Meal planning can get intimidating and frustrating. You’re sitting there making a list, checking it twice….wait no– you’re not Santa Claus.
You might be making a list, trying to figure out if you can afford this week’s meals.
Or you might be winging it, buying whatever the heck you feel like and letting it go bad in your fridge the next week. (That may or may not have happened to me once to twice. Or way more times than I can count.)
But girl, you gotta stop. You can’t keep throwing your money away, literally, one day I had to throw away a package of chicken breast. $13 bucks in the trash. Then we had to go out to eat and spend even more money.
I had to break the cycle.
You also need to break the cycle.
Meal planning is not as hard as it seems. Especially if you can come up with a list of meals that your family loves to eat. I’m sharing my list of a month’s worth of dinner ideas and linking to some of the recipes I use from Pinterest.
A lot of things I don’t have recipes for, I just make it up as I go along. So don’t be mad that I’m not giving you extensive recipes — this season in my life calls for quick and easy meal ideas. If you’re in a busy season like me, you’ll love this list!
Quick tip: A lot of these dinner ideas are slow cooker recipes, sometimes I put the ingredients in freezer bags and defrost the night before. Then, in the morning I pop the ingredients in the slow cooker, saves tons of time!
Need help with meal planning dinner ideas?
The method to my meal planning madness is simple: I make extra at the beginning of the week so that I have leftovers to help me cook less during the middle of the week.
I also try to keep sides as simple as possible. We eat a lot of frozen veggies or fresh veggies as sides.
One of the meal ideas read: turkey spaghetti with homemade pasta.
[Insert crazy lady laugh right here]
That homemade pasta was a pain in the you-know-what to make. And I don’t have a knack for making pasta. Do yourself a favor and if you’re in a busy season focus on healthy foods but don’t beat yourself up about using some boxed items.
Get started with small steps towards positive changes!
Tell me where to send your FREE meal planner!
I’ll send it to you in PDF form and you can print and start using today. (I’ve laminated mine so I can reuse every week.)
Here are some easy meal ideas you can try out for one month.
Week 1
S- slow cooker chicken salsa tacos serve with white rice
T- chicken & veggie stir fry served over white rice (use leftover chicken from Sunday)
W- baked potato topped with leftover chili + salad and/or veggies
Th-meatloaf and green beans
F- pizza and side salad
S- Greek yogurt chicken drumsticks or thighs bake with veggies
Week 2
S- slow cooker pork roast with mashed potatoes **save some of the meat for Thursdays dinner
M- chicken fajitas with rice and beans
T- chicken hummus bake with veggies (prep in am)
W-red beans and rice in the slow cooker
Th- pulled pork sandwiches–add BBQ sauce to your pork make fries or grab chips
F- leftovers or breakfast for dinner. My kids LOVE breakfast for dinner, we do eggs and pancakes, sometimes with bacon too.
S- homemade sloppy joes–super easy!
Week 3
S- Balsamic baked chicken –this one was amazing!
M- spaghetti and garlic bread
T- Stir fry again! Grab any left over chicken from Sunday and stir fry it with veggies, serve over rice.
W- baked drumsticks with veggies and rice
F- pizza night–bake it or buy it, sister–whatever your Friday night calls for!
S- Burger night! Make up your own patties and grill ’em or buy pre-made patties, add some burger fixings and fries.
Week 4
S- Pot roast with potatoes and carrots–I make this in the slow cooker, I season my roast, pour a little bit of chicken or beef broth (whatever I have on hand) and top with carrots and tiny red potatoes. Cook on low 8 hours.
M- easy chicken, potato and green bean bake
T- rice cooker Jambalaya sausage
W- whole chicken crock pot with rice and veggies
Th- potato and egg tacos or any version of breakfast tacos you like
S- salmon and veggies + side salad **I cook my salmon at 400F for 20 minutes exactly, comes out great each time. Drizzle with olive oil and add spices before putting it in the oven.
There you have it, one whole month of meal planning dinner ideas. Easy recipes and simple ingredients are my favorites! I’d love to hear your favorite family meals. Leave me a recipe in the comments! Don’t forget to pin and if you like this post sign up to get The Resource Page, you’ll love it!
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- Handy tips for focusing on positivity throughout your week.
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- Useful tools that I come across, like meal planning ideas and such!
I LOVE this!! I’m guilty of buying food and tossing. When I was meal planning, we saved so much money!! I stopped because I got sick of making the same things over and over again, but these recipes look delicious! (And easy to prepare!) Thanks so much (For the free Printable, too!)
Pam recently posted…Raising Self-Sufficient Children in a “Needy” World
I hate when I have to throw away food. 🙁 it makes me feel so wasteful!
I love this blog post! It’s extremely helpful to those who are both horrible at AND horrified at the thought of meal planning! I am one of those people.. 😂 these meals look simple and great!