Easy Meal Planning Ideas

"What's for dinner, Mom?" is a late afternoon question that rings through the kitchens of households everywhere throughout America. With insatiable appetites, food seems to be constantly on the minds of growing children! Likewise, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner seven evenings a week can become a tiresome task for busy moms! You know what your family's likes and dislikes are when it comes to specific dishes, so rather than tell you exactly what to make in with specific menus, this article tells you how to easily organize and plan your family's favorite meals. So, when that popular question of what's for dinner pops up, you already know the answer!

Meal planning does not have to be difficult! First, come up with seven categories of dinner meals, one for each day of the week. In our house, our categories are the following:

Monday- Mexican

Tuesday- Italian

Wednesday-Chicken

Thursday- Soup or Main Dish Salad, and Bread

Friday- Hamburger and Fries

Saturday- Pizza (or Eat Out)

Sunday- Beef or Chef's Choice

Your categories of meals may look completely different than mine, depending on your family's tastes. You may prefer to have a Vegetarian Night, Pork Night, Sandwich Night, or Greek Night. The possibilities are endless. I like to include a Chef's Choice option during the week to allow some flexibility in what I cook if I feel like trying something new, or I find a good sale on an item and want have it for dinner.

Now, list a main dish your family likes (which is quick to prepare) under each category. Add an optional side dish or dishes, and optional dessert to go with the main dish. You now have one weeks worth of meals planned. The menu plan for one week at our house looks like this:

Monday (Mexican)- Tacos, Refried Beans

Tuesday (Italian)- Spaghetti, Salad

Wednesday (Chicken) Roasted Chicken, Cooked Baby Carrots, Green Beans

Thursday (Soup or Main Dish Salad, and Bread)- Chicken Caesar Salad, Italian Garlic Bread

Friday- Hamburger and Fries

Saturday- Pizza (or eat out)

Sunday- (Beef or Chef's Choice) Pot roast with potatoes and vegetables, Corn Bread

You can repeat the steps of choosing dishes your family likes in each category, for each day of the week, as many times as you'd like to make multiple weekly menu plans. It helps if you first list out as many main dishes as you can for each category. Then, you can pick and choose what main dishes from each category you want in the same week. Continuing the example from my own family's meal plan, my list of dishes in each category include:

Mexican- Tacos, Taco Salad, Quesidillas, Enchilladas

Italian- Spaghetti, Fettuccini, Calzones, Lasagne

Chicken- Roasted Chicken, Chicken Fingers, Broccoli and Chicken Casserole, Chicken Pot Pie

Soup or Main Dish Salad, and Bread- Chicken Caesar Salad, Chili, Baked Potato Soup, Vegatable Beef Soup

Hamburger and Fries (This has become a tradition, we always have this on Fridays.)

Pizza or Out to Eat- (Again, we have this every week and usually do not vary the menu on this day.)

Beef- Pot Roast, Cubed Steak, Grilled or Pan-Fried Steaks, Hamburger Pie

From the above list, I have four weeks of meal plans that I can make. All I need to do is write out each weekly menu plan and add some side dishes.

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Planning meals can take a little effort at first, but definitely saves time in the long run. With meals planned, from those recipes you can easily make a standard grocery list for your dinners for each week. By sticking to your meal plans, you will save money on groceries by having fewer miscellaneous ingredients to buy for dishes you may only make once in a while, which, if they are not used within a short amount of time often go to waste. Plus, with a grocery list in hand and meals already planned, you'll be less tempted to grab for those extraneous items on the grocery shelves that you don't really need, and only add up to a bigger grocery bill at the cash register!

Meal planning is not meant to be confining or restrictive, as you can always choose not to use the plan any time you want to fix something different. Whether or not you strictly follow your plan, once you've got it on paper, you now always have an answer to fall back on when the inevitable question arises, "Mom, what's for dinner?"