Our weekly meal plans include realistic meals for true life. That means there are no crazy, hard-to-find ingredients or super-trendy fads, just real food for real families.
If that’s what you’re looking for simplify your life and will more organized, our menus are for you. No need to scroll through endless recipes looking for something that looks good; The weekly menu and the shopping list are ready to use.
Maybe you are looking new ideas and recipes to refresh your weekly meal change. We hope our meal plans add some excitement and variety to dinner.
Each meal plan contains features 5 main course recipesas well as a bonus recipe. Choose the meals you want to try and skip the ones you don’t like. Meals can also be prepared in any order. So if you want to cook Monday lunch on Friday, that’s no problem. The recipes are enough for 4 people unless otherwise stated.
You can prepare the bonus recipe at the beginning of the week and enjoy it throughout the week. It can be a breakfast recipe, a healthy snack, or sometimes a dessert.
Keep scrolling for more details, side dish ideas, and the download link for the free printable menu plan and grocery list!
want more? Check out all of our meal plans.
Why meal plan?
- Meal planning simplifies your life and saves time. This takes the guesswork out of busy nights. It’s one less thing to think about every night. You have a plan and you just have to implement it. Hang the meal plan on the fridge so everyone knows what to expect. It’s a good way to get the family involved.
- Meal planning saves money. If you have a plan and only buy what you need at the grocery store, you are much less likely to buy unneeded items that might go to waste. Plus, you’re less likely to eat out, which can save you a lot of money.
- Meal planning is healthier. Planning your meals ahead of time gives you time to think about using healthy vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains. In addition, it is always healthier to prepare your own food at home than to eat out.
What Makes Rachel Cooks Meal Plans Different?
I know there are many meal plans. Some are free (ours are free!) and others cost money. So why choose ours?
- We plan them with a busy schedule in mind. Our main goal is to create these meal plans reasonable And realistic. That means we don’t just pick five random recipes and send you to the store with a ridiculously long shopping list. We consider what goes well together and how we can save you time. For example: sometimes you cook a large batch of food in one day (but with the same effort) and the excess food (don’t call it leftovers!) is used for another meal the next day. Two meals in one!
- Balance: As you probably already know, most of the recipes on Rachel Cooks are easy to make. However, some recipes inherently have longer ingredient lists than others. We take this into account and balance the more complicated recipes with simpler recipes with shorter ingredient lists. Speaking of balance: on Mondays we often offer a meatless recipe.
- Happy Fridays! We treat you to a fun, easy-to-prepare meal every Friday (TGIF!). Think tacos, pizza, or other kid-friendly recipes that you can combine with a few store-bought shortcuts.
- Categorized shopping list: Not only is the grocery list categorized to make shopping easier, but it also shows which day the ingredient is needed. That means if you’re not eating at home on Friday, you can easily go through the list and cross out the ingredients for Friday. You might think Monday’s recipe sounds… gross. We disagree, of course, but you can eliminate these ingredients without having to go through each recipe to figure out what you need and don’t need.
- Meal Preparation/Preparation: Many of our recipes include ideas to get a head start on the recipes. This is of course optional, but sometimes on weekdays preparing a little food in advance (perhaps on Saturday or Sunday) can make a huge difference!
What to expect
We’ll be posting a meal plan each week (Thursdays – so you have time to plan, prep, and shop), and later add seasonally-focused meal plans, as well as some specialty meal plans (gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, etc.).
Each meal plan will remain available past release week. So if you find a favorite, you can always go back to it!
How to use the meal plans
Here’s what you will do!
- Print out the menu along with the shopping list.
- Go to each recipe and print out the recipe. If you prefer, you can easily use the jump to recipe button at the top of the post or read the post for more info on the recipe. Many of our posts include information on how to make the recipe your own. If you want to make changes, remember to write what you need on the shopping list.
- Look at the grocery list and cross off any ingredients you already have or apply to recipes you don’t want to make.
- Go to the grocery store to get your groceries. You’ll find that grocery shopping is less stressful and faster when you have a good list.
- Cook and enjoy! Don’t forget to share it on social media if you make any of my recipes. Love seeing this and re-sharing your posts often! I also really love and appreciate comments and reviews on the recipes. You are also welcome to ask questions at any time. We will answer them to the best of our ability.
Menu No. 27
Here’s what you’ll be eating this week! Click here to download and print the meal plan and shopping list!
Monday: Fried chicken with ginger and basil
Tuesday: Salmon Tacos
Wednesday: Egg Salad Sandwiches
Thursday: Chile relleno soup with chicken
Friday: Simple turkey burgers with French fries from the hot air fryer
bonus: Funfetti Pudding Pops
