Printable Menu Planning Ideas Form
Below is a free printable menu planning form where you can list your family's favorite dishes so when you're struggling with what to cook for the week you've got ideas.
Instructions & Ideas For Using This Form
This form is useful when you sit down to plan your weekly meals and draw a big blank of what to cook for the week.
If you're like me, sometimes when I'm meal planning I'm already pretty tired, and for some reason I can't remember all the meals my family likes to eat, and sometimes I end up making the same things week after week.
Even our family faves get old fast if we eat them all the time.
This is a way to jog your memory with more things everyone likes to eat, but that perhaps for whatever reason, you haven't made in a while and forgotten about.
It can make planning easier, and keep you from getting in a rut with what you cook all at once.
I've added a couple of columns so you can list main dishes, the favorite sides or desserts your family enjoys with the meal, and finally a column to jog your memory while making your grocery list of what you need to make sure you pick up at the store to cook everything, or look at this column and figure out family favorites that you can make with ingredients already on hand.
The ingredients column doesn't have to list staples, like salt and pepper, for example, but if you always need to buy a can of tomato sauce, for example, when you make the meal or side go ahead and write it down so you don't forget an essential ingredient when you go to the store.
Another idea for how to use this menu planning form is to let your kids read through the list and let them pick meals from it for you to cook.
This way they're more invested in the meal plan for the week, but you're working from a controlled list and not trying some strange new recipe on a busy night wondering if it will be a hit or a miss.
Here's Your Printable Form
Click here to get your printable
(opens into a new window, as PDF)
Additional Meal Planning Resources On The Site
 Menu Planner Form + Grocery List |
 Weekly Dinner Menu + Premade Grocery List Sample |
 Printable Weekly Meal Planner Template |
Taylor's Review Of The Eat At Home Meal Plans
If you struggle to make menu plans and would love for someone to make them for you, plus make a grocery list for you, it’s well worth spending a few dollars every week to let Eat at Home do the work for you.
Check out my review of the Eat at Home meal plans here, and why it's one of my favorite family meal planning services.
Cook Great Meals In Less Time With An Instant Pot: Free Course To Learn How
Do you have an Instant Pot hiding in your cabinet? Want to learn how to use it? Sign up for Instant Pot School! It's free, and it will help you put that time-saver to work!
Learn more about this free course, and why I'm recommending it in my article all about Instant Pot School.
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Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas
I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!