Making a weekly menu is one of the best ways to eliminate the pressure of figuring out what to cook for dinner each night. This free printable weekly menu and grocery list will help you create a weekly menu planner, keep track of what you need at the grocery store and make life a little easier. It can be laminated to use over and over again with a dry erase marker or printed out each week!
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Sample Menu Plan
I love menu planning because it takes the stress of trying to figure out what to cook each night. With all of the craziness that life throws us, we could all use a little less stress, right? I like to sit down on Sunday afternoon and either look through my cookbooks, browse Pinterest or look back at the Recipes I’ve Shared HERE on Mom 4 Real to choose what I’d like to cook for the week. I have laminated my Meal Planner and Grocery List, so I use a dry erase board marker to fill mine out, but you can totally print it off weekly if you like! I’m sharing a sample of one of my weekly menus to give you an idea of how I use the menu planner to figure out what we are going to eat each day, then plan my grocery list accordingly. Since starting menu planning, I have saved so much money by simply not buying what we don’t need. You could also plan your lunches along with dinners, especially if you have children at home during the day! You can even get your kiddos involved in helping you plan your weekly menu!
How to Meal Plan
- Print out THIS Printable Menu Plan and Grocery List
- Choose a week’s worth of main dishes (ex. grilled chicken, roast, ect.).
- Choose side dishes for each main dish (veggies, fruits, potatoes, etc.).
- Decide which day you’d like each meal.
- Write them down on the menu planner.
- Make a grocery list from your menu.
- Shop for the groceries you need.
- Prep foods for meals ahead of time to save time when cooking.
BONUS TIP! When making your menu, choose foods that can be used for several meals throughout the week. For instance, THIS Shredded Chicken can be cooked in an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker and can be used for Shredded Chicken Tacos, White Chicken Chili, salads, soups, in casseroles and so much more!
Printable Menu Planner
If you’d like your own Printable Menu Planner and Grocery List, click HERE to download it and print it! It’s totally free and you can print it out each week or laminate it to use over and over again with a dry erase marker.
My Favorite Places to Find Recipes
- My RECIPE PAGE here on Mom 4 Real has tons of easy recipes, Instant Pot and Slow Cooker recipes, Air Fryer Recipes and more!
- Check out my Family Favorite Recipes Pinterest Board for tons of recipes that I have found on the internet and recipes from my favorite bloggers!
- What’s Gaby Cooking: Eat What You Want Cookbook
- Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat Cookbook
- The Pioneer Woman Cooks Cookbook
Take the tme you need to take care of yourself!! Your blog and all of us who love it will be here waiting for you!
Welcome back! So glad you are feeling better. You have been missed.
So glad to hear you are reenergized, Jess! Its great to see you and your no-nonsense tips and ideas again but what we really care about is you and your family. Prayers that you can find balance and continue to say “no” when you need to!
Thank you for sharing.
I am SO Happy You are feeling better! I have missed your tips, hints and suggestions!
Learning to say “No” is hard. I had to start saying “I will check my calendar and get back with you if I can…”. I then have time to think on it and not impulsively agree. :)
I wrote in time for myself, so that if aske to do something at that time I was able to say sorry I have another appointment. if thy then ask what it is just say that it private!