Have you ever stared blankly into your fridge or pantry wondering what to make with the ingredients on hand? Do you find yourself aimlessly wandering the grocery store aisles struggling to decide what to buy for dinner this week? Or do you find yourself stumped with pen and paper in hand, trying to come up with a grocery list for the week?
If you’re a busy mom like me, you probably raised your hand for all of the above!
After my second baby was born, I remember walking up and down the grocery store aisles in a fog. I’d sit and cry on a Sunday night as I struggled to write out my grocery list (even though it was often the same week to week). That was when I decided to take some action steps to get organized.
Over the years and a few kids later, I’ve added a few more layers of organization to my meal planning strategy. These strategies have saved me hours of time, frustration and tears while adding fun, variety and simplicity to my life. If you’re a busy mom looking to improve your meal planning skills this year, then I’m confident that these tips will help you too!
Benefits of Meal Planning
If you’re reading this, chances are you already know that there are benefits to meal planning, and you can skip ahead. But in case you’re on the fence, this is for you…
- Saves Time- While it does take time to learn and implement successful meal planning habits, the long-term pay off grows exponentially the longer you implement these strategies. In fact, by next year at this time, you will have saved yourself hours of time and tears by applying these steps today!
- Saves Money- It might not be rocket science that eating out and/or frequently buying convenience foods is more expensive than preparing and cooking your own food. But did you know that cooking from home (even with nutritious, organic ingredients) typically costs 50% less than what you’d pay for casual take-out? For a family of 6, eating from home every day for an entire month will save you roughly $700-900 a month. That’s a savings of $8000-10,000 a year (AKA a fancy vacation or home renovation)!
- Promotes Healthier Food Choices– No matter how you look at it, you can almost always create healthier meals in your own kitchen than if you were buying food elsewhere. Planning also allows you to create a rotation of healthy meals to help you and your kids get the variety of nutrients you need to stay healthy.
- Increases Kid Involvement- Did you know that letting your kids get involved in meal planning and cooking promotes positive food experiences and teaches them the valuable life skills of planning and cooking? Research shows that eating cooked, family meals from home sets your kids up for healthy habits down the road and reduces their risk for chronic illnesses.
If you weren’t already convinced, I hope you are now! Keep reading as we unpack my 5 best strategies.

5 Steps to Meal Planning for Busy Moms
1. Meal-storm
OK, I’ll admit…I made that word up, but it’s basically brainstorming about meal and recipe ideas.
There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but I would suggest starting with either a handwritten list or a typed out word doc, google doc or spreadsheet to keep track of your ideas.
You can get ideas from cookbooks, recipe books, websites, blogs (or even your mom).
Looking for cookbooks? It can be helpful to keep at least one basic cookbook on hand such as Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook or Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook. I also recommended keeping a stash of kid-friendly cookbooks on hand such as Kids Can Cook Anything, Chef Gino’s Taste Test Challenge and Junior Chef Masterclass. Your local library is another great (and free) place to find cookbooks.
If you’re still short on ideas, these are some of my favorite healthy, family-friendly recipe blogs…
- Ambitious Kitchen
- Carrots and Cookies
- Dr. Yum
- Kids Eat in Color
- Pinch of Yum
- The Real Food Dietitians
*Tip: Don’t forget to organize your recipes as you find ones that you like! I recommend using a combo of any of the following…a Half-Page Recipe Binder that holds handwritten 4×6 recipe cards, a 1” Recipe Binder to hold printed letter-sized recipes or magazine clippings (you can cover them with plastic page protectors if desired), a Recipe File Folder on your computer for any typed out recipes, and Pinterest.
Once you’ve finished meal-storming, create a Master List by categorizing these ideas by entree. Some category suggestions are…poultry, beef, pork, seafood, vegetarian, soups, 30 minute meals, breakfast, lunch etc. You can even take it a step further and add “suggested sides” or “pair with” categories to go along with the entree.

Don’t feel bad if your list isn’t very long at first. The best part is that you can add to this list over time as you find more and more recipes that you and your family like. This master list will be your best friend when you find yourself blanking on ideas.
2. Create a Weekly Menu Plan
I like to start with planning week by week as this can feel much less daunting than planning for the entire month.
Use the master list you created in Step 1, and begin to pull some ideas together. Take into account meal prep time, cost, potential for food spoilage, seasonal foods, variety, your weekly schedule, and your family’s preferences. Keeping the My Plate image in mind as you plan sides can help to ensure good nutrient variety.

Also consider how many meals you want to cook for the week and how often you want to eat leftovers. I personally find that cooking 3-4 times a week (and making a large enough portion of each meal for 1 night of leftovers) provides enough variety, while saving time and money from having to cook or eat out too often. If your family prefers more variety, I would still encourage you to make an extra portion to save for lunches or to freeze for easy dinners in the future.
You can keep track of your weekly meal plan on paper, in a planner, on a white board or on your phone or computer. I love using Amy Knapp’s Family Organizer as a simple, hands-on way to keep track of my weekly menu ideas.

