Meal Plan Ideas for the Week
Large family meal planning is a must when you are cooking for your household. There is just no way around it. Meal planning each week is what allows me to save money and provide a delicious dinner to my family.
There is nothing more that I dislike than wasting money eating out on food I can prepare far better at home and much less expensive.
Here are our meal plan ideas for the week. All of them are easy recipes, and most of them are pretty healthy meals.
Meal Plan Ideas for the Week
One thing I love to do is cook using my electric skillet. This is such a great way to make dinner fast especially when it is a one pot meal.
Beef Tacos– this is a go to recipe for me. I make it once a week, sometimes every other week. Now that I have this large electric skillet, I use it now to make my hamburger meat because I generally cook two to five pounds at one time. I make this simple Spanish Rice recipe to go with it and a a couple of cans of pinto beans. Dinner is done.
Tex Mex Pasta– I had about two pounds of taco meat leftover from the tacos. So I used it as a base for making a Tex Mex pasta dish. I LOVE taking leftovers and reinventing them! I also used my electric skillet to make this. So easy for cleanup! This is a great meal that cooked in under 30 minutes.
Glorified Bean Burritos– this is a freezer meal recipe that we shared last year with you guys. My family loves it and it is super affordable to make. The recipe uses refried beans, black beans, Rotel tomatoes and cream cheese. Another meal that cooks perfectly in the electric skillet when you are feeding a large family like mine! These can also be made in large batches and frozen by wrapping each burrito in foil and then placing them in a freezer bag. These make a great lunch for kids to pull from the freezer, especially if you are home all day like us (homeschooling).
Spaghetti– I have some ground beef in the freezer that I want to use up. Usually I use pork for my spaghetti, but this time I am going to use beef. I have some large jars of spaghetti sauce on hand that I bought on a grocery haul we did earlier this month to Sam’s. Again, I will use the electric skillet to cook this. They just don’t make stove top skillets large enough for my family of eight. Remember, if you do not want to use traditional spaghetti noodles, you can use spaghetti squash instead.
Meat and Bean Chili– this is a freezer meal from October that still needs to be used. I actually did not make it until November, but still it’s time. One of our 13 year old twins has been asking me for weeks to make it. And it’s cold here. I will make sweet cornbread to go with it. Easy and delicious!
Leftover Buffet– use ’em up! If there are any leftover. We use a lot of them for lunches around here since we are home all day.
One thing I love about all of these meals is they require very little meal prep time and they are all friendly meals for a weekly meal plan.
Use Leftovers to Make a New Meal
Here is that Tex Mex Pasta I made using leftover taco meat and only using ingredients I had on hand. It turned out so good!!
In the video you will see how I just kind of figured out the recipe as I went. I had a basic idea of what I was going to do, but did not have it all mapped out until I was done.
I want this to encourage you when you’re cooking. It does not have to be perfect. You do not have to be a master chef to get dinner on the table for your family.
Here is a video of me making it live over in our Facebook group Get Dinner on the Table. We would love to have you over there.
Old-Fashioned Biscuits
This week I also made homemade biscuits for breakfast. These are so easy to make- even the kids can help!
These are so much cheeper than using canned biscuits that cost $3 plus at the grocery store. I made 2 dozen and they filled my family up!
Here is a FB Live that I shared over in Get Dinner on the Table showing how easy they are to make.
And remember, these do not have to be for breakfast…. they make a great side for dinnertime!
Save Money Buying Groceries Online
I just want to remind you that if you have not given online grocery shopping a try, you should! It is an excellent way to streamline your weekly tasks.
Shopping online allows you to stay on budget without carrying a calculator around the store.
No impulse shopping.
No lugging kids in and out of the store.
Meal plan in one tab and grocery shop in the other tab… all in the comfort of your own home. Tack back your time!
If you’ve never tried it before, Walmart is one of my favorite online grocery stores.
I have a link that will get you $10 off your first order of $50 or more. Go here to use it!
I would love to know what’s on your meal plan this week! How are you saving money by eating at home.