This is our family favorite weekday meal plan by far. Why? Well for me because it has the easiest and fastest to prepare recipes. For the kids, because they get to eat all the things they like!
We all struggle with it; lack of time. Especially when you have kids. After a long day at work, you pick up the kids, come home and then it hits you: “I need dinner on the table, like right now!’. You don’t want take out. You want something healthy but quick and you want something that everyone in your family will enjoy.
Meal planning will help you with this. I know, it doesn’t sound sexy. But it will make your life so much easier. Plan your weekday meals in the weekend and buy whatever you can ahead of time.
A few things that will help you with that:
Make large batches
Make large batches of food and freeze them. Use containers that are ‘your family’s size’; just enough for all of you for 1 meal. This can be an entire meal, lasagna for example, or it can be a time consuming part of it, for example your own homemade oven roasted tomato sauce so you only have to cook pasta on the night of the planned meal.
Keep it simple
Don’t plan a totally different dish for every day. You will be making so many batches of different foods on the weekend you will go mad. It’s ok to have leftovers the next day (or even better two days later to not eat the same meal 2 days in a row). And do what I call ‘chameleon meals’. One dish converts into another the next day. Let me explain. For example you make a large batch of oven roasted tomato sauce. Large enough for one night of pasta with meat(less) balls in that tomato sauce and another night of soup made out of the leftover sauce. If you make a large enough batch of meat(less) balls (from beans from scratch) you can then use the left over balls in a burrito bowl another night. Make a bean soup with the left over beans from scratch and TA-DA! you have planned 5 meals!
Let your kids help
Even though it seems to take longer when they help you, it will keep them occupied (so less chance of a meltdown right before dinner). Give them an easy job; one that you don’t have to supervise. This will take a while, but once there is a routine they will start asking you if they may help. Trust me, it happened to me. Depending on their age (mine are 6 and 8) they will understand that when they help out dinner will be on the table faster. Also by making them help out in the kitchen, they are more likely to eat their (self prepared) dinner.
Ok, let’s start with a general overview of our family favorite weekday meal plan and I’ll go into detail below it.
Saturday
First decide on what to make for the week (in this case I have already done that for you!).
Now make a grocery list for all the things you can get ahead of time. Also make lists for last minute things you can’t buy ahead of time (per day). Believe me, the better organized you are, the easier your life becomes.
You are now ready to hit the stores!
Sunday
Prepare what you can make ahead of time. Make large batches of it and then freeze them in family size containers. Making more of something isn’t more time consuming. It’ll actually save you time next time you are planning on making that dish!
Note: you can combine Saturday and Sunday so you do everything on one day and have the other day off.
Monday
The first day of our famiky favorite weekday meal plan: whole wheat spaghetti with homemade oven roasted tomato sauce
Tuesday
Taco Tuesday; beans, guacamole, stir fried veggies and chicken (using my Mexican spice mix), oven roasted tomato salsa, (homemade) whole wheat tortillas
Wednesday
Meat(less) balls in oven roasted tomato sauce and mashed potatoes
Thursday
Gallo pinto (tropical rice and beans)
Friday
And the last day of our favorite weekday meal plan: Whole wheat pizza made with homemade oven roasted tomato sauce, cheese and your preferred toppings
Ok, now let’s get into details on this family favorite weekday meal plan…
SATURDAY . Make your grocery list according to the ingredient lists of all dishes (you can do so by clicking on the links). Keep in mind that you use some recipes more than once this week so double your recipe (or even triple) if necessary. You can always freeze it if you have too much.
Tip: add cucumber, carrots and extra tomatoes to your list as well as greens, to use as sides for your meals.
SUNDAY For this week’s meal plan you are making ahead of time:
–Oven roasted tomato sauce. Don’t be overwhelmed! It’ll take you 5 minutes to get the tomatoes in the oven. After that your oven takes over!
–Beans. Yes it’ll take a few hours for them to be ready, but you don’t have to do anything except wait for them to be done.
