So I do weekly meal plans here at the NerdFamily house and recently I was in a conversation at MOPS about how to get started. I recommend that you sit down with a pad and ask everyone in your family what dinners they like. I recommend doing this when you are all sitting down to dinner. Then I take that list and compare it to the weekly supermarket ads. Then just pick 5 meals. I leave 1 night for takeout and 1 night for leftovers. Then make a grocery list based off of that menu. Now many times I will rearrange my meals part way through the week but that isn’t a big deal.

I also post my meal plans as part of Meal Plan Monday. This has worked out for me in a couple of ways. Not only do I not need to figure out every afternoon what we are having, NerdDad will often help get things out to thaw the night before or the morning of. I would remind you to remind everyone else in your family of an addage we use here in the NerdFamily House, “This is the plan but plans change”. Otherwise you can sometimes get dissapointment when husbands don’t get the meal they were looking forward to;).

So what are you waiting for? Go make a Meal Plan!

(Originally published 10/8/2008)