always date night, so I created an all-day calendar event that recurs every Thursday simply titled “Date Night.” Kids have soccer practice every Tuesday? Don’t cook whip up sandwiches and call it good. Open your Google Calendar app and under “Other calendars,” click the “+” and “Create new calendar.” Then name that calendar “Menu” or “Meal Plan” or “Family Restaurant” or something else that makes you smile. Create a new calendar for your meal planning schedule. So I created a new Google Calendar, named it Menu, and it took me less than half an hour to set up my monthly meal planning schedule. I needed a new system that did most of the hard work for me. Then I floundered into the no-plan method, which made 5PM the least favorite hour of my day. The Cookbook app (which I love for my recipe rolodex, just not the meal planning feature - too many clicks!). Sure, planning out every meal worked for us when we were just DINKs (dual-income-no-kids) and I was rushing in the door from work to make dinner, but when Little Miss came along, I needed something newer, faster, and easier.

My clunky spreadsheet was a bit too restrictive when our life season changed. How about a calendar app solution that is out-of-the-box and not even originally invented for meal planning at all?Ī bit of backstory: After being married a couple years, I ditched the dreaded weekly meal planning task and landed on a monthly meal plan rotation using a spreadsheet instead! No more starting from scratch every week.īut then it simply became time to move on. Or you just feel like trying something new for a change. If you’re like me, you probably feel like you’ve tried it all: meal plan scheduling on paper, meal planning digitally via an app like Cookbook or Trello, maybe even a rotation! But nothing seems to work for you and your family. When 5PM is the dreaded witching hour, nothing in the pantry seems to inspire you, and you just don’t feel like making … anything. She is a fellow blogger, author, and freelance editor (with three historical fiction novels to her name!), and today she is sharing her meal planning system with you. My dear friend, Rachelle, and I share a mutual love for efficiency.

Using google sheets for meal planning