During a busy season, planning meals can go by the wayside. This often results in frequent trips to the grocery store, where, unless you are extremely disciplined, you spend more than you intended. Or, if you don’t have time to go to the store, you wind up eating whatever is on hand. I suppose I’d be telling on myself if I mentioned I’ve been party to a few dinners consisting of buttered popcorn.

Out of self-defence, I developed a menu planning system that works well even when life gets busy. I’m happy to share it with you.

Steps to Simplify Meal Planning

If you’ve ever been stumped while planning a menu, you have my sympathy. The problem is not that there’s nothing to plan, but that there are so many options it’s hard to pin them down. My tendency to think in categories gave me an advantage here.

To pin down the possibilities, I assigned categories to each meal by day of the week. If you’d like to adapt my free menu planner* for your use, you are welcome to do so. I should mention here that I am not a nutritionist, just someone who tries to feed her family balanced meals. My advice should not, therefore, be taken as nutritional guidance. Please use your best judgment on your own diet and seek the advice of a qualified nutritionist for questions and concerns about your diet.

Screen shot of A Simple Life menu planner

Breakfast

Monday: homemade oatmeal in a variety of flavors
Tuesday: continental breakfast (fruit, yogurt or cream cheese, and some form of bread)
Wednesday: eggs and egg dishes
Thursday: homemade pastry, scones, or crepes
Friday: fruit and yogurt topped by nuts
Saturday: waffles and syrup or toppings, breakfast protein
Sunday: husband cooks, usually eggs and toast

Sample Breakfast Menu

Monday: homemade apples and cinnamon oatmeal topped with walnuts
Tuesday: whole wheat bagel, cream cheese, jam, orange
Wednesday: omelet with cheese, bacon, broccoli, onion, and garlic, salsa, buttered toast with jam
Thursday: Lemon crepes with sliced almonds
Friday: Berries in plain yogurt with honey, topped by sliced almonds
Saturday: Whole wheat waffles with blackberry compote, fried egg
Sunday: Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, toast and jam

Lunch

Monday: salad with cheese and/or nuts and dressing, bread or roll
Tuesday: sandwich, soup and sandwich, or salad and sandwich
Wednesday: soup (usually leftover from the night before) and bread
Thursday: soup or salad with cheese or nuts and dressing, bread or roll
Friday: sandwich, soup and sandwich, or salad and sandwich
Saturday: finger foods (usually leftover from the night before)
Sunday: planned leftovers from the night before

Sample Lunch Menu

Monday: Green salad with shredded parmesan, sliced almonds, grape tomatoes, red onion, and vegetables of choice, buttered french roll
Tuesday: Tuna salad sandwich, cole slaw (Make extra cole slaw for Thursday and Friday dinners.)
Wednesday: Leftover potato soup with toppings, french roll
Thursday: Hearty cole slaw (Add ham, cheddar cheese, and apple chunks to leftover cole slaw.)
Friday: Roast beef sandwich, leftover cole slaw
Saturday: Leftover buffalo wings, carrot and celery sticks, yogurt ranch dressing; frozen vanilla yogurt from smoothy leftovers
Sunday: Salad with grapes, apple, walnuts, celery, and cheddar dressed with half mayonnaise and half plain yogurt. (wash extra greens for tonight’s side salad.)

Dinner

Monday: quick and easy
Tuesday: soup, salad, and/or stew
Wednesday: comfort foods
Thursday: casserole, oven meal, or crockpot
Friday: fun and/or finger foods
Saturday: try a new recipe, do some creative cooking (make up my own) or concoct a homemade recipe I might not have time for during the work week
Sunday: traditional foods for a sit-down family meal

Sample Dinner Menu

Monday: Hamburgers with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and pickles; oven fries, banana smoothies
Tuesday: Potato soup with bacon bits, sliced green onions, and sour cream toppings, french bread roll
Wednesday: Homemade macaroni-and-cheese with ham chunks and broccoli, side salad with balsamic vinaigrette (Save back extra ham chunks for Thursday’s lunch.)
Thursday: Crockpot roast beef with potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms; side salad with yogurt ranch dressing, buttered dinner roll (optional)
Friday: Buffalo wings with yogurt ranch dressing, carrot and celery sticks, vanilla yogurt smoothy. (Make extra of all items and reserve; freeze smoothy leftovers in individual servings for Saturday’s lunch)
Saturday: Beef and autumn vegetables pot pie
Sunday: Baked chicken seasoned with lemon pepper, homemade pierogies, butternut squash, side salad with balsamic vinaigrette, homemade blackberry cobbler

Should I fail to make a menu for the week, the beauty of my system is that I can still usually come up with a plan for the day or if need be for a last-minute meal. Claim your free menu planner.

*The menu planner is a subscriber bonus, which means that you’ll be giving me permissson to send simple living articles so we can stay in touch . There’s no obligation, however, and you may unsubscribe whenever you wish, with the planner yours to keep. Claim your free menu planner.

If you’re already an email subscriber, you’ll find information about this free subscriber gift in the sidebar of your email. Please contact me if you have any difficulty.

Janalyn Voigt

Easy System to Simplify Meal Planning