How to Create a meal plan for a family of 4

I have never been a super structured person. I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants girl, if I do say so myself. But, creating a meal plan for the week has removed so much mental burden from my life, I feel freer. So, I am leaning into structure. Just a little.

I make my meal plan on Sunday mornings, so I can spend time later in the day shopping for groceries, and meal prepping to some extent. I have two small children, so most of the time, the meals are super simple (and can be made in 20 min).

And the most important lesson that I learned was, don’t just plan dinners for the week.

Plan. It. All.

I plan breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks. You can’t forget snacks. With kids in the house who are magically and incessantly hungry, you can’t forget snacks.

I made an excel spreadsheet with each day and each meal (and 2 snacks), and planned it out.

Two things to note:

1. We are vegetarian, so all of the meals have no meat in them.
2. You could very easily make two or three or four of these sheets and then rotate them. Right now, I appreciate some spontaneity in my life and choosing the meals (which are often among the same few) each week makes me happy.

All of that said, here is my meal plan for the week:

Friends, keep it simple.

Rotate the same snacks through the week. And keep those simple. On Sunday I can prep my snacks by cutting up the fruits and veggies I plan to serve them. The rest comes from the store.

Notice how our breakfasts also repeat themselves. I make enough oatmeal for two days on Sunday, so I am prepped and ready to go. I can make the muffins, and freeze or refrigerate them, or I can buy muffins from the store.

Lastly, look at how I reuse the dinners for lunch often. There are some meals I make that I know we will have leftovers, so I plan to serve those during lunch to make things easier. Here is the recipe for one of the very easy meals I make each week. It takes 15 minutes of cook time and about 4 minutes of active time.

The goal is not to create a meal plan that will be hard to stick to. You don’t have to make elaborate meals unless cooking is your passion. Keep it simple, and plan for each meal of the day, and I promise your days will feel way easier.

What do you plan early in the week to make the rest of your week easier? Comment below and I’ll try it for myself!