Ultimate Guide: Healthy Meal Planning for Families
Does this sound familiar at dinnertime, “oh no, we’re not having THAT again, are we?” How in the world does a busy caregiver provide quick, healthy meals every night that the whole family will enjoy? Well, I am here to tell you it can be done and it can be done pretty easily with my Ultimate Guide to Healthy Meal Planning for Families.
Taking a little time to plan out your weekly or monthly meals and organize your recipes according to your family’s schedule will end up saving you time, money, sanity and add some variety to your meal rotation.
Read on to discover my four steps to efficiently plan healthy meals for your family. Plus, pro tips and helpful resources to get meals on the table faster.
What is meal planning?
Before we dive right in, let’s back up just a bit. What exactly does it mean to meal plan? Meal planning is the process of thinking through what your family will eat in a week. Meal planning helps keep you organized by having the answer to “what’s for dinner?” already prepared.
Benefits of meal planning
Planning what you are going to eat a week or more ahead of time may feel like a daunting task at first. But, there are several benefits to meal planning that will, in the long run, make your weeknights run so much smoother.
Saves Time
Planning your meals for a week helps manage your time better during the week. When you already have a planned schedule you aren’t wasting time thinking of what you are going to eat or aimlessly wandering around the grocery store.
Saves Money
Planning your meals ahead of time, creating a shopping list and sticking to it will keep you from impulse buying or overbuying when shopping. On average, consumers grocery shopping without a list spend about 40% more.
Meal planning also helps to eliminate food waste at home, which saves money. Sticking to your plan ensures you are using all of the ingredients purchased.
Reduces Stress
Meal planning doesn’t have to mean cooking. You can plan leftovers or take-out for particularly busy evenings. Whether cooking or ordering in, organizing your meal calendar ahead of time reduces the stress of “what’s for dinner” every night.
Adds Variety
Do you get stuck in a recipe rut and find yourself serving the same meals over and over? Planning ahead ensures that you are creating a meal calendar with a variety of foods and more nutritionally balanced dinners.
4 Steps to Efficient Healthy Meal Planning for Families
1. Fill in your weeknight calendar
Grab your calendar, whether it be digital or paper, and fill in all of your family’s activities for the week. This gives you a clear snapshot of who will be home when and how busy each night actually is. It may be helpful to color code your calendar events by family member or activity.
2. Create 2-3 week menu cycle
Once you have a good idea of what your weeknights look like, you can begin to create your menu cycle from your recipe bank. If you are new to meal planning, one week may be a good place to start. However, I do recommend creating a 2-3 week rotating menu cycle. This helps to save even more time as you won’t be planning meals each week.
For my family, I’ve found that 3 weeks is adequate time for meals to cycle through without feeling like a recipe is served too often. I plan a menu cycle right before school starts in the fall. Then, I switch out a few recipes here and there as I find new ones or as my family starts to tire of old ones.
Creating theme nights, like Taco Tuesday or Pasta Wednesday, also helps save time as you are planning out your menu cycle. There are so many different varieties of tacos that your Taco Tuesday doesn’t have to be the same taco each week.
You will also want to plan leftovers or take out into your meal cycle on the days your family is busiest. Prepare extra pasta on Monday to be reheated on Wednesday night when time is in a crunch. Plan to repurpose leftovers to create quick meals, like making quesadillas with your leftover pot roast.
3. Generate shopping list
Your meals are planned, recipes are chosen and now all you have to do is create a shopping list and head out the door. Or head to the computer! Ordering groceries online for delivery or curbside pickup is a good tip to keep you from impulse buying.
Notwithstanding, even though you have thoughtfully planned for the week, there is always the possibility of a night not going as expected. For those instances, be sure to have a few freezer or pantry items on hand in case you have to do a quick dinner pivot.
- Frozen chicken breasts or frozen fish filets
- Frozen chicken nuggets
- Frozen vegetables
- Canned vegetables
- Canned beans
- Pasta, rice, quinoa, etc.
- Breakfast for dinner (in a pinch)
4. Weekend Meal Prep
For me, meal prepping is anything that I can do ahead of time that will save me time during the week. Here are a few weekend recommendations to help get weeknight dinner on the table faster:
- Make casseroles ahead and freeze or refrigerate until needed
- Chop onions and bell peppers for the week and store in air-tight containers
- Wash and cut fresh fruit and vegetables
- Marinade meats (can stay in airtight container refrigerated for up to 2 days)
Pro Tips
Quick and healthy doesn’t always have to be 100% homemade. Using convenience items, like frozen or canned vegetables, are just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts. So if a convenience item helps to save your sanity a bit, go on and use it.
Along that same line, it’s also ok to plan take-out meals. On the nights when everyone is busy and coming home later than usual, go ahead and plan to pick up food on the way home. This can actually keep you from wasting food if you plan a meal and end up not preparing it.
Get your kids involved. Meal planning is a lot of work for one person and having your kids help will solidify their own healthy habits. There are a range of age-appropriate meal planning tasks they can help with like selecting recipes, picking out produce at the store or even helping to actually cook the meal.
Helpful Resources
Meal Planning Apps
The right tools and resources can make a huge difference in your family’s healthy meal planning. Using a meal planning app can help you do all four steps in a matter of minutes. Most apps do have a free and paid version so I’d recommend trying the free version out first to make sure it has all of the features you need. When choosing a meal planning app, look for these three things:
- Robust recipe list
- Ability to add your own recipes
- Generates shopping list
Paper Templates
Not ready to add another app to your phone? No worries, I’ve got several paper meal planning templates that you can download for free.
Finding Recipes
Searching for recipes on the internet can be a daunting and exhaustive task. I host a Facebook group, Meal Planning for Busy Families, where I share easy, nutritious family recipes everyday and free dinner meal plans each Friday.
Kitchen Essentials
Invest in a quick, time saving appliance. You certainly don’t need all three of these, but I do recommend having at least one to help save time during the week:
- Air fryer
- Instant Pot
- Slow Cooker
Air-tight Containers
Keeping your food safe is an important element to meal planning particularly if you are prepping food ahead of time. Most leftovers can be stored in airtight containers for up to seven days. Raw, marinated meat can stay in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 2 days. The affiliate links below are two products that I love.
Customized Meal Planning Services
If you are still feeling a bit overwhelmed, I can help get you on the right track with my customized meal planning services. I will work with you to create a 3-week full meal plan that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and also takes into account your family’s food preferences, budget and schedules. Visit my Familythyme Wellness website for more information. Or, schedule a free call to talk with me directly.
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