Homemaking: My Favorite Family Weekly Meal Planner (free printable)

I have created many meal plans over the years.  I started out with the days of the week and just a basic list of dinners, just as I had seen my own mother do all my life.  I've seen her look through the local grocery store ads weekly, to see what is on sale, and with pen in hand, jot down her dinners for the week on about a 1/4 sheet of paper.  I can still go to her house to this day and find her faithful list posted in her kitchen.  She's very consistent!  I could always rely on Thursdays as grocery shopping days, which was very important to know as a kid, because it always meant a "grocery shopping treat", something that was definitely not to be missed.  I have to give her credit for exposing me to the basics of eating well, meal planning, and consistency - 3 of the most important concepts when feeding my own family of seven and in trying to maintain my weight.

Of course, the organizer in me is always trying to create something a little more customized, efficient, and productive in my life.  Though no meal planner is the cure-all for feeding your family well, a good one can make things more simple, thorough, and cost-effective.  I still consult my weight-loss meal planning sheets every now and then, especially when I need a little leaner food ideas, but I find that this particular meal planning sheet (click on the link just given to print your own blank form or click on the image below for a peek at this week's menu that we all agreed upon - ask my kids) is an incredibly useful and important tool in helping our family to stay unified and budget-friendly (even if Mom has to sometimes supplement her own diet with a calorie-counting sheet every so often).

I said unified above, because one of the problems we seem to face in our household is getting everybody to eat the same thing at the same time.  Dinner and sometimes lunch isn't too big of a problem, but breakfast and snacks can easily turn into a free-for-all/ help yourself affair if I don't have some boundaries in place to keep everyone reined in.  It's why I felt I had to graduate several years ago from a basic "Dinner Only" planning sheet, to something more all encompassing, but still simple.  Here's the basic boundaries/ ground rules that I have given my family when it comes to eating in our household and in relation to this planning sheet (of course, there are a bazillion meal planning sheets our there so maybe you have a better one, but whatever your method is - I still believe that keeping things healthy, budget-friendly, consistent, and following through with whatever your plan is, are the most important aspects of any plan):

1. I plan my meals on Wednesdays and funny enough try to shop on Thursdays (old habits die hard I guess).  My family knows that meal planning days are Wednesdays (just declare it and follow through is my life mantra for accomplishing many things) and that if they want some say in what they eat for the next 2 weeks they better pipe up or be satisfied with what they get.  I have a favorite saying that my daughter's Kindergarten teacher taught her students, which says, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"  When everybody is offered a say in the planning department, and the shopping has been done, this becomes a steadfast rule to save $ and headaches and to prevent all the "good stuff" from disappearing in the first 2 days or better yet 2 hours after shopping.  My goal is to spread the wealth over each 2 week period.  Though I'm still working to convince everyone of that, I do believe whole-heartedly it is a better plan.
2. When making food suggestions I do sincerely consider all that my husband and children desire, but they also know that it needs to fit into our weekly budget and be fairly healthy - something that won't harm those who have addictions:) (unless it is an intentional splurge type of thing, like a planned for dessert).  Basically Mom and Dad have edit power (if Dad wants some).
3. We hang our sheet on the refrigerator and cross off the meals or snacks as we eat them.  If the kids are really not in the mood for something and express a desire with a good attitude to eat something different we'll switch things around a bit, or once in a while, find something different to replace it with.  Though boundaries are essential, I do understand a bit a moodiness when it comes to eating so it never hurts to have some mercy, especially since we all could use a little.
4. A couple of budget boundaries I love and am incorporating more fully into my life recently is 1) to shop for all our groceries every two weeks, except for milk and produce which I shop for weekly, 2) I try to shop ads like my mom, to use coupons if applicable and within reason, and make a pretty thorough inventory of what I already have in the house so I am making good use of all our resources.  Good refrigerator, freezer, pantry, and storage room organization is so essential - these are some of my top necessary spaces for really good organization, because the benefits are endless.  But, that's definitely another post for another day.
5. Inspired by "The Food Nanny" I loved her idea of picking themes and making sure my meals were more well-rounded with better side-dishes, which jump-started this re-design of my old and faithful weekly meal planning sheet.  I have used themes before, but after flipping through her cookbook a few days ago, thanks to my friend Emily, and watching her on television, I decided it's just such a fun thing to plan dinner around themes because it really helps to simplify the thinking when planning menus.  I love that it adds excitement and consistency to our family routines and provides a wide range of flavors and types of foods.  My themes are listed on the sample sheet above.  You'll find if you know "The Food Nanny's" plan that my own themes are a bit more elaborate, but I like a little or a lot of wiggle room...what can I say?  The only time I think I'll deviate from this idea is whenever we have a holiday I'll make that day a "Family Favorite or Family Traditions Night/ Day", because we have a whole series of Family Favorite menus for all the holidays that are special traditional recipes for us.  It makes planning in splurges so fun and exciting (again - another post for another day).

So with all this said (wheeeeew!), I hope my children can someday find their own successful way of preparing wonderful/ healthy meals for their future families with enthusiasm, motivation, and ease.  I can not say enough about the benefits of eating dinner/meals together as a family.  One of the greatest blessings from being unified in what we are eating, and prepared and organized in the shopping and preparation of the food, is that this makes that very important time a little easier to obtain.  To my own mom...thanks for your good example!

Idea Source:  Emily S. - thanks for inspiring, and "The Food Nanny Cookbook".

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