I’m so excited to release our first meal plan! These weekly meal plans feature realistic meals made for you true life. That means no crazy, hard-to-find ingredients or super trendy on-trend dishes, but real food for real families.
If you are looking simplify your life and will more organized, our menus are for you. You don’t have to scroll through endless recipes looking for something that looks good; The weekly menu and shopping list are ready to use.
Maybe you are looking new ideas and recipes to refresh your weekly menu. We hope our meal plans add a little excitement and novelty to dinner.
Each meal plan has 5 recipes for main dishesas well as a bonus recipe. Feel free to 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 prepare Monday lunch on Friday, that’s fine. The recipes serve 4 unless otherwise stated.
The bonus recipe can be made early in the week and enjoyed throughout the week. It can be a breakfast recipe, a healthy snack, or sometimes a dessert. This week’s bonus recipe is a salad that keeps well in the fridge and can be served with several of this week’s main courses or even included in your lunch.
Why Meal Plan?
- Meal planning simplifies your life and saves time. It takes the guesswork out of busy nights. It’s one less thing to think about every night. You have a plan and all you have to do is execute it. Hang the menu 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 from the grocery store, you’re much less likely to buy items you don’t need that could potentially go to waste. You’re also less likely to eat out, which can save you a lot of money.
- Meal planning is healthier. Planning meals ahead of time gives you time to think about including healthy vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains. Also, 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 appropriate and realistic. That means we don’t just grab 5 random recipes and send them off to the store with a ridiculously long grocery list. We consider what goes well together and how you can save time. For example: In this week’s menu, you cook a large amount of food on Tuesday (but with the same effort), and the extra food (don’t call it leftovers!) is reused for another meal on Wednesday. Two meals in one!
- Balance: As you probably already know, most of the recipes on Rachel Cooks are easy to make. However, some recipes naturally have longer ingredient lists than others. We keep that in mind and balance out the more complicated recipes with simpler recipes with shorter ingredient lists. Speaking of balance: Mondays often have a meatless recipe.
- Happy Fridays! We make it easy for you every Friday (TGIF!) with a fun, easy-to-prep meal. Think tacos, pizza, or other kid-friendly recipes that you can combine with a few store-bought shortcuts. This week we are offering English Muffin Pizzas.
- 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 check off the Friday items. You might think Monday’s recipe sounds… gross. We disagree, of course, but you can eliminate these ingredients without having to comb through every recipe to figure out what you do and don’t need.
- Meal Prep/Make Ahead: Many of our recipes contain ideas to give you a head start on recipes. This is of course optional, but sometimes a small meal ahead of time (perhaps on a Saturday or Sunday) on weekdays can make a world of difference!
what to expect
This is our first menu. We plan to release one per week, and we’ll be adding seasonally-focused meal plans later, as well as some special meal plans (gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, etc.).
Each meal plan will continue to be available after the week it was released. So if you find a favorite, you can always come 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. You can just use the jump to recipe button at the top of the post if you wish, or you can read the post for more information about the recipe. Many of our posts include information on how to make the recipe your own. If you want to make changes, just remember to write down what you need on the shopping list.
- Look at the grocery list and cross off any ingredients you already have or that go into recipes you don’t want to make.
- Go to the grocery store to buy 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 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 always welcome to ask questions. We will answer them to the best of our knowledge and belief.
Meal plan #1
This is what you eat this week! Click here to download and print!
Monday: Vegetarian Chili – This recipe is enough for a few lunches too!
Tuesday: Instant Pot Pork Loin Roast (or Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Balsamic Glaze) and Baked Potatoes
Wednesday: Loaded Baked Potatoes – On Tuesday, make twice as many potatoes as you need for this meal. On Wednesday, shred the leftover pork, add BBQ sauce (store-bought or homemade BBQ sauce will work), and top your leftover potatoes with the BBQ pork and other toppings you like.
Thursday: A Sausage Pan and Rice with Peppers – This is a simple meal with a short list of ingredients. You’ll appreciate that the rice is cooked in the same pan as the sausage and veggies, so cleanup is a breeze.
Friday: English Muffin Pizzas – We recommend serving each pizza with fresh vegetables and dip. We put veggie dip on the shopping list, but if you’re ambitious, make homemade dill dip. It’s a super popular recipe, it’s healthy because it’s made with yogurt, and it’s super easy to make! Be sure to add the ingredients to your shopping list if you go this route.
bonus: Cucumber and onion salad
