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p>Notice I did not title this Meal Planning & Grocery Shopping Made Easy, nothing in my mind can do that other than hiring a chef and personal assistant. Since that’s not an option, I’m going to share with you a few tips on how we make these tasks more manageable in our house.

Why Meal Plan?

With two kids playing sports and needing to get to practice, dinner choices are limited to:

• what can be made ahead on Sundays during meal prep
• something I can throw together in the crock pot
• something that takes less than 20 minutes from start to finish

I also work full-time so finding energy to pull together a last-minute meal is not in the cards. The stress of not knowing what to cook would be reason enough to stop for fast food and that isn’t the healthiest option (although it happens).

Grocery Shopping & Meal Planning Tips

This is where the free grocery list and meal planning printables come into play. Around our house, I do all the cooking and my husband does all the grocery shopping (lucky me, I know). In order for that to work, we use our lists. I sit down, usually on Saturdays, and go through my Pinterest recipes and favorite cookbooks to find our meals for the week.

Before I decide which day I’m going to cook a certain recipe, I write down the different activities that are happening during the week under that particular day (i.e, practice, games, Open House, meetings, etc.). That determines how much time I have to prepare the meal.

Will it need to be a meal already put together and just heated up? Will it be a crock pot meal? Will I have time to make something from beginning to end before having to leave the house?

I then use the printable Meal Planning worksheet to create our weekly dinner menu. To make things even easier, I keep my Meal Planning worksheets and simply rotate through them. It’s an added bonus when I put together a week’s worth of meals that everyone can agree on. These definitely get put in the rotation!

Meals to Rotate

Use this printable to create a go-to list of meals you know your entire family will eat and enjoy. Click here for your FREE download.

Making the List

Using the printable Grocery List, I highlight the different items needed for the week. Any item not found on the list can be easily added. My husband then goes through the pantry and refrigerator and tells me additional items that need highlighted.

The system is not perfect, but it helps our week go a bit easier knowing that the dinner menu is already decided. Please enjoy these free printables and let me know what your meal planning and grocery shopping tips are in the comment section below.

Thanks for stopping by!