Do you want a meal planner template to Easily plan out your family's weekly meals? The following printable meal planner template will help you get dinner on the table faster, and cut your grocery shopping time in half! 

This post is about using a meal planner template to make meal planning and grocery shopping for your family easy and efficient. 

The following post contains affiliate links. Should you choose to make a purchase from these links, I make a commission at no extra cost to you. 

With parenthood comes lots of daily responsibilities—e.g. tasks we have to do daily, basically to keep our kids alive and healthy. One of those basic tasks is feeding them. 

But any parent—myself included—can tell you that it's not so straightforward. The entire process of making sure our families are fed healthy food and the process of grocery shopping, prepping, cooking, and then eating takes up a lot of time. 

To make this easier, I developed a Meal Plan Template that's taken the work out of having to decide "what's for dinner" every single day—and it's been a game-changing life-saver! 

To go along with it, there's a coordinating printable Grocery List as well. All the printable documents in this post are completely free, so come back anytime you need them! 

Not only am I going to explain how to use both the Meal Plan Template and Grocery List, but I've also included PDF versions so that you can easily print them out whenever you need to! 

Step 1 of weekly Family Meal Planning: 

Start with a list of their favorite meals 

I like to keep a running list of my family's favorite meals. This way if I'm ever stumped on what to cook I can quickly glance at that list for inspiration. 

Plus we all know as parents there's nothing more annoying than asking your family what they feel like eating for dinner and hearing "I don't care or know, whatever you want"—which I hear very often. 

Then when I make something off the top of my head, I get reprimanded by my kiddos for "choosing the thing they don't like", even though they said "choose whatever you want". (Insert frustrated eye-roll here.) 

Using the template below I keep a running list of all their foolproof favorites. This way when I'm stumped on what to cook, I can simply glance at the list and avoid being reprimanded by my 8-year old for not cooking her preferred meal.  

I've included a FREE printable version that you can easily print out. Click HERE to download a PDF copy! 

So What are some of my family's favorite dishes? 

If you're curious what my family's favorite meals are, and some of my kids personal favorites they're guaranteed to eat, they're like most kids.

They love pretty much all pasta dishes—especially Baked Ziti or Lasagna. 

Mexican is always a favorite. A few of their favorite Mexican dishes are beef and/or fish tacos, chicken and/or bean/cheese and quesadillas.

Some Chinese favorites are Beef and Broccoli, Sweet n Sour Chicken, and any kid of Stir-Fry.

Of course, because I'm Lebanese, I do make a Lebanese dish at least once a week. Their favorite Lebanese dishes are Lebanese stews such as Kafta (a meat and potatoes dish) and Bazala (a stew made with peas and carrots). I do try and make as many salad meals as possible—including Lebanese ones like chicken shawarma and fattoush salad. Another classic Lebanese dish I can always count on them devouring are Stuffed Grape Leaves. 

Don't Be discouraged 

Maybe you read that list of their favorite meals above and now feel a little discouraged? 

I hope at this point you're not thinking "who is this crazy lady and how does she cook all this stuff every week?" 

Because here's the thing—three things actually. 

1. We want our kids to eat as healthy as possible. 

Studies show that the best way to get our kids to eat healthier, and stay within a healthy weight and daily caloric intake, is by cooking the food ourselves. It's usually hard to gauge what restaurants are putting in dishes, so I can't be sure if what they're putting inside their food is what I want my kids eating daily. This is a huge reason why I choose to cook weekly. 

2. Cooking is a form of showing love. 

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but to me cooking for my family is an act of love. I have fond memories of my mom cooking our favorite dishes, and us spending time with her in the kitchen. I want those same memories with my kids, and I want them to look back on their childhood with a sense of love and fondness when it comes to meal times. 

3. I use plenty of shortcuts to save time. 

I'm not baking my own tortillas or bread daily, or churning my own butter. There are tons of shortcuts one can take to cut cooking time in half—one of the biggest being be prepared ahead of time. Which is exactly what this blog post is teaching you. Meal Planning ahead of time is the best way to find the time to cook for your family easily and quickly.  