-Rice. Not that hard either, right? You are making this ahead of time since it is better to use dry (drier) rice for gallo pinto and refrigerating rice will help you with that.
–Oven roasted tomato salsa. You can choose to make this on the day of the meal, but it’ll keep good in the refrigerator for more than a week so why not make it ahead of time?
–Mexican spice mix. I usually make a jar full of this by just doubling/tripling the recipe. Saves me time next time I need it. Within 5 minutes you have all the spices measured out and mixed together!
-A simple salad dressing to accompany your salad. Dressing: 1 clove of garlic (minced), 1 tsp of mustard (whatever type you prefer), 2 cups of extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt, a few cracks of freshly grinded black pepper. Put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together or put them all in a ‘dressing shaker’ and shake well.
Last thing to do today is to check what you need for tomorrow. Bring ‘Monday’s grocery list’ to work to buy last minute things if any. And see if you need to defrost anything for tomorrow.
MONDAY Start with cutting up some cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes for the kids to snack on while preparing dinner or to serve at dinner. Prepare spaghetti according to directions on the package. Heat up your already prepared homemade oven roasted tomato sauce. While waiting for the pasta to be ready and the sauce to be heated up, rinse your greens, put them in a bowl and add your preferred toppings and dressing. Enjoy your dinner!
Last thing to do today is to check what you need for tomorrow. Bring ‘Tuesday’s grocery list’ to work to buy last minute things if any. And see if you need to defrost anything for tomorrow.
TUESDAY Start by making the dough for your tortillas if you are making them yourself. Kids can help with this. Let them add flour, oil and water to a mixing bowl, let them knead the dough. Let your dough rest for a few minutes.
In the meantime prepare your guacamole.
Now roll out the dough balls into tortillas and bake them on your stove top. In a couple of minutes you’ll have a stack of fresh tortillas!
Heat up your already prepared beans.
Cut veggies (like carrots, onions, bell peppers) in long strips and put them in a bowl. Add 1 or 2 tsp of Mexican spice mix and toss. Now stir fry them. Do the same with chicken (if vegetarian leave this step out).
Take your already prepared salsa out of the fridge and your are ready to have dinner!
Last thing to do today is to check what you need for tomorrow. Bring ‘Wednesday’s grocery list’ to work to buy last minute things if any. And see if you need to defrost anything for tomorrow.
WEDNESDAY Start by drying out your beans (see recipe) in the oven. While your beans are in the oven, peel your potatoes.
Cut up some cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes for the kids to snack on while preparing dinner or to serve at dinner. Also prepare your salad and toppings.
Once beans are out of the oven transfer them to your countertop or other baking tray for them to cool off asap. Continue making your Meat(less) balls. Once your meatballs are in the fridge resting put on your potatoes. Now continue with your meatballs. Heat up your already prepared tomato sauce and add the balls when ready. Mash the potatoes. Dinner is ready to be served.
Last thing to do today is to check what you need for tomorrow. Bring ‘Thursday’s grocery list’ to work to buy last minute things if any. And see if you need to defrost anything for tomorrow.
THURSDAY Start with cutting up some cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes for the kids to snack on while preparing dinner or to serve at dinner.
Prepare gallo pinto according to the recipe. Since you already prepared your beans and rice, you will have dinner on the table in no time. Don’t forget your greens, toppings and dressing!
Last thing to do today is to check what you need for tomorrow. Bring ‘Friday’s grocery list’ to work to buy last minute things if any. And see if you need to defrost anything for tomorrow.
FRIDAY Prepare the dough for the pizza (see recipe). My kids love to help me with this. They also like to roll out the dough (I always have to check if they are thin enough though..).
While waiting for the dough to rise, Start with cutting up some cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes for the kids to snack on while preparing dinner or to serve at dinner.
This is our favorite weekday meal plan. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. Now you have done it once, I am sure you can come up with others yourself. If you need some more inspiration check out our recipes on www.familicious.net. Happy planning!
