As we kick off the year, I know a lot of us have goals to be more mindful, organized, purposeful and kind to one another and the planet. All of those part of my goals for the year, but like more people, I have also have a goal to be healthier. That always starts to wane for me when January is over. However, I find that this weekly meal planner helps me to stay more on track throughout the rest of the year.
It’s so easy for me to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. When I get caught up in something, there’s not enough hours in the day. The first thing to go is always exercise.
The second thing to go is homemade food. We always seem to get into this doom loop around the holiday season where we start eating out three or four times a week. Let’s be honest, that does not work for our life.
The real blogger lifer
It’s funny because you would think as a blogger – and more specifically maybe a food blogger, I’m always making amazing meals. But it’s just as easy for our family to fall into the convenience trap as it is for anyone else. Especially if I’ve spent the day cooking a recipe or testing recipes for the blog or for Instagram. I’m always too beat to think about preparing another meal for dinner that night.
In order to help us get back on track I have to sit down and write out our dinner meals on paper. Not on my phone, not in an app, but on paper. For some reason, having a sheet of paper where I have to physically write the words and the dinner menu for the week helps me stay on track.
Weekly meal planner helps in so many ways
Meal planning becomes vital not only to our health in the new year, but our budget too. This season was especially costly since the donkeys came right before holiday season. The barn and planning for all their care is costly and eating out is costly too.
There’s also something about having a dinner meal plan for the week and having the whole family – Kevin included – know what that meal plan is. It’s a mental benefit to writing it down and an emotional benefit knowing we are all on the same page.
Kevin has to cook two meals per week (because I can’t do it all, friends) and I believe this weekly meal planner helps to keep him on task for his days. If he doesn’t have a scheduled day, time and meal, he defaults to waiting for me to make something. Then I get frustrated, we argue and end up ordering out.
Weekly meal planner template
To help with this, I’ve created this dinner meal planning template. The meal planning template gives us space to write down each of our weekly. dinners for the week. It gives me a space for the main course and side dishes. It also includes a spot for us to keep track of our grocery list as we plan.
This is something I’ve had printed out on pads so we can use it each week. However, it’s just as effective if you need to print it weekly.
You can download the Weekly Dinner Menu here.
Thank you so much for visiting today, friends! You can find other free printables {HERE}. And if you. love to bake and cook, check out our Kitchen conversion printable {HERE}.
This is so helpful. I hate to cook, so this will help keep me organized in the kitchen.
I do need to get better at planning meals for the family. This printable will help me.
I really enjoy a meal planning, thanks so much for sharing this printable.
So so pretty, I love how you divided it!
This looks so pretty and very helpful for anyone that plans their meals. I wish I was that organised.
Thanks for the printable. It’s great have it planned for a week.
This is really great. I may need to look at printing out some of these. I’ve been trying to do more meal planning with the family lately.
I will ask my wife to do this. Thinking of what to eat everyday is one of our struggle. It’s great if we already think of it days earlier. Hehe
Meal planning saves me so much time and aggravation. This will come in handy, thank you!
I love planning out our meals, so this is definitely going to be useful. It saves us so much money.
What a cute little printable. I love the sage color you used!
Wow! This is awesome! I love planning a weekly meal and this Weekly meal planner printable will be handy!
Great help! Planning your weekly meals helps you to minimize your time staying in the kitchen. I love it!
I am definitely printing this out
This is such a pretty printable! Meal planning is so helpful especially with busy schedules.
Thank you so much for this printable. I’ll definitely be using it!
Thanks for the freebie
I don’t know what I would do without my weekly dinner menu, it really keeps me sane. I need to print this out and use it because it is so much cuter than the one I currently use.
I love this! Organization makes life so much easier.
i keep going on and off with weekly meal planning but when i do , it helps so much..
thanks for the pretty printable
Having a weekly meal plan for dinners is life saving! I love that you included areas for sides too.
Thank you for sharing this! I definitely need to get back into meal planning again since it certainly helps make things much easier during the week.
I do feel like we should do this at my place too. We’re a little lax on planning and it hurts the budget.
Thanks for sharing this this great useful for busy moms like me otherwise thinking of what to cook is everyday hundred dollars questions.
This will help a lot. Thanks for this wonderful weekly meal planner printable.
I need to get more organized when it comes to planning meals. Thanks for sharing this! It seems to help when I can put things on paper.
Totally printing this and using it NEXT week! 🙂
That planner looks so useful and efficient!
This is so pretty. Thank you for sharing your talents with us. I can’t wait to start using these.
This is a great way to get organized and save money as well. It is good to plan out the week and not let food go to waste. Thanks for the free printable!
Thank you so much!! What a blessing to have this beautiful motivator! So very kind of you to share your story and an inspiration as well!!