Meal Planning Made Easy [Free Printable]

Taking the stress out of meal planning with these free printables

Well folks, the struggle is real, since our toddler now demands real food, our days of grabbing a frozen meal or ordering take-out / going out have dwindled down. Too much salt for the little one. And let’s be honest, going out with a toddler can be a tiny bit stressful.

Gone are the days that I’d go meet a friend out for sushi, then have a date at whatever restaurant, and then maybe eat something at happy hour at a bar. All that was left to do was fill the other nights with something edible, be it cereal or some delicious meal, for which I had all the time in the world to cook and eat. Now there’d better be food on the table at 6pm or Leo turns into an ankle biter. He’s in a phase right now where most things are just disgusting to him and he winds up eating a slice of toast but we continue to offer everything we eat. Then, every few days he’ll surprise me and mow down whatever we’re eating. It’s super random.

Meal Planning for Our Family

So I’ve been doing the grown-up thing and been making an effort to plan out what we’re going to eat each week. I can only handle so many days with a sudden panic attack at 5:30pm, no clue what to cook and no ingredients on hand. Mom-ing is tough enough as is.

My trusted planner has a section for weekly meal planning, which takes away that panicky moment (so long as I actually went grocery shopping!) but that still leaves the question, what the heck should we eat this week?! I consider myself a foodie so eating the same 10 or so rotating meals is really unsatisfying for me.

Meal planning is a breathe with Sannipanni's Planner and the cute printable from this blog post.

Alas, I’ve come up with this little system that seems to work well for us. I pick meals based on these categories: salad, pasta, something made on the grill, seafood, breakfast for dinner, something made in the crock-pot, and global cuisine. Since I don’t feel like cooking every day (because it’s ridiculously hard to do that when your toddler wants to hug your legs and I’m lazy by nature), my meal plan for the week always includes leftovers. You bet. I also shuffle the meals around as the week goes by or say, screw it, and we go out or pick something up. But the list helps. Tremendously!

Shutterfly had a promo for free magnets and that motivated me to turn this informal list of meal categories into a magnet for my fridge. I designed these graphics (yay, your choice of color!) and thought I’d share in case someone else struggles with meal ideas, too. They truly are pretty good inspiration for me when it comes to picking meals for the week.

A dish will often immediately come to my mind when I think about grilling or Asian or Tex-Mex food (“global cuisine”). If I still struggle, I grab my magazine recipe collection or search on Pinterest. Checking what’s on sale that week helps, too.

So here they are, my little meal planning helpers! Download (right click and “Save Image” or hold down long on your iphone and save to your camera roll) and print or turn them into a magnet. Happy cooking and I hope they’ll keep your family from going hangry!

Easy meal planning: Every day pick one of the categories to spark your meal inspiration!

Easy meal planning: Every day pick one of the categories to spark your meal inspiration!

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In Which I’m Whipping up Some Dinner

Living alone and having an active social life makes my dinners mostly unpredictable. I see tons of Pinterest posts about printable meal plans and Rachael Ray always has a weekly shopping list that lasts a whole week’s worth of dinners. I always think “Ohhh so pretty! Ohhh so practical!” Well, I’m not Rachael Ray nor am I feeding a family so a pre-planned dinner list for the week is not my style. Plus what if you’re not in the mood for what you thought you’d be in the mood for on Friday when you planned your meals on Sunday?! Tsk. Not for me.

Instead I find myself hungry with random ingredients at home and am left to whip up something. Sometimes dinner turns out horrific (like that elderberry syrup drenched chicken breast with grapes and onions– yuk!!). Sometimes I surprise myself though and surpass my mother’s cooking skills…

Tonight’s challenge: Will be going on a 5 day business trip and have 1/4 broccoli head, a lemon and two potatoes that look more like orange peel crispness wise. Definitely destination trash can if I didn’t use them tonight. Hmmmm. Further digging in my fridge produced a long ago opened bottle of white wine, some garlic, a glass of marinated artichokes and frozen shrimps. A half hour later I am eating a frickin’ amazing dinner. Sandra 1. Waste 0.

Proud chef that I am, I posted a pic on FB and my friend C was so enthralled she asked for the recipe. Here goes:

Shrimps with Artichokes & Broccoli in Lemon White Wine Sauce and Potatoes

  • Start cooking your potatoes – they’ll need the longest
  • Defrost shrimps under running water and pat dry. Season with garlic powder (I was thinking, aww shucks I don’t have time to marinate them but I want them somewhat garlicy – garlic powder to the rescue!)
  • Chop broccoli and garlic – I used two cloves
  • Heat olive oil in pan and add garlic. A little later the shrimps and finally the broccoli
  • Squeeze out half a lemon and pour juice into pan
  • Let simmer a few minutes then add a handful of marinated artichoke segments and white wine (don’t drink the wine, it’ll taste sourrrr)(ignore content of last parentheses if fresh bottle)
  • I added some white pepper and a pinch of sugar to season. Add more wine if things should dry rub against the pan
  • After it’s been simmering until your potatoes are almost done, mix some cornstarch with cold water (you’ll only need a little bit) to thicken the sauce. Stir into shrimp wine mix and bring back to a boil
  • Guten Appetit!

I made this with potatoes because they weren’t going to survive my absence and I’m German – we love potatoes (and The ‘Hoff). I could see this work at least as well with pasta, couscous or rice, too, though. Let me know how yours turned out and happy cooking!

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