Hey friend! Thanks for being here. Ready for a new weekly family meal plan? Let’s go!
I’m always on the hunt for quick and easy recipes for those busy weeknights (or busy weekends) when you don’t have time for fancy but still want to feed your family well. Maybe some day I’ll have more time to experiment with some great recipes that are a bit “fancier”, but for now a simple meal that takes little time to prepare is definitely where it’s at.
In this week’s meal plan I have a couple new recipes for you and a couple tried and true favorite recipes (for those of you who’ve been following the blog for awhile.)
As usual, I’ll include my grocery shopping list along with the prices down at the bottom of this post. And the best part? This one week meal plan costs just $85 (as of March 2024 here in Texas!)
As far as how many people this meal plan will feed, the recipes will all feed my family of seven, but keep in mind that the oldest of my five kids isn’t even ten yet. So, no teenage appetites yet. 😉 But this meal plan will feed a family of four at the very least – I would say probably 4-6 – depending on the ages and appetites in your family. 🙂
I’ve included ideas for breakfast, lunch, and snacks as well as dinner and you will see all of those items included on my grocery list as well. Of course, depending how many kids you have and if they like to snack all the time you may choose to budget a bit more to include a larger variety of snacks. 🙂
Oh, and one more thing! I should note that I’m doing my best to feed my family healthy meals, but sometimes I just need an easy meal to feed the whole family and on those days I’m just happy I can serve them something homemade instead of fast food. I hope to continue to get better at healthy eating, but it’s a work in progress.
Ok, moving on.
Remember, if you need more meal ideas you can check out all my free meal plans here or visit my YouTube channel where I share meal ideas and frugal grocery hauls.
Easy Weekly Family Meal Plan
Breakfasts
Eggs and Toast, Oatmeal (regular or baked)
Lunches
Leftovers, tuna sandwiches (mix tuna with some mayo, a bit of salt and pepper, and some chopped up tomato – so good!), quesadillas, PB & J – (not included in my grocery list, just something I always have on hand)
Snacks
Apples, cheese, pretzels
Dinners
I’ve included just six dinners because I find that it’s usually helpful to have a leftover night at some point in the week.
1. Mexican Chicken Roll-Ups, salad
The name of this meal makes me chuckle because I’ve never eaten anything like it in Mexico haha. Regardless, Mexican Chicken Roll-Ups is a yummy, relatively quick meal to make. Basically the recipe is a very Americanized version of enchiladas I would say. Anyway, this meal was a favorite growing up and I still enjoy this recipe. It’s also a great way to use up leftover shredded chicken (it calls for several cups.)
2. Chicken Strips, homemade fries, raw veggies
Picky eaters? No worries. Every one of your family members are sure to love these chicken strips. I make them in two batches in my air fryer but you could bake them in the oven.
3. Ground Beef Stroganoff with egg noodles, peas
I basically follow the above recipe except that I add a full cup of sour cream instead of just a half cup and I also add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. My sister makes hers with yogurt instead of sour cream which is a great healthy substitute.
4. Shredded Mexican Chicken Casserole, chips and guacamole
This is one of the latest recipes I found on Pinterest and we all loved it. (I love it when new meals are a hit!) This recipe is super easy to throw together and is one of my new favorite easy dinner ideas.
5. Meat Loaf, baked potatoes and broccoli
I will probably never like other meatloaf recipes, but I’ve also enjoyed my mom’s meatloaf. Make it at the beginning of the week and you can enjoy any leftovers for lunch later on.
6. Homemade cheese pizza, salad
Homemade pizza is the best way to end the week, am I right? I just make a quick, basic pizza dough and add simple toppings like store-bought sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.
You may also be interested in: A Week of Super Easy Family Dinner Ideas
My $85 One Week Grocery List
When I menu plan and make my grocery list one of my best tips is to organize it into grocery store categories such as produce, meat, dairy/other refrigerated things, and dry goods. This isn’t such a big deal when I’m doing grocery pickup, but it’s definitely helpful when I’m actually shopping in-store.
Produce
Bag of apples – $3.58
Romaine lettuce (3 hearts) – $3.24
Potatoes (5 lbs) – $3.27
1 onion – $0.94
2 avocados – $1.88
4 Roma tomatoes – $0.84
Carrots – $1.38
Broccoli (2 heads) – $2.62
Frozen peas – $0.98
Meat
For the meat, I always purchase it at Kroger when it’s on sale which I find is quite regularly.
5 lbs. Chicken breasts at 1.99/lb – $9.95 (use half for the chicken strips meal and cook and shred the rest for the other two chicken recipes)
3 lbs. Ground Beef at 2.99/lb – $8.97
Dairy / Refrigerated
18 Eggs – $3.04
Gallon of milk – $2.78
Sour cream (16 oz.) – $1.97
Shredded cheddar / Mexican blend cheese (16 oz.) – $3.98
Mozzarella cheese (shredded or block) (16 oz.) – $3.98
Cheese block for snacking (8 oz.) – $2.00
Dry Goods
2 loaves of basic sandwich bread – $3.67
2 packages of tortillas – $3.96
Tortilla chips – $1.98
4 cans of tuna – $3.52
Cream of mushroom soup – $0.68
Jar of salsa – $1.77
Jar of pasta sauce – $1.62
8 oz. can of tomato sauce – $0.48
Can of black beans – $0.82
Can of corn – $0.64
Old-fashioned oats – $3.98
Egg noodles – $1.48
Bread crumbs – $1.87
Pretzels – 2.24
Total = $84.18
If your calendar has lots of busy days in the coming weeks, be sure to check out all of my free weekly meal plans here for quick meal ideas and subscribe to my newsletter below where I send out an email each Monday sharing my own family’s meal plan for the week.