Give yourself a break 

Of course there are days out of the week I don't cook—for me specifically on Saturday and Sunday. 

Weekends are my "kitchen break" days, and I do look forward to them. We usually either eat out at restaurant together, or order takeout in. And let me tell you, even with all the efficient planning, by Friday I'm ready to be out of my kitchen. I'm only human. And I treat myself as such. 

Here's How to Meal Plan Properly

Always Meal Plan at the Beginning of the Week

Sunday or Monday are my Meal Planning days. It really just depends on what I have going on during either day, especially Sunday's as that's also my family's busiest day. 

If I really don't know what we're eating that week, I start with the list above of My Favorite Meals. It usually helps give me an idea. 

From there, using my Meal PlannerTemplate I fill in each meal we'll be eating, as well as the items I'll need to grocery shop for for each day. From there I can make ONE grocery list easily! 

I love this meal Planner Template 

Not to like toot my own horn because I created it, but this is the BEST Meal Planner Template I've ever used. 

I've used quite a few others, and I always felt like they were lacking. Most importantly, I realized that I need a grocery list area for each day as I was creating my meal ideas otherwise I'd either forget what I needed by the time I reached the only grocery spot at the bottom, or I'd run out of room. 

Using this template has helped me tremendously! 

And I know it's going to help you too! 

This Printable Meal Planner Template is completely FREE, so feel free to jump on here and print it weekly or whenever you need! 

Want a copy of the FREE Weekly Meal Planner Template? Click HERE to download a PDF copy! 

Then from your Meal Planner Template, make your Complete grocery list 

Not to toot my own horn again, but this printable grocery list is my baby. 

I've used and made a lot of grocery lists over the years. I made this one through trial and error, based exactly on how I make my own. In fact, ALL of the printable templates in this post are made from my own digital planner, and are the ones I use regularly. 

What's special about this grocery list template is that the categories are divided up—either by produce, pantry, protein, etc.

This is to maximize your own efficiency and time in the grocery store, so you're not wandering all over the place randomly grabbing things from different sections of the store. 

I find that I get my shopping done quicker when I grab all my produce at once, my pantry items in the middle aisles at once, dairy, etc. 

The way I use it is after writing in all my groceries in the meal planner above, I'll transfer them to this list. When I'm done planning all the meals for the week, I'll create my "master grocery list" from those "groceries" boxes in the meal planner—dividing up the groceries in their proper categories: pantry, produce, etc. 

If I'm using my Digital Planner that day, I'll already have this grocery list synced to my phone when I get to the store. If I'm using the printable version, I'll either screenshot it on my phone to view it as a photo in my Camera Roll or upload it as a document into my Digital Planner. 

Want a copy of the FREE Printable Meal Planner and Grocery List Templates together? Click HERE to download a PDF copy to print! 

Prep Meal Items WHen you get home from the grocery store 

Yes, this is going to take an hour of dedication. But I promise you it won't take you more than one. 

Set aside 1 hour on either Sunday or Monday to prep all the groceries you just purchased for the week. This means wash all the produce, cut it up, and put it in the proper storage containers so it's ready for you when you want it. This tip is GAME-CHANGING. 

Here are also a few tips and tricks I use to help myself be as efficient as possible while doing this, cutting my meal prep time in half throughout the week. 

1. Use Produce Containers to Keep Your Produce Fresher Longer 

I SWEAR by these produce containers and can't recommend them enough.

They actually work to keep produce fresh and lasting as long as possible, extending the life of your produce, and saving you money. 

What's different about these from other containers is that these have instructions written on the lids telling you if the produce needs water on the bottom or needs to be vented at the sides.

Since using these, I truly have not stored my fruits and vegetables any other way. And they really really do extend the life of our produce like magic! 

2. Group all your dinner prep items together 

Another tip to help prep your groceries, is to group all items for meals together in your fridge. This means all your items to make dinner for Monday in one bin or drawer, another for Tuesday, etc. I use the bin method, but I'll link both bins and fridge drawers I love below. 

I hope these tips help you when planning your family's meals weekly. I promise you, using these methods and specifically the Meal Planner Template will help you meal prep for your family much more efficiently, quickly, and in a more organized way!