Step-by-Step Guide To Making A Weekly Meal Plan

A weekly meal plan is the best place to start when you’re just starting out meal planning.  The level of difficulty is just right for novice meal planners.  Here is a walk-through on the baby steps to meal planning.  With practice and patience, you’re on your way to perfection.

Step 1—Make a chart.

The chart for a weekly menu plan should have days of the week on one side and the three meals of the day on the other.  You can find plenty of weekly meal planning charts that are ready for downloading or printing.  There are also ready-made charts being sold in school supply stores. You can make your own  chart out of a weekly planner and just make sections for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Step 2—Plan your breakfasts.

Write down a short list of what you want to make for breakfast.  Consider your kids’ preferences and needs and the amount of time you can devote for cooking.  If you have to leave early for work and has only 15 minutes to spare, you can serve plain oatmeal with fruit slices, make waffles or reheat ready-made pancakes.     Breakfasts should generally be quick and easy, preferably ready-made and still nutritious.  Write down the breakfast dishes into your weekly meal chart.

Step 3—Plan your lunches.

If members of your family are mostly in school or at the office, travel-friendly lunch packs which you can make in the morning are in order.  However, if you are generally together during lunch, you can whip up casseroles and slow-cooked dishes which need little attention.  For greater savings, plan on lunches which use up the previous night’s dinner leftovers.  Enter your lunch recipes into your weekly meal chart.

Step 4—Plan your dinners.

Dinners are usually the only times when the family have the luxury of time for leisurely dining.  As such, make dinners as enjoyable as possible by preparing sumptuous dishes.  If you have only a few minutes after work to prepare for dinner, plan on casseroles which are already cooked and just need a few minutes of reheating.  On week nights when you have more time, do some bulk cooking to take care of a few  meals or take out your grill and have a backyard barbecue.  Now fill in your weekly chart with your dinner dishes.

Step 5—Post and follow your meal plan.

When you’re done filling in your weekly meal chart, post it on your ref or on the kitchen wall where you can easily see it for quick reference.  Let this chart guide you as you write down your grocery list and prepare your meals.  Before you go to bed, look up the next day’s breakfast items so you can mentally prepare.  Before going out to work in the morning, look up what’s for breakfast and supper so you can do some prepping such as thawing the meat or slow-cooking food for dinner.