My Sunday Meal Planning Routine

My Sunday meal planning routine is always a work in progress. There are weeks that I enjoy the process, I stay within budget, and the meals are a hit, and then there are weeks that I begrudgingly select recipes, I overspend our weekly food budget, and the meals I select are overcomplicated or a total dud.

In general, I really do enjoy meal planning and I don’t think meal planning has to feel like a chore. I have grown to enjoy the process over our almost five years of marriage, and I would credit much of that enjoyment to the tools I have discovered and the systems I have developed through much trial and error. Much thanks to advice and suggestions from Momma Chavies and Momma O’Neel, meal planning feels far easier today than it did four years ago. Our “secrets” aren’t really secrets, though, so I will happily share them with you today!

How I Meal Plan

Check the Calendar

I prefer to meal plan on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings before church. I like to shop for groceries on Sunday afternoons after church or while my husband (a worship director) is in evening church meetings. Meal planning on Sundays also allows me to “reset” before a new week.

I begin my meal planning routine by checking our weekly calendar. Caleb and I have a shared calendar because we often have evening church activities, he has work meetings, or I have podcast interviews. We also often host dinners in our home, and this requires buying a few extra ingredients or a larger quantity of food from time to time. I try to avoid over-planning meals on busy weeks to prevent food waste, overspending, or overcomplicating meals when we need something quick. A typical week consists of 4-5 meals at home and 1-2 dinners with family and friends added in (sometimes at a restaurant, sometimes in their home).

Check the Pantry

Once I know how many meals we actually need in any given week, I head straight to the pantry to see what ingredients we already have stocked up. I’m sure you have planned a week of meals, only to find yourself eating out or sharing a last minute meal with friends. This often results in meals that weren’t eaten the week before, or ingredients that were left unused. These are the kinds of items I look out for when I check the pantry. I often find that we have the ingredients for a full meal or two already on hand, and I do my best to incorporate those meals into the week ahead.

Pick 4-5 Meals

Like I said, Caleb and I tend to average about 4-5 meals each week. This does not include leftovers.

To select our 4-5 meals, I head over to my Plan to Eat dashboard or flip through our trusty recipe binder. I utilize both Plan to Eat and the recipe binder to organize our favorite or go-to recipes. If a recipe is printed and added to the binder, it is likely used more than once a month. My Plan to Eat dashboard includes these recipes, as well as recipes I hope to try and recommendations from family and friends.

Schedule Meals Using Plan to Eat

After I have selected 4-5 recipes, I schedule out when I plan to make each recipe using the Plan to Eat planner. With just one click, I can add my favorite recipes to the scheduler. I tend to add additional notes under breakfast, lunch, and snacks so that the ingredients needed are recognized by the Plan to Eat shopping list I describe below.

Plan to Eat Shopping List

Honestly, the Plan to Eat automated shopping list is by far my favorite Plan to Eat feature. Because the recipes you have imported into the dashboard include every ingredient you might need, Plan to Eat is able to create a customizable shopping list, saving you and I a solid 30-45 minutes of writing a list on our own. I, then, double check that everything we need is included in the list and head to the grocery store.

Plan to Eat is available on desktop and a mobile app. I do most of my planning on my laptop, but use the mobile app while grocery shopping. You can check off each item as you go, and the list is categorized for you, making your shopping experience a breeze.

The Plan to Eat Team has kindly offered an extended 60-day free trial just for About Her Podcast listeners. Sign up for an extended 60-day free trial here. I hope this helpful meal planning tool simplifies your meal planning and shopping experience as much as it has my own!