Monthly Meal Planner Template - Or more accurately, someone who just couldn't come up with a meal plan because I always have a rotating and often quite random set of meals to develop, taste or photograph for clients.
No month is ever the same, and with a husband who works nights and stays up late, there was no point in trying to figure out the logistics of it all.
Monthly Meal Planner Template
But in order to cut down on our food budget and make sure Dan had a hot dinner at 9pm, I started trying to give our meal plan some structure.
Printable Meal Planner Template
It turns out meal planning is the perfect combination of my OCD tendencies: my love of lists, organization, and grocery shopping.
And as we delved into our pandemic-related quarantine lifestyle, I realized that I could make a meal plan for the month.
To be honest, it's a lot easier for me to make a monthly meal plan than to try to reinvent the wheel once a week. Looking at the overall style of the image, I can see how we get bored with one type of food.
And it also saves me from having to come up with something completely new and interesting every week. Mode is very good!
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To be honest, I don't know if my monthly meal plan would work for any other family or household. There are only two of us, and now that we have lunch and dinner together, it's a pretty simple system.
However, I bet this basic structure can work if you're just getting started with meal planning, and once your skills hit zero, you can build on.
I keep things simple with an Excel spreadsheet divided into multiple lists (monthly meal plan, grocery list, favorite food list).
If OneNote or Evernote suits you, or if you want to make it more elegant with a better template, go for it.
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Most importantly, save the information digitally, you can easily make changes and copy/paste to a new month every time.
Please note that I do not have a meal plan for breakfast. If this is what you want to arrange, add it to your plan. But I don't need to be reminded that I eat almond butter toast almost every morning.
These are the basics of your meal plan: the meals you eat every month or so. Not to be too simple, I'm breaking down our favorites into categories based on flavor profile.
You can see the full list in the template's Favorites tab, but here's an idea of how I organize them:
Editable Weekly Meal Planner Meal Plan Template Meal Plan
I also keep a list of foods I would like to try along with my favorites as a brainstorming tool.
Take these building blocks and start incorporating them into your calendar. You don't have to use every meal every month, but there will always be meals that you want to eat every 30 days.
As for us, we will make pizza or calzone once a month, we will have some kind of pasta every week, and I will need Thai or ramen dishes to satisfy our cravings.
It also helps assign a specific day of the week: Taco Tuesday could be the first Tuesday of the month, Enchilada Tuesday next week, Burrito Tuesday next week, and so on.
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Every spot on the calendar doesn't have to be filled with your favorite meal, unless you want to do the same thing every month. I leave room for new ideas, riffs and experiments because that's what I like to do.
Most of the meals I prepare have to follow the “cook once, eat twice” rule when we reheat leftovers or make sure there are two spots left on the calendar for each meal.
That means enchilada tuesday here also enchilada thursday, or i'll cook enough meatballs so we can eat parmesan sandwiches twice, or we'll eat chili several times a week.
If you are not an overweight person, this strategy may change your mind. Because who wants to cook every dish from scratch?
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Since even we food professionals are out of inspiration—and tired of doing the dishes—I make sure to spend a few nights every month.
They can be open so we can cater to any cravings we have, or they can be structured so you have your favorite restaurants/takeaways.
For example, when we go kayaking on summer weekends, I plan trips to the deli so we can take sandwiches to the lake with us.
And there will be days when I really want a good panang curry from a local Thai restaurant, but Dan hates it, so he'll take Five Guys and we'll both be happy.
Printable Meal Planner Templates
That's why I keep all my meal plans (and all my household plans) in Excel. Things are changing!
I get a new work assignment, Dan decides he wants to buy his wife a plate of clams, or maybe there's an evening we want to eat Cheez-Its for dinner.
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Casey Barber is the owner and founder of Good Food Stories LLC and a visual storyteller whose work often focuses on the intersection of food and culture. He is also the author of cookbooks.
Download Digital Meal Planner Pdf For Goodnotes, Ipad
And he couldn't do anything without the help of his helper cats, Bixby and Lenny. Her favorite color is obviously orange. I'm so excited to share this monthly meal plan with you! This free meal plan calendar includes a full month of dinner plans for simple, healthy and delicious meal recipes. Does this sound good to you? Let's go to!
Although I like to live on the spur of the moment, I plan what I eat. Why?
It's pretty simple. When I have a meal plan, I have the foundation that fuels everything else in my life. Knowing that I can count on delicious and tasty food is really a game changer for me.
When I know what I'm going to eat, I know what to buy at the grocery store, so shopping trips are quick and painless.
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And while I often enjoy revisiting old favorites, planning helps me vary my diet day after day and week after week.
With this monthly meal plan, you get a printed calendar of meals for each day. The PDF has links to each recipe so you don't have to look it up yourself.
You can also use this general guide in conjunction with my weekly meal plans! If you want to go your own way, use my weekly meal plan template to create a complete weekly meal plan.
If you try to follow the links in the image above, you won't get anywhere! You need to download the free meal plan using the button below. Then you can access all the recipes by clicking on the title.
How To Build A Monthly Meal Plan
My monthly meal plans and weekly meal plans are completely free. Consider visiting the site as a gift, use my recipes and share with friends and family. Pretty cool, right?
Here is an example of a weekly meal plan. They include all meals, daily menus and daily macro breakdowns.
Here's a collection of cooking resources to help you start (or start over!) planning your meals ahead without spending all your time in the kitchen: Get organized with our FREE Monthly Meal Planning Template! It's absolutely free, you can download and print it! Enjoy xx
Wow! Last week, I shared with you my Weekly Meal Planning Template (if you missed it, you can grab it here). But this week I think we'll take it one step further and look at my FREE Monthly Meal Planning Template. Yes, dinners are organized throughout the month. Ordered Done!!!
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Download the template, print it out, complete the monthly lunches, and you're done! No stress, no fuss... A whole month of delicious, well-planned dinners!
And if you need some dinner party inspiration to get you started, here's my sample template...
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The Ultimate Guide To Simple Monthly Meal Planning (even If You Hate It!)
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