Weekly Dinner Menu Planner PDF

Thanks for sharing this with us Ali, looks good. Hope you will share more thru the months on how it goes for you and the kids. Every few months I say that we will change and start eating better but having 3 kids against my idea doesn't help. I have no problem eating well and include variety in my diet, it's just the hubby and kids who need to jump on board with me.

I have been making monthly menues for 4/5 months now and it does help me to have it already planned out. We have less takeout this way if I have a plan. We have a list of foods we like and kinda like and I keep rotating them best I can. My next step is to get the kids in the kitchen more often to help prepare dinner but after all these years of cooking alone it's hard for me to make the change.

Good luck with your family dinners!!
p.s. I like that you included "NEW FOOD" that is a great idea and it's right where Simon can see it. My son needs that topic too. Thanks again!

Very cool printable! Thanks for sharing. I have a small dry erase board on my fridge that I've blocked into sections with a permanent marker. I use magnets of each day of the week for each block (and that way it's easy to change the day to switch meals around if something comes up). The unexpected benefit of menu planning at my house is that our daughters (10 & 13) have quit complaining about what I'm fixing!

die-hard menu planner here - and die-hard family meals proponent! we've eaten dinner at the table nightly for at least 10 years. i do think that it's made a tremendous difference in my relationship with my kids as they've become teens/young adults. menu planning also became a necessity when i became a vegetarian - i find it much harder to just "wing it."

We always have eaten at the table, but now we're 20's we're having easy convincience food more, and eating in the lounge as the table is covered with "stuff" I think taking a little time to plan might mean we eat better and more consciously. Love the printable- will be a cool addition to your project life too.

love this ali!!! it inspires me. i have taken meal planning to the ulitmate simplicity - the same thing every week. monday hamburgers, tuesday steak, etc... so much so that last night was "new" when we had rice with the steak. my husband must eat a very plain diet so this has worked well for him, but turned my kids into quite picky eaters. good luck!! i hope you'll share some of your most successful recipes :O)

I was meal planning on a regular bases last year and it made my life so much easier at 5:00 pm. I haven't been doing it and I really miss it. Thanks for the great tool to help kick my butt in gear and start doing this again. I have a very picky eater too and it gets frustrating trying to fed a family of 5, all with different taste. Best of luck with your meal planning!

I have made a weekly menu plan for several years and I post it on the refridgerator. My kids, one who is on the autism spectrum HAVE to know what we are having for dinner so this has saved my sanity. It's a great habit to get into.

i've made a menu the last couple months for an entire month. i mostly just include dinner but sometimes a special breakfast is included. i also included date nights with my husband - then my boys know when to expect to cook their own meal (plus they love us going on dates); we include family swim night which includes eating out every other week. Since we host a small group on sunday evenings i also include dessert one night a week. all that said it has been amazing with grocery shopping planning, to just dealing better with life because i'm not wondering what i'm fixin' for the evening. we've always eaten together, at the dinner table, as a family (even when my girls still lived at home) so i know the need or draw to have that connection, that routine, that tradition.

This looks like a great tool to help in the "what's for dinner" battle! Plan to post it somewhere that the kids can see it. I find this helps keep me accountable to actually fix what I said I'm going to fix. I have a lot more motivation to stick to the plan (instead of doing something easier or maybe faster) when I know that the kids have checked the meal plan in advance and are expecting something. I get a lot fewer complaints and arguments about what we are having for dinner, too!

This is fabulous.
I am always planning meals (with a family of 7 I have to.) But I needed to renew what I was doing. Love the format of this. And also really enjoying pinterest finds and working towards organizing that better as well as bettering our pantry. Even added that story to project life.
Thanks again, Ali!
~j

Thank you so much for the freebie.

I do just the opposite---I have more time to cook on the weekends so I cook several meals on saturday and sunday and then we eat left overs through the week. That way were eating healthy homecooked meals through the week but it only takes minutes to reheat and enjoy.

i can certainly use this. have made them myself in the past, but not used one consistently. thanks!

Definitely making meals ahead when being a working parent is helpful. Takes the stress off the 'run-home-get-dinner-on-the-table' routine. I usually spend the weekends making up stuff for the week. Good Luck!

There are tons of printable menu planning sheets available online, but not very many so aesthetically pleasing. Love that everything you do is designed so beautifully. I will enjoy using it. Thank you for sharing with us all.

thank you!

Thank you, Ali!
I also meal plan, but NEED to be better on the weekend. Have a blessed day! :)

How is Simon at trying unpreferred foods? Is it something that's gotten easier for him as he ages? I have an 8yo with autism and eating is our biggest hurdle with face with him. Short of hiring an expensive feeding therapist I don't know what to do with him anymore. He will only eat dry crunchy carbs (dry Cheerios, crackers, pretzels, etc.), plain Mott's natural applesauce, and peach Yoplait yogurt. That's IT. Watching the rest of us eat causes him anxiety (which is an improvement from when he was little and would physically gag watching us eat), so he rarely sits at the table with us.
He's so amazing and has come so far, except in this one (pretty critical!) area.

I love this!!!
I love being organized, it helps me prepare better what I am going to eat before I get home from work

LOOOOOVE the New Food section. That would be perfect for our family, too. I guess you're going to force me to stop procrastinating now. Thanks, Ali!