I've had several questions about meal planning lately (typical for the start of a school year) and what a week of meals looks like at our house and so I thought I'd share my process and a few little tips and tricks that I use.
First of all - I was anti-meal planning for YEARS but then it got to a point where I literally dreaded dinnertime not because I hate cooking (I actually love to cook), but because of the mental energy I was spending figuring it out every single day to say nothing of the grocery trips, etc.
I decided just to suck it up and be a grownup and start meal planning and it has been the BIGGEST HELP OF ALL TIME! It's such a streamlined process now and we're not making 5 trips to the grocery store every week and while it feels like "a lot" to plan it every week it really takes the guesswork out daily which was my big struggle. 
Essentially, on Friday afternoons/evenings or SOMETIMES Saturday mornings I meal plan. After I look at our calendars and make a plan I'll go through and place an online Walmart order and Instacart Costco order for delivery on Saturday morning. If there are other things that we need that are from a different grocery store (i.e. Trader Joe's, Market Street, etc.) Dave will typically grab those on Monday when he's off work because it's way more convenient and less busy that way.
I pretty much cook every night except for Friday nights. The calendar above has a bunch of empty Saturdays because I was traveling for track and wasn't home on those nights.
I try to mix things up and take requests from the kids and yes, cook nightly because my boys (and sometimes G) take leftovers for lunch pretty much daily.
Other little tips/tricks include:
- Plan EASY meals but just plan them! Sometimes thats grilled cheese and soup or hot dogs and french fries - even if it's going to be super simple put it on the plan!
- I keep a browser open throughout the week open to Walmart where I can add things that we run out of so I don't forget when I place my order
This school year I've also started incorporating meals that the kids can start and/or make fully on nights when I may be home late, we have an event for one kid, etc.
Here's an example of our meals last week...
Saturday night - smoked sausage and homemade mac and cheese
Sunday night - HUGE pot of pasta sauce with pasta
Monday - Leftover pasta sauce (planned this because we had a XC event)
Tuesday - Pesto chicken and roasted potatoes (G has dance on Tuesday nights so I'll try a new recipe or something that I don't think she'll love on these nights so if she doesn't "feel it" she just has a grilled cheese sandwich when she gets home - hahaha)
Wednesday - Tomato cream sausage pasta
Thursday - Chicken meatballs and orzo (I knew I cold throw it together quick after a MS football game)
Friday - PIZZA
I really hope that you found this helpful - if you have any tips and/or dinner ideas I'd love it if you'd leave the in the comments!
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