Healthy Meal Plan for Busy Families
Why do we shy away from making healthy meal plans for ourselves? Most of us don’t identify as “chefs,” but we still need to cook for the whole family—or at least make it straightforward for the person who does!
That’s where meal plans come in—and it should go without saying that they need to be healthy. This is your lifestyle we’re talking about! It should have at least three meals listed per day and a few smaller snack in between that will fit your schedule and needs.
Put a little bit of thought into how you can make this work for you:
- Do I have enough time to make these, or do I need more meals to go?- Do I want to make simple dishes, or slightly more complicated ones?
- Will this fit into my grocery budget?
- How do I accommodate vegetarians in the family? (it can be done!)
- Do I want three square meals per day, or smaller meals more frequently?
Scheduling Your Meal Plan
Here's a 7-day meal plan using the 12 Meals Per Week Meal Plan.
Monday
Breakfast—Quick Breakfast Sandwiches
Lunch— Veggie Showdown
Dinner—Curry Chicken
Tuesday
Breakfast—Yogurt and Granola in bulk
Lunch—Tuna Antipasta
Dinner—Sizzlin' Steak Fajita
Wednesday
Breakfast—Light Breakfast Burritos
Lunch—Ye Old Faithful Sandwich
Dinner—Moroccan Tagine
Thursday
Breakfast—Pre-Prepped Porridge
Lunch—Balsamic Chicken Coleslaw
Dinner—What’s Shakin’ Bacon
Friday
Breakfast—Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes
Lunch—Chicken Carnitas
Dinner—Stir-Friday
Saturday
Breakfast—Quiche
Lunch—Lively Lemon Ginger
Dinner—Sizzling Steak Fajita
Sunday
Breakfast—Scrambled eggs and veggies
Lunch—No-Butter Chickpea
Dinner—Backyard BBQ
Quick Tips for this Meal Plan:
1. Prep your fridge ahead of time! Nothing is as frustrating as planning out an entire meal (or a week’s worth of meals) ahead of time only to find yourself missing a key ingredient.
2. Make dishes with multiple (and extra) servings. These can be used as left-overs, snacks, and guest portions. And hey, it’s just plain easier to cook in one big pan than in five different ones!
3. Buy meat in bulk while on sale, then freeze it for later! You can save a lot of money buying groceries this way, even though it may seem to hurt your wallet at first. Just be sure to keep track of what you’ve bought, as well as your grocery bill each week.The idea here is to reduce the overall size of your grocery bills over time, so you must resist temptations to buy extra after stocking up on frozen meat.
Make A Healthy Meal Plan Today!
Putting off making a meal plan just makes this your future self’s problem, and you’ll still be wondering where to start making healthy meals for your family in a week from now. Take this template and run with it! You can always substitute new recipes for some of these as you go. The point is to start solidifying a plan today so that you can make this in a breeze tomorrow.
Don’t make your future family eat junk (they won’t appreciate it the next morning). Play it smart with a healthy meal plan that everyone can get behind.
Have a really big family? Then check out this healthy meal plan instead!