Free Weekly Meal Planner Templates

Weekly Meal Planner: What Is It?

A Weekly Meal Planner is a list of meals a home cook plans to prepare over the course of the upcoming week.

Alternate Name:

• Weekly Meal Schedule.

Meal planning is becoming more and more popular - you get to control the portions and cook as much food as you actually need in order to lose weight, understand what ingredients are beneficial for your health and opt for healthier options, save yourself time and money while grocery shopping, and prevent products from going to waste if no one eats the food in the fridge. A table that tells you what you and your family will eat today and tomorrow will guarantee a more balanced diet and keep you from making impulse purchases.

Check out our library below to see a full list of Weekly Meal Planner templates.

How to Make a Weekly Meal Planner?

Here are a few Weekly Meal Planner ideas that will allow you to diversify your diet and improve your life in general:

1. Come up with a realistic menu . It may be tempting to get into meal planning and promise yourself you will stick to a new eating pattern right away; nevertheless, we advise you to slowly introduce new dishes to your menu and try out new things from time to time instead of making a drastic change - at first, it is a smarter idea to cook what you know. Note that you should check what is on sale in local grocery stores and markets so that you purchase cheap ingredients and avoid unnecessary expenses.

2. Plan the menu keeping in mind there will be leftovers - you can use extra bits of meat, for example, to cook breakfast. There are numerous ways to implement different products in your diet - as long as the ingredient is not too rare or expensive, you can find a way to use it. Make sure you are not letting the food go to waste - freeze what you cannot eat immediately and make a mark in your planner to remember about it.

3. A blank Weekly Meal Planner can be filled out with names of dishes (and beverages if preparation is required) - in case you are creating a planner on your computer or phone, add links to recipes for your convenience. Separate the planner into seven days and three meals - breakfasts, lunches, and dinners - and write down what you are going to cook. Include remarks if certain actions must be taken ahead of time - for instance, remind yourself to take the chicken out of the freezer or purchase fresh seafood.

4. You may print out a list of meals you will cook during the week - however, we recommend you to use an electronic version of the Weekly Meal Planner template and share it with other people you cook for as well. Instead of constantly checking with your family members and roommates what kind of food they would like to eat during the next seven days, you will already have a clear picture of the meal schedule.

Still looking for a particular template? Take a look at the related templates below:

• Monthly Meal Planner Template;
• Weekly Planner Template;
• Yearly Planner Template.