FREE Weekly Meal Planning for Families

Weekly meal planning doesn’t have to be hard! Here is our FREE guide (with delicious recipes) for easy meal planning for your family.

How to Meal Plan for a Family

Family meal planning is something that definitely takes some getting used to, especially if you have never done it before. We have found that it is easiest when we stick to a basic plan each week. It makes it easier to narrow down what you are going to make when you have specific “themes” for each night.

Adding Variety To Your Meal Plan

When meal planning, we will also try to mix it up with different meats. Chicken every night can get boring really fast. We try to switch it up with chicken, ground beef, steak, fish, pork, or even go meatless on some nights. We try to go at least 3 days without having the same meat twice.

Side Dishes

There are so many side dish possibilities when deciding your meal plan for the week. We have side dishes that can go along with just about every meal. If you are having a hard time choosing a side dish to do with your meal, we’ve got you covered. Click HERE for a list of ALL our side dish ideas!

Sample Weekly Meal Plan

Here’s a little sampling of how we like to plan our week…

• Mondays are soup/salad.
• On Tuesdays, we love making delicious Mexican cuisine.
• Wednesdays are a taste of Italy.
• Thursdays are designed around yummy sandwiches, burgers, and wraps.
• Fridays are a no-cook day! Going out with friends and loved ones is something that we think is important. It’s your night off from cooking- enjoy!
• Saturdays are an exotic food night. It’s a great night to try something new from cooking with a new ingredient to trying Hawaiian, Danish, Chinese, Indian, or Thai dishes.
• Sundays are a traditional old fashioned all American family dinner– think meat and potatoes. 🙂

Weekly Meal Plan Suggestions

Here are some dinner meal plans for a typical week. For each day we will give six different main dish choices (see side dish ideas HERE). This is essentially six full weeks of meal plans if you decide to make every recipe!

• Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice Soup
• Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad
• Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Grilled Shrimp Salad with Cilantro Verde Dressing
• Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup
• BBQ Chicken Salad with Creamy BBQ Dressing

• Easy Shrimp Tacos
• Mexican Lasagna
• Family Style Cafe Rio Burritos
• Low-Calorie Veggie Quesadillas
• Steak Fajita Bowls
• Shredded Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Enchilada Sauce

• Spaghetti with Homemade Spaghetti Sauce (with Fresh Tomatoes)
• Grilled Balsamic Chicken with Bruschetta Topping
• Quick and Easy Calzones
• Shrimp Alfredo Pasta
• Grilled Pesto Pizzas
• Creamy One Pot Tortellini with Sausage

• Big Kahuna Chicken Teriyaki Sandwiches
• Shrimp Po Boys with Creamy Cajun Sauce
• Chicken Caesar Wraps
• Bacon and Blue Cheese Burgers with Creamy Buffalo Sauce
• Grown Up Margherita Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Apple, Ham, and Cheddar Melts

* DATE NIGHT *

• Crock Pot Cashew Chicken
• Slow Cooker Kalua Pork with Cabbage
• Frikadeller (Danish Meatballs)
• Instant Pot Gumbo
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• Irish Beef Pasties

• Instant Pot Pot Roast
• Crock Pot Pork Chops
• Chicken Fried Chicken with Homemade Country Gravy
• Crock Pot Ham with Maple and Brown Sugar
• Turkey with Turkey Gravy
• Baked Cod in Cream Sauce

• Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce
• Chocolate Pudding Cake
• Four Layer Banana Pudding
• Better Than Box Mix Brownies
• Easy Key Lime Pie