What are we going to have for dinner this week?

If you’re anything like me, this question plagues me EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. Whenever I ask my husband he usually responds with “I don’t know, whatever you want.” But to be honest with him, what I really want is to not think about it every week. 

I usually love to cook but deciding what to eat each and every week was making the process so daunting. I also found that I was making the same 10 meals in rotation because my inspiration for cooking was dead. I started doing this each month, and each week to make the process less frustrating. 

This weekly plan will also {hopefully} help you from making a daily trip to the grocery store. 

I think I have finally found a method that works where cooking dinner each night isn’t a difficult task and coming up with new recipes and ideas doesn’t overwhelm me. 

I first start with making a plan for the entire month. Yes, the entire month. I only shop for one week at a time but planning the whole month out in advance helps me with two things. First, it helps me from making the same few recipes in rotation and prevents me from getting bored with what I’m cooking and honestly what I’m eating. Secondly, it prevents me from sitting in my kitchen each week asking that dreaded question, “What are we going to have for dinner this week.” Below is a screenshot of my August menu. Some of these things are staples in our monthly menu while some are things we will be trying for the first time. 

As you can see, I don’t cook on Saturday’s. Normally we either go out or do take out but I simply can’t commit to seven days a week. Once I come up with my monthly menu, I make a weekly grocery list. I’ll show a picture of what that looks like below but I plan out the groceries needed for each meal. In our house we usually make extra dinner and my husband, daughter and I will all eat leftovers of dinner the next day for lunch. Luckily, my 16 month old will eat anything (for now) so I’m going to continue to milk this for all it’s worth. I know one day she’ll have her own food opinions and refusals but for now, she’ll eat whatever we eat. 

Here is the sample grocery list for the meals in the first week of August. I usually shop every Sunday for the upcoming week. 

This method does take some work on the front end but I have found it really, really helps make our week go smoother and takes some additional things off my plate on a daily basis. Most of these recipes can be found on Pintrest, however some come from my moms cookbook she made me in an attempt to help make cooking for my family easier. 

I’ve also found that doing it this way allows you to save month after month of recipe ideas. So whenever you’re lacking inspiration you have several other months to look back on and pull some ideas you haven’t used in a while! Being a mom is hard, simple things like this has made one aspect of being a mom a bit easier. 

Happy cooking & planning!