I am posting my menu plan for next week early as I am very excited to also launch:
The Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner
Hopefully if you read my blog and menu plan also, you can utilise the free menu planner for your weekly menu plan for this upcoming week!
History
This free menu planner has evolved with me over the years. Its first form was an excel spreadsheet that I began entering our family meals to. It was very clunky and required manual workings, but it helped me generate a shopping list. Then I took a Microsoft Access course so that I could try and create an automated process for menu planning and its associated shopping lists.
I was successful at this and menu planning had now become a very quick process for me. I then started a blog (this one!) with a focus on planning and having fun as a family and I started to wish that I could share my menu planner with my readers.
What it can do for you!
So here it is The Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner. The Menu Planner will allow you to:
- Plan your evening meals for a week and generate a pdf to save or print out.
- Search the database for inspiration for meals your family will love.
- Collate a shopping list of all the ingredients required to cook the meals for the week which you can save/print.
- Alter the servings size of individual meals to suit your family needs or to cater for guests that you may have.
- Choose to print out recipes if you require them.
How it works.
The menu planner is fairly intuitive three step process:
- Choose the starting date for the week.
- Choose a meal for each day and the required serving size.
- Select the print/save options you want, so you have the information available to prepare your meals.
More detailed instructions can be found on the Menu Planner FAQ Page.
The Recipes.
There are currently over 50 meals in the menu planner. The focus on the meals included is for them to be family fare, which are relatively easy to prepare. These are meals that I have successfully cooked for my family, many which have also already been used by readers of Planning With Kids.
At the moment only I can add new recipes to the menu planner. So for the next couple of weeks, the first 2 people to leave a comment on my Menu Plan Monday posts with either a link to their recipe or the actual recipe itself will have their recipe added to the planner by me.
Problems?
The menu planner has been tested on many friends and has been functioning as it should. However, some exact combinations may have not been tested, so if you come across something that doesn’t seem right or isn’t working, I would appreciate if you would let me know by using the Contact Form.
My Menu Plan for this week.
Now here is the weekly family menu plan which I have created from the The Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner:
Monday: Pasta with Chicken and Spinach
Tuesday: Lamb Chops With Steamed Vegetables
Wednesday: Tuna Rice
Thursday: Mexibake
Friday: Left Overs
Saturday: Tacos
Sunday: Sausages and Salad
If you like the look of this family menu plan, then you use this shopping list created by The Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner.