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Step 1: Sign Up to Get the Menu
If you haven't already, sign up for my emails and get my free printable dinner menu, sent to you.
Once you get the email, open the Dinner Menu (It's a PDF).
Step 2: Print the Menu
The menu is designed to be printed but you can also view it on a tablet. Choose your preferred format. To save ink, print just the recipe pages.
Hang the recipe pages on your fridge or clip them to the wall. If you have wall space, I recommend pinning the pages to a corkboard with large paper clips. This will help you get into a routine of planning ahead.
Need a printer or ink? Shop home printers and printer ink on amazon.
Step 3: Choose Your Recipes
Choose which recipes you want to make for the week. You can use all 5 for dinner every day of the week, Monday-Friday, or space the dinner ideas out to fill in other dinner plans you may have.
I like to plan my week on Sundays and order groceries for the week that day. But choose a day that works for you.
Step 4: Order Groceries
Each recipe page looks like this, with a QR code:
Use your phone's camera to scan the QR code. This will generate a link you can tap.
To order groceries with one click: Use the "Jump Down to Recipe" button to go to the recipe card. At the bottom of the Ingredients list, you'll see an "Easy-Order Groceries" section with a link. This links to a Walmart grocery list with all the ingredients needed for the recipe, already shopped for you. You can add all items or pick and choose which items you need to buy. If, for example, you already have garlic powder, just delete that from the list.
Choose a pick up time or have your groceries delivered! You must have the Walmart app or use Walmart.com for this to work.
Feel free to use your preferred grocery store but the one-click shopping is currently only offered through Walmart as Mighty Mrs is an official #WalmartPartner.
Step 5: Start cooking!
Once you have your ingredients in hand, scan the QR code again and read over the post for tips or jump to the recipe. Follow the cooking instructions and have some fun cooking up a delicious homemade meal for you and your family!
★ Why You'll Love this Menu ★
Meal prepping for an entire month can be daunting. This is a simple dinner menu with 5 new recipes. Why just five?
30-day meal plans just aren't realistic.
A 30-day meal plan is really hard to make work especially for busy families who have schedules that differ every day, week-to-week. Helping you try 1-2 new recipes a month is the goal with these seasonal menus. Low pressure, more realistic and achievable!
This is a flexible menu.
Use these recipes any day of the week you need a meal idea. Feel free to repeat the same recipe if it's one you really love!
School cafeterias and restaurant repeat meals all the time! Why? It's efficient.
Chances are, you're going to skip making dinner here and there in favor of eating out or popping in a frozen pizza, so repeats won't actually even be that common.
If need need additional dinner ideas though, don't worry. I have plenty more! Browse all my dinner recipes and Pin your favorites then use my printable meal planner to fill out your weekly menu.
Here's why a flexible menu works so well:
- Leftover ingredients can be saved week to week, cutting down on expenses.
- Repeating meals simplifies shopping. Your recent purchases will be saved if you use a shopping app. Or if you're an in-person grocery shopper, you'll be familiar with where to find the items.
- There's an initial learning curve when trying a new recipes the first time, but after a few times, prepping the same meals will become second nature.
- Repeating meals will actually help you memorize how to make them. So you won't have to rely on reading the recipe after awhile. You can even customize the recipe to vary the flavor or to tweak the dish to your family's unique cravings.
- Repeating meals gives picky-eaters multiple chances to get acquainted with new foods and try them.
- Repeating meals week to week for a season, adds a sense of comfort and familiarity to dinner time.
- Conversely, after a season of eating some of the same meals, your family will be ready to try something new!
★ What to Expect ★
I am taking my tested dinner recipes and organizing them for you by season.
Vegetables Always Included
Each dish that does not have a vegetable included in the dish itself, offers a recommended side dish like a salad or a specific vegetable. You can change this up from week-to-week. Or not. Up to you.
It's very easy to roast almost any vegetable. Simply toss it in oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake. Salad kits are also a quick and easy vegetable side dish.
Each recipe has a QR code which helps with:
Grocery Shopping
For grocery shopping, just scan the QR code next to each recipe with your phone and check the ingredients list.
Right after the list of ingredients, there is a link to shop for the ingredients at Walmart and you can choose pick up or delivery.
I am a fan and an official #WalmartPartner because I personally love to use their grocery pick-up option. It saves me so much time.
If you're more of an in-person shopper, try printing my free meal planner with grocery list to create your list.
I have friends that love Walmart's delivery option. It's an extra fee but if you are strapped for time, it can totally be worth it and ultimately saves money vs. order take out food.
Cooking
When you're ready to start cooking, scan the QR code again. You'll see short and sweet, step-by-step instructions as well as a how-to video on some recipes. I try to make my directions very clear and concise but if you ever have questions, drop a comment and I can usually respond within a day.
Each recipe has a photo of the finished dish.
This helps the cook know what the recipe should look like when done and also shows your family what's for dinner.
★ FAQs ★
What if I don't like one or more of the dinner choices?
You may not love every single meal and that's OK. Feel free to customize the recipe to your liking. I have suggestions for substitutes on each recipe. Or just skip that recipe.
If you need a replacement meal idea, I have many more dinner ideas. Browse all my dinner ideas and check out my Printable Meal Planner for a more custom meal planning approach.
If you prefer meals planned and shopped for you, wait until the seasons change. Every 3 months I will have a new collection of recipes compiled into a seasonal dinner menu. Sign up for my emails to get notified when the new one is out.
What about breakfast and lunch?
Many of the recipes can be made in big batches so that there are leftovers you can take for lunch. Depending on your family size and how many leftovers you want, you can adjust the servings using the sliding scale on each of my recipes.
Pick a day each week to rest, relax a little and eat up leftovers!
You may even want to use that day to meal-prep some breakfast dishes.
Browse all my easy breakfast recipes here. You can apply the same static menu principle for your breakfast meal prep. Stick to 3-6 different breakfast items that you can rotate through for one whole month. Then switch those up next month.
Some of my breakfast recipes can be frozen and heated for easy to-go meals.
Ready to give my monthly dinner menu a try?
Sign up for my email newsletter. I include a link to the current dinner menu at the bottom of every email.
Another perk of a static menu is that you can jump in and start any time! So don't wait, download the printable PDF when you get your email from me and get started!
If you're loving these flexible dinner menus, please leave me a comment below with how it's helped you or with any other tips you want to share or with questions you have.
Do I have to download anything?
The menu is a PDF which you can download as a file and open it with Acrobat Reader or you can just open the PDF it in your browser.
How do I scan the QR codes?
Using your smart phone, hover over a single QR code so it appears on your phone screen. This will automatically generate a link you can tap. Usually it's yellow in color but it is small and you have to keep a steady hand.
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