Weekly Meal Planning Ideas For
Quick & Easy Dinners Every Time

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. More here: Disclaimer & Privacy Policy

Looking for meal planning ideas? Quick easy dinner ideas? Planning what you will cook is the key to making easy dinners, reducing stress, saving time and money.

5 Meal Planning Ideas For Aspiring Cooks To Make Quick & Easy Dinners

Who wants to waste time cooking complicated meals? Not me! Who wants to waste money on eating out? Not me!

There's a way to cook simple, quick meals that are healthy and cost a fraction of what it does to eat at restaurants. Below you'll find my top 5 tips for simplifying and mastering the weekly cooking process. Enjoy!

Do The Opposite Of Nothing: The Ridiculously Simple Strategy For Serious Procrastinators To Go From Overwhelmed To Organized

Check out my latest book and bust through that procrastination! Available as a paperback, an audiobook and an ebook on Kindle but NO KINDLE NECESSARY. Enjoy!

5 Meal Planning Ideas For Quick & Easy Dinners

1. Decide what you will cook for the week.

Once a week, sit down with your cook books, recipe binders, Pinterest board, Instagram saves or what have you, and choose the meals you want to serve. By deciding this up front, you save yourself time during the week and avoid the unnecessary chaos of making these decisions the day of and/or right before dinnertime.

Pick simple recipes that have short meal prep times and use healthy ingredients, and then fill out your grocery list accordingly.

BONUS TIP: Fill out your grocery list in the order that matches the lay out of the store. For example, when I go to Wegmans I start with the produce, so that is the first thing written down on my list. Next is the pantry goods, so that is next on my list and so on. This saves time and frustration at the grocery store.

The photo above is one of the super easy recipes I found in an issue of Real Simple magazine that is so delish! It's one of those recipes that involves throwing everything into the crock pot and that's it. It's pulled pork with black beans and rice served with fresh salsa and avocado. Yum!

2. Go to the grocery store once a week.

After you've gone through your meal planning ideas, chosen recipes of what you will cook this week and filled out your grocery list accordingly, go to the supermarket to get all of the ingredients necessary.

My routine (and suggestion for you) is to go to the grocery store once a week to get everything I need. By going once, and not every other day or multiples times, I am definitely saving time.

I am also saving money! When I go to the store, I almost always grab a little something that wasn't on the list and doing this multiple times per week will really add up.

There are plenty of cool notepads that can help with keeping track of your weekly grocery list, so that you can easily check off items you run out of or write them down as it happens.

3. Use the crock pot and/or the freezer.

Both are fantastic for super simple dinners with minimal meal prep. I use the crock pot on days that I'm working from home. I throw the ingredients together in the morning, and come dinner time it's ready! I serve freezer foods (like frozen pizza or chicken tenders) on days that I'm gone early and back late.

On top of that, the following products will make your life EVEN easier!

Crock pot liners are splendid, because they minimize clean up time. Simply put the liner in the crock pot, add your ingredients and turn it on. After you've served the meal, throw the whole liner away and your crock pot is clean!

Have leftovers? Here are lots of highly rated glass food storage containers. Lunch is ready for tomorrow!

4. Delegate to family members.

Spend time with family members AND get help by giving them small jobs to do in the kitchen. Win win!

For example, if you have young kids, let them do little tasks like mixing or whisking. If you have older kids, assign them one night a week to cook the whole meal. This is great because you are not only teaching them how to cook (so they'll know what to do when they go off to college), but you are also giving yourself a break.

5. Take advantage of cooking resources.

You're not in this alone! There are so many helpful resources out there - classes, cook books, online recipe sites - so take advantage of them. For example, websites like The Six O'Clock Scramble and $5 Meal Plan cover all the bases in regards to meal planning ideas. Check them out!

There you have it - 5 meal planning ideas for quick and easy dinners! Did any of these tips resonate with you? Are you going to try one or two or all of them? There are tons of ways to make dinner a simpler task. Do you have any golden nuggets to share? I would love to hear from you. Feel free to comment below and happy cooking!