*Tip: This method works great for planning dinners, but if you’re running short on balanced breakfast and lunch ideas, you can easily add them into the plan too.
3. Groceries: Make your List and Go Shopping
Once you’ve established your weekly meal plan, it’s time to act. There’s no right or wrong way to make a grocery list, but here are a few simple strategies that can help streamline your list-making process:
- Start with a template.
- This can be a handwritten list on a notepad, a typed list in your phone notes or using one of these grocery list apps.
- If you’re a regular online grocery shopper, you can use your prior week’s order as a starting point.
- My preferred method is a combination of typed and handwritten – I print out a grocery list template that includes weekly staples and then add handwritten items throughout the week as I run out.
- For maximum efficiency, organize your list according to the layout of the store(s) you most commonly shop at.
- Keep a running list. Whether on paper or on your phone, jot down staple items (or add them to your online grocery order) as soon as you run out of them.
- Finalize in the kitchen. With your weekly meal plan in hand, make the remainder of your list while in your kitchen, so you can do a quick scan of your recipes, fridge and pantry as needed.
- GO SHOPPING! Once again, there’s no right or wrong method for grocery shopping, but for maximum efficiency, I’ve found the following tips to be helpful:
- Try shopping at “specialty stores” (like Cosco, Aldi, or Trader Joes) once or twice a month to stock up on favorites.
- If you enjoy shopping local and/or at farmers markets, do this before doing your regular grocery run, so you can pick up any missing items at the grocery store.
- If you prefer online shopping, check out Thrive Market as a great one-stop-shop for healthy, natural ingredients.
- Finally, if your fridge and pantry space allow, choose a weekly shopping day, and aim to limit grocery runs to once/week. This will save time while still allowing you to replenish your fresh foods weekly.
4. Long-Term Planning: Make a Retrospective Plan
This is the step that many people try to do out of order…tackling the big task of making a menu for the whole month! However, if you work hard at reaching the small goal of making a weekly meal plan, you can much more easily make a monthly plan at the end of the month.
- At the end of each week, record your weekly menu plan on a monthly calendar. Once again, there’s no right or wrong method, but here are some simple ideas:
- Print off a blank calendar template and handwrite your past ideas.
- Save a blank calendar template as a word document and type in your past ideas.
- Create a monthly word/google doc or spreadsheet for every month and add your past ideas.
- Next year at this time you can sit back and relax as you’ll have an amazing meal plan for the entire year!
- You may find that you aren’t in the mood for all of the meals from the year before (which is completely normal), or maybe you’re feeling more creative the next year since your meal planning brain space is freed up.
- You can always add to or switch out items over the years, but this will still save you an immense amount of time week to week and year to year.
5. Have a Back-Up Plan
Even with the best planning skills and intentions, some weeks are just a failure. Sick kids, hectic work schedules and extracurricular activities can quickly alter good intentions. For this reason, I always recommend having a backup plan.
A good backup plan usually involves a combination of quick meal ideas and healthy frozen, quick-cooking and shelf-stable ingredients. You can still keep a balanced plate in mind when buying backup ingredients. And you can rest assured that using your backup plan is still more nutritious and less expensive than eating out on a whim.
Favorite Backup Dinner Staples:
- Protein: Purdue Simply Smart chicken breast nuggets, Bell & Evans organic chicken tenders, extra lean ground beef, frozen cooked shrimp, canned beans (black or re-fried), eggs, cheese
- Starch: Annie’s Super! Mac, Alexia sweet potato fries, whole grain or corn tortilla shells, Banza pasta, baked beans, quick brown rice, whole grain or sourdough bread
- Vegetables: frozen broccoli, green beans, mixed veggies, or spinach (for smoothies) pasta sauce, Pacific tomato soup, salsa
- Fruit: frozen fruit (for smoothies), applesauce, canned fruit in its own juice
Simple Backup Dinner Combos:
- Bean and cheese burritos with avocado and salsa
- Chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and applesauce
- Eggs, whole grain toast, fruit smoothies (with spinach)
- Grilled cheese on whole grain or sourdough bread with tomato soup, applesauce
- Pasta with meat sauce, steamed mixed veggies
- Shrimp stir fry with broccoli and brown rice
Breakfast and Lunch Planning
While most of the examples above are geared towards dinner meal planning, you can use the same tactics for breakfast and lunch planning with a few simple tweaks.
- Add a “Breakfast” and “Lunch” heading/tab to your meal planning Master List and spreadsheet to organize your ideas.
- Most people do well with a rotation of 3-4 options/week. This still allows for good flavor and nutrient variety.
- Quick Breakfast Staples:
- Protein: eggs, nut butter, Veggies Made Great egg bites
- Starch: Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake & Waffle Mix, Dave’s Killer Bread or sprouted grain bread, dry oats, Kodiak cake waffles, Purely Elizabeth Granola, Veggies Made Great muffins
- Veggies: avocado, spinach (for eggs or smoothies)
- Fruit: berries, bananas, frozen fruit (for smoothies)
- Dairy (or Dairy-free alternative): Greek yogurt, Kefir, milk (or milk alternative)
- Quick Lunch Staples:
- Protein: all-natural deli meat, hard-boiled eggs, cheese slices, cottage cheese, hummus, nut butter, canned tuna
- Starch: whole grain bread, crackers, pita or wrap
- Veggies: raw veggies (carrots, celery, cucumbers, peppers)
- Fruit: apple slices, canned fruit (in its own juice), fruit spread
- Keep the My Plate image in mind as you plan. Here are some simple combinations:
- Breakfast:
- eggs, avocado toast, fruit & kefir
- Oatmeal (made with milk), frozen blueberries, ground flaxseed
- Waffle with peanut butter, bananas and mini chocolate chips
- Greek yogurt, berries, granola, ground flax seed
- Lunch:
- Egg salad pita with lettuce and tomato + fruit
- Tuna melt with cheese and tomato on sprouted grain bread + veggies and dip
- PB&J with natural peanut butter and whole fruit spread + veggies and dip
- Hummus, cucumber and cheese wrap + fruit
- Dinner leftovers
- Breakfast:
- If you struggle to plan in-the-moment, add these ideas to your weekly and monthly meal plans too!
Making it Happen
Even with all of the best tools and intentions, meal planning can still be a challenge. Remember to take it 1 step at a time. Master each step before moving on to the next.
Still feeling overwhelmed? Download my free Meal Planning Master List.
If you need personalized assistance, check out my meal planning services powered by EatLove.
