Every week is challenge to eat healthy! Eating at home accomplishes many goals: saving time, money and calories! The week night meal must be tasty, healthy and most importantly on the table in less than 30 minutes (preferrably 20 minutes). It doesn’t have to be from scratch! Semi home made counts.

Sunday is great time to write a quick mini meal plan for the week. Using the program, Plantoeat.com makes this task very easy!  Taking 30-45 minutes, you can import a few recipes from the web and create a quick meal plan for the week.  Once you create your meal plan,  print out your grocery list and your ready to go to the grocery store or better yet, plug it into your click list for pick up. Having a targeted list, keeps the extras from winding up in your buggy.

Next, post the meal plan on the refrigerator with the recipes and your family can help with the meal preparation. Now the whole family knows what is for dinner!  Planning 2-3 night time meals per week is a great start.  Once you get the hang of meal planning, add in 1-2 new recipes per month for added variety. Local restaurants are a great source of inspiration.  A quick search on the web, you can find copy cat recipes and quickly import your recipe. This week Mongolian Chicken made it on the menu and it was a Love it recipe.

Our family has three categories for meal time: Love it, Leave it or Tweak it. Once you have a Love It recipe, keep those ingredients on hand for future meals. If it is freezable, double it next time! Soups, stews and casseroles are great for doubling for future meals. Planttoeat also has a feature to keep track of what is in your pantry and your freezer.

It is great to be able to come home and pull out a bowl of soup to warm up on a cold night. If you have a Instapot, thawing is even easier. Add a side salad or sandwich for the hungrier crowd!

Meal planning can help the family stay on track for the week while saving time, money and calories! Try it out this week!