How to meal plan for a family: a 20-minute weekly routine everyone can live with

The short answer: family meal planning sticks when you stop starting from scratch: check the calendar, pull from a list of meals everyone already likes and write the grocery list. It takes about 20 minutes a week.

• Use theme nights and plan around busy days
• Prep once, eat twice: cook a double batch, wash and chop, cook a pot of rice or pasta
• Kids pick one dinner a week; older kids own a night
• Two sample weeks are below
• Next step: Plan it with the Meal Planner & Grocery List ($3.99).

If you've been wondering how to meal plan for a family without spending your whole Sunday on it, the trick to family meal planning is to stop starting from scratch. Families who stick with meal planning do the same short routine every week: check the calendar, pull from a list of meals everyone already likes, and write the grocery list. It takes about 20 minutes, and it ends the nightly "what's for dinner?" question. If you're brand new to planning, start with our 7-step guide on how to meal plan.

Our Meal Planner & Grocery List printable has the pages for this routine: