I Need Help with Weekly Meal Plan for Dinner

A great site I have used is e-mealz.com. It's a paid site-$15 for three months which I think is pretty reasonable. They have many plans to choose from; low fat, low carb, Weight Watchers points etc. They also have lists that are store specific where they will plan meals according to what's on sale that week at that particular store. So you receive all the recipes for that week as well as a complete shopping list organized into store sections. I don't remember not liking many of the meals and I'm a picky eater, and the portions are large enough to have leftovers. Good luck in school and I hope you find something that helps!

I've heard www.e-mealz.com is good. It is $5 a month I think and helps plan the shopping list and meals.

Hey there D.,

I totally understand how you feel on this one. It can be tough to try and feed your family delicious meals in a hurry, as well as keep it from breaking your checkbook.
Well I am a consultant with the Pampered Chef and we have been doing something called Power Cooking this last year. It lets us teach hosts how to make 3-5 delicious meals in one session (taking maybe 30-40 minutes) so you have one for tonight and the rest you can freeze and can be pulled out and prepared when your in a pinch for time. Also one of my favorite things is that these meals are only going to cost around $2 a serving which is such a help in such economical times. I would love to email you some of the recipes if you are interested, just let me know:) Also if you are interested in having me actually do a POWER COOKING show for you and your friends I would love to see what a good time for you is there. Either way let me know and I look forward to helping you out however I can.
A.
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I really like this monthly menu on familyfun.com - http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/meal-planner/index.html?C...

It gives me new recipes if we're stuck in a rut or just gives me general meal ideas of things I make but haven't made in awhile.

Good luck!

You should try Rachael Ray's website and magazine. With both, she has a section that is a 7 day meal plan. She lists all the ingredients you'll need for all week and then gives the recipes for each day.

I haven'te looked at one in awhile but, I think she might even break the list down by: staples (stuff you should always have in your pantry), meats, veggies...that kind of thing.

With the website you can even sign up for newsletters that will be sent to your email. I've gotten a couple of recipes from her that way.

Hope that helps and good luck with school!

check out www.savingdinner.com They have weekly recipes with the shopping list.
When I get home from the grocery store (or pick up my Bountiful Basket from the produce co-op) I try to chop all my veggies for the meals that week and keep them in containers or a veggie tray. That way the vegetables are prepared ahead of time, cutting down on cook time at night, plus I always have a veggie tray to direct my kids to when hungry or to pull out as a vegetable side to dinner. You can also cook and freeze bags of ground beef, rice, pasta so it's easy to use when you need it.

When I cook I make enough to feed my family for four meals and freeze half. So we eat it for dinner one day, then for lunch the next. Then at some point in the future I can do the exact same thing with the frozen portion. In addition, my sister lives in the neighborhood so we have an unstructured dinner co-op of sorts. I'll cook a few times a week for both families, and she'll cook a few times. For freezer meals, I've used freezer meal recipes at www.savingdinner.com

Hi D.,
I'm big on crock pot cooking, because I have more energy in the morning before I leave for work. When I get home it's ALL done and ready to eat. No standing in the kitchen for up to an hour after a long day on my feet. Another benefit is my kids, my husband and I get home at different time and we can all eat whenever we each get home or are hungry. I have found really easy and delicious recipes in my "Fix-It and Forget-It" cookbook. It works for my busy family. When I get home I can spend time with them and not have the pressure of cooking for 30-45 minutes. And...EVERYONE loves the food!

I usually find good recipes in my Cooking Light magazine. I enjoy getting the magazine every month and looking at the new recipes ( I like to see the pictures of what it looks like :)). I always ran out of ideas too. I cut out the ones that look good and put them in a folder. After we try them and like them they go into a binder with clear pages. That binder is our personal cookbook with all of our favorites. I sometimes find good recipes in the Family Fun magazine too. www.cookinglight.com and www.familyfun.com are both good sites to check out.

try gourmet magazine, there's a section that has 'quick dinners' they are healthy and a good variety of ideas that take well under 1/2 hour to finish.

D.,

I'm not that creative or exciting when I cook either, however my husband says it's great. What I do is make a list of what I will make for dinner for the week. I don't assign anything to a certain day. Then I check to see what need to get from the store and make that list. I do this after the kiddos are sleeping, usually. Then it only takes about 10-15 minutes. If I draw a blank or want something different I look online at kraft.com or rachel ray.com. I also have a crock pot cookbook. I make a few things every week in that. It really helps to only spend no more than 10 minutes puttng it together, plus I have 2 year old so he can help. I cut and he tosses it in. Check out the libary for cookbooks before you buy. I promise it gets easier as you do it and makes life better. Good Luck.

K.

Hi D.,

congrats on going back to school. I have been back to school online full time for the last year and it is hard work. I sit down on saturday night after the kids go to bed and look through all my cookbooks. I bought a white board and have the days of the week on it. Then I jsut pick out a different meal for each day and on sunday we go shopping for the stuff we need. This way I always now what is for dinner and I can plan my day around it. Good Luck in school!!!

M.

Hi D.,

We use Everyday Food magazine! It's wonderful, the magazine gives you easy recipes and a complete shopping lists. The ingridients are simple and can be found in your grocery store. I have prepared so many meals from the magazine. They are delicious and make my weekly meal plan super easy and affordable. I think it's $12 yearly subscription and well worth it. Check it out.

It was extremely difficult for me too. I didn't know where to begin. So what I did was make a list of as many dinners that i knew how to prepare (10-ish at the time) then I added a veggie (salad or steamed) and a fruit to each. I made a list of what I needed to make them and went to the store. I didn't even crosscheck what I already had. I figured that way I'd be stocked if there were duplications. Here's a sample of what I do.

Mon- homemade pizza, salad, strawberries
Tue- wild rice, salad, steamed veggies, apples
wed- veggie sandwiches, chips, apples
thu- baked chicken (seasoned however), salad
fri- refrigerator review (I do this every week)
sat & sun- snack stuff

extras: bake cookies for snax and mini muffins if there's time...I usually do this on sunday.

Hope this helps. I have cut my grocery bill in half working this way and I have major food allergies. My meal plans are very simple and quick to prepare. You don't have to be a gourmet to eat well.

Hi D., I agree with Cara. I am not a good cook at all and not very creative. Neither is my mom, I guess that's where I learned it! Anyway, I have several recipes that I have mastered over the years that are quick and easy for me (not necessarily the healthiest tho!!). I work full time out of the house so I only have about a 1/2 hour from the time I get home to have dinner on the table. So I plan out 3 meals for Mon, Tues, Wed. I save all the leftovers from those meals and we all eat them on Thursday. Then every other Friday we don't have the kids (our ex's have them) so we treat ourselves to dinner or I make something easy. On the opposite Fridays that we have the kids, it's our "Family Movie Night" which means we have pizza, salad (my kids are great salad eaters!) and then popcorn with the movie later. And on weekends we just wing it depending on if it's a kid or no-kid weekend. So basically, I think it would be easier for you to just find 10-15 really great recipes that work for you and your family and plan the week ahead what you are going to have and stick with it. I tried to do those websites but the recipes always had ingredients of things I never cooked with and it ended up costing me more money to buy something for one recipe to never use it again. So just my 2 cents. Hope you find something that works for you and don't forget the crock pot...it works wonders!!

I use www.menus4moms.com. You can get them for free or you can subscribe to get more options. It gives you a menu for Monday-Friday and there is even a grocery list that goes with the menu. She also gives tips on how to make cooking less expensive and quicker by cooking things ahead and freezing. Once you are on the website look on the left side for Basic dinner menu for the week. So far the menus have had quite a bit of variety and my family seems to like most of them. Good luck.

Hi D.,

You are right the hardest part is coming up with what to fix for dinner. I struggled with this for years and finally found something I absolutely love. It is a book called Saving Dinner. Not only are the recipes easy, but we have used some spices and a few ingredients that were new to us and have become favorites. The book comes with six entree recipes and ideas for sides PLUS the shopping list for everything you need to fix those six meals. There are several different books for people with different needs and you can find it on Amazon.com. Just do a search for Saving Dinner and it will come right up. The author also has a site and you can subscribe to weekly menus at www.savingdinner.com. This might be what you are looking for.