My Weekly Meal Planning System
I know that there are people who exist that just go into the kitchen around dinner time and figure out what to make.
But I am not even remotely one of those people.
Meal planning is absolutely crucial to my weekly routine and I feel the pain of skipping it every day for the whole week when I don’t do it.
(Let the record show that I basically dread it every week – I don’t enjoy doing it – but the payoff every day for the rest of the week is worth the time to do it each Sunday).
Here’s how our meal planning system works:
On Sunday afternoon, Bart picks all the dinners for the week.
I did it for years, but I don’t love doing it and Bart cares more about what we eat for dinner than I do (my priority is getting dinner on the table. I care less about what that dinner is), so a few years ago, I asked him to take it over and it’s been a huge weight of my shoulders.
He texts or emails me the list of meals he has picked. Every time I mention that he picks the meals, people ask if I have a master list for him to pick from or certain websites. While he knows some of my favorite recipe sites (Half Baked Harvest, Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, How Sweet Eats, Two Peas and Their Pod), he often choose from other sites too and there is no master list.
I truly don’t care what he picks for dinner. We DO often go over the calendar for the week together before he picks, so sometimes I’ll say “hey, let’s do a crockpot meal that day since it’s going to be a crazy day” but other than that, he has free reign.
Once he’s sent me the recipes, I put in a grocery order from Walmart to be delivered first thing on Monday morning.
Having a fully stocked kitchen to start of the week is the best!
Every night, when 5 p.m. rolls around, I head into the kitchen to make dinner with the goal of eating right about 6 p.m.
I make dinner Sunday through Friday (we almost always do homemade pizza on Friday) and then we do takeout or go out for dinner on Saturday night.
As always, my goal is for regular occurrences (like dinner!) to require as little decision making as possible and this system has worked well for us for years!
If you have any questions about our meal planning and dinner system, leave them in the comments and I’m happy to help!
