How to Make a Weekly Meal Plan in 5 Easy Steps

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When you’re a meal prep beginner, trying to figure out how to make a weekly meal plan from scratch for the first time can feel intimidating. How many days should you meal plan for? How many meals should you prep for each day? And what recipes can help you get the most of your menu for the week? Whether you’re totally new to meal planning or an experienced home cook looking to make meal planning easier, here are 5 simple, easy steps for creating your first weekly meal plan.

Jump To:

• How to plan your weekly menu
  1. Choose how many days to prep for
  2. Decide which meals to prep each day
  3. Brainstorm and browse for recipes
  4. Add your favorite recipes to your meal plan
  5. Create your list for grocery shopping
• Weekly meal planning for a family
• How to try a monthly meal plan
• Meal planning FAQ

How to plan a weekly menu

One of the most important elements of learning how to meal prep is knowing how to plan your weekly menu. Without a weekly meal plan, it’s a lot harder to know not only what to prep for the week, but also what to grocery shop for.

However, meal planning is a skill that can take some time to get the hang of. So, if you’ve found yourself overwhelmed by the idea of weekly meal planning, this guide will teach you how to make a weekly meal plan in 5 quick and easy steps.

1. Choose how many days to prep for

Before you even start brainstorming for meal prep recipe ideas, the first step is to plan out your week and decide how many days you want to include in your meal plan. Here are some of the most common weekly meal plans:

• 3-day meal plan. If you only need to cover a few days of meals, a 3-day meal plan is the perfect length. You can also create two separate 3-day meal plans and prep them back-to-back during the week to cover almost the entire week.
• 5-day meal plan. When you need food for the week but can only meal prep once during the week, a 5-day meal plan works well. Depending on how many meals you prep, this should cover you for most of the week ahead.
• 7-day meal plan. For those who are planning to prep meals for a full week, a 7-day meal plan will keep you covered. Just remember that most cooked food only lasts for about 3-4 days in the fridge — so plan to either prep twice or store your extra servings in the freezer.

And don’t forget to check your calendar for holidays, prior commitments, and other schedule changes before diving into creating your weekly plan!

2. Decide which meals to prep each day

After you’ve decided how many days you need covered for your meal plan, the next step is to decide which meals you want to prep each day.

Are you someone who only needs breakfast prepped each week? Or do you also want to have your lunch, dinner, and snacks prepped, too? Once you know how many days you plan to prep for and how many meals you need each day, it’s a matter of planning it all out.

Let’s say that you’re making a 3-day meal plan, and you plan to prep 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for each of the days. That means you’ll need a recipe for each of these meals that includes 3 servings.

Now, let’s say that you’re creating a 5-day meal plan with 3 meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) plus two snacks each day. In this case, you’ll likely want a recipe for each meal and snack that includes 5 servings.

Also, don’t forget to decide which style of meal planning you’re going to do. Do you prefer to portion your meals into separate containers, or does a buffet of ingredients to pick and choose from better suit your style? Narrowing down which type of meal prep you want to do can be helpful for when you’re picking out recipes.

3. Brainstorm and browse for recipes

Now that you’ve calculated how many meals you need for the week, and how you’re going to prep them, it’s time to browse for meal prep recipes!

If you’re just starting out with meal prep, don’t hesitate to start with easy recipes first. In fact, you can create your own basic meal prep recipes by simply combining a protein, a grain, and a vegetable — like a tofu and broccoli rice bowl, or a chickpea salad and spinach wrap.

Of course, there are also a ton of free meal prep recipes out there, especially on Instagram. And if you’re looking for some beginner-friendly options, I put together a list of 10 great meal prep meals that features 5 recipes you can incorporate into your plan this week.

By the way, when you’re choosing recipes for your weekly meal plan, here are two tips to keep in mind:

• Browse your kitchen first. By using the ingredients you already have on hand in your fridge, freezer, or pantry, you can save more time and money at the grocery store.
• Double dip on ingredients. If you’re planning to prep multiple recipes for the week, using the same grain, vegetable, or protein for more than one recipe can also save you time and money.

4. Add your favorite recipes to your meal plan

Once you’ve chosen all the meals you plan to cook for the week, fitting them into your weekly meal plan is a breeze. However, here’s where a little bit of extra planning can go a long way in making your meal prep feel more exciting.

