Weekly Meal Planning

Via Pinterest

Hey Y’all! Cooking throughout the workweek can be a pretty stressful task if you ask me. I’ve learned the least stressful way to cook after work is to meal plan on the weekends. It really doesn’t take very long, and all of the guesswork of “what to cook” and “what ingredients do I have” is gone.

For a family of two, I plan to cook 3-4 meals per week. Andrew and I are able to eat leftovers at least one night a week and go out or grab something on the weekend. But this can be done on a much grander scale and used to meal plan for two weeks or a month!

I start by jotting down ideas of dinners and narrow them down to 3-4 depending on what kind of week we'll be having. Once we have decided what we want for the week, I write down all of the ingredients I’ll need to complete the meal. I browse the pantry to see what ingredients we already have and whatever we’re missing, I add to the shopping list. I’ll also add basic items to the list that we use every week: bread, fruit, deli meat etc. 

It’s really easy as that. I typically go to the store on Saturday or Sunday to ensure everything is fresh for the week and then I don’t have to go back until the next week!

If you're like me, I'm still figuring my way around the grocery store. So in order to cut down on backtracking, I use an app called "Shop List Free". It lets me organize my shopping list by department. That way I'm able to grab everything in each department that I need without walking all over the store multiple times. Do what makes shopping easiest for you!

Have you ever tried meal planning? How do you survive cooking throughout the week? Let me know in the comments!

xo ~ Brittney