Meal Planning and a Free Printable!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried a bunch of ways to meal plan. For a while, I was meal planning for two weeks. I found that I dreaded making that big trip every two weeks and that I was having to make an additional trip to pick up fresh produce and the basics. I also tried monthly meal planning knowing that I would only have to dread one big grocery trip, then make several quick trips to get produce, bread, milk, etc. With all of these scenarios, I would normally end up going on Sunday because that is when I had the free time, and I would find myself annoyed because lots of the items I wanted to buy would be out of stock. Another issue was that items would get lost in the refrigerator or pantry and either spoil, or I would keep buying multiples.

I have finally figured out what works for me. I gave in and now do my weekly grocery shopping on Wednesdays when the weekly sales start. I do my meal planning on Tuesday once the sales come out using Southern Savers. Southern Savers matches up store sales with coupons. Since the Ginger mainly eats cereal for breakfast and lunch is either leftovers or a sandwich, I only worry about planning for dinner. I plan my meals based on the weekly sale, those pulled from my go-to meals, and at least one new recipe from Pinterest a week. Be sure to also follow my Approved Pinterest Recipes board to see recipes from Pinterest that I have actually cooked and liked 🙂

Here are some of my meal go-to’s:

Sloppy Joe’s (good ole Manwich)
Homemade pizza or a Digornio
Knock-off Pita Pit Chicken Caesar Pitas
Crock Pot 3 Ingredient Pulled Pork Tenderloin
Sweet & Sour Sirloin with Rice
Cheesy Smoked Sausage Skillet
Tacos De Barbacoa
Slow Cooker Smoked Gouda Grits
Pork Tenderloin with asparagus
Tacos
Hot dogs
Salad
One Pan Cajun Chicken and Sausage Alfredo
Crockpot chili (recipe coming soon)
Grilled cheese
Miranda Lambert’s favorite meatloaf
Chicken Parmasean
Chicken enchiladas
Breakfast for dinner (waffles, french toast, breakfast potatoes)
PF Chang’s Mongolian Beef Copycat Recipe
Slow Cooker Char Sui Pork Roast (we like to add a little OJ to the marinade)
One Pan Spicy Lemon Pasta with Tomatoes
Burrito bowls (recipe coming soon)
and of course…leftovers 🙂

I know I wanted a cute way to plan out my meals for the week that also allowed me to put anything we have event wise for the week. Plus I wanted a space to write our grocery list. The problem was that most cute meal plan printables out there start either on Sunday or Monday and also included breakfast and dinner. So I created my own in Powerpoint! In the picture above, the list on the left is my meal plan for the upcoming week. The list on the right, is my meal plan and grocery list from the last week that I take to the store with me. I love how it turned out so much I’m sharing it with you today! I recommend saving as a PDF first before printing. Be sure to click on the link below the picture to download 🙂

Meal Planning-Groceries List