Let’s say that your 3-day meal plan includes overnight oats for breakfast, salmon rice bowls for lunch, and a chicken sheet pan for dinner. If you keep things simple and straightforward, your meal plan will probably look like this:

In the meal plan above, you’ll end up eating the same thing at the same time every day — and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, if you want to mix it up a little, you can switch your lunch and dinner meals in the middle of the week like this:

As you can see, by simply switching your lunch and dinner meals for a day, you can add a little variation to your daily meal plan. So, if you find it boring eating the same exact thing in the same order every day, this is a quick, easy way to mix things up.

5. Create your list for grocery shopping

One of the biggest mistakes that meal prep beginners make is stopping once they’ve filled in their weekly meal plan. But, if you really want to save time and money with meal prep, the best thing you can do is create a grocery list for the week.

A physical notepad, spreadsheet, or grocery shopping app are all great ways to build a grocery list quickly and easily. Just make sure to check your fridge, freezer, and pantry before you go shopping — the more staples and seasonings you already have on hand, the more time and money you’ll save at the store.

Weekly meal planning for a family

If you’re a parent who is looking to make your life a little easier with meal prep, knowing how to meal plan for a family during the week can be helpful.

Have you ever heard the phrase “many hands make light work?” Well, this phrase also applies to meal planning, so don’t be afraid to get your family involved in the process. For example, kids are full of creativity and are great at brainstorming recipe ideas for the week. And if you have a partner, they can help with more practical steps like creating a weekly shopping list and looking for sales.

By the way, if you’re worried about meal planning when you have picky eaters in the family, there is a solution: buffet-style meal prep. With buffet style meal prep, you’ll have plenty of different ingredients on hand all week for the family to pick and choose from — which means that no one has to feel left out at mealtime.

How to try a monthly meal plan

Once you’ve gotten the hang of how to make a weekly meal plan, you can just as easily learn how to meal plan for a month. However, meal planning this way can be a little more challenging, so here are a few tips to keep in mind if you want to create a monthly meal plan:

• Use a physical or online calendar. While it’s easy to sketch out a quick weekly meal plan on a whim, meal planning for a month requires a little more foresight and planning. Having a digital or physical calendar with lots of space to take notes on is essential for monthly meal planning.
• Keep your favorite recipes on hand. If you’ve already been creating weekly meal plans, you can save yourself valuable time by reusing your favorite recipes or meal plans. Another great way to keep monthly meal plans simple is to create consistency, like tacos every Tuesday night or rice bowls once a week.
• Plan to buy foods in bulk. Monthly meal planning is a great way to save money on food costs because you can plan ahead and buy ingredients in bulk. Dried grains, canned beans and vegetables, and frozen meats, fruits, and veggies are all great ingredients to buy in bulk.

Learning how to meal plan for a month can be challenging at first, especially if you’re just starting out — but being patient and willing to make changes can help remove some of the pressure to do it perfectly. And remember, if things change, it’s ok to go with the flow.

Meal planning FAQ

Meal prep becomes a lot more exciting once you know how to make a weekly meal plan for yourself or your family — so here are a few more helpful things to know before you get started.

Do meal plans work?

Millions of people meal prep (and meal plan) every single week, including myself! By planning and prepping your meals ahead of time, you can save more money at the grocery store, more time in the kitchen, and more effort on feeding yourself every week.

What should be included in a meal plan?

When you’re creating a meal plan for meal prep, it should include all the meals you want to prepare ahead of time for the week (or month). Once you know how many days you’re prepping for, and which meals you plan to prep, you can make sure that everything you need is included in your meal plan.

What meals can I cook for the week?

One of the great things about meal prep is that there are hundreds of thousands of meal prep recipes out there for you to choose from — many of which are completely free. But when it comes to which meals to include in your weekly plan, try to focus on meals that are easy to cook, store well in the fridge, and most importantly, taste great to you.

How many meals should I prep for a week?

If you’re just starting out with meal prep, you might find it easier to start with a 3-day meal plan that includes 1-2 meals a day, for example. But once you’ve gotten the hang of meal prepping consistently once or twice a week, don’t be afraid to try a longer 5-day or 7-day meal plan that includes 15 or more meals a week.

How do I make my meal plan easier?

Learning how to meal plan is just like any other skill — it takes time and patience to get the hang of. But you can keep meal planning simple for yourself by sticking to shorter meal plans, focusing on easy recipes, and most importantly, having fun with the planning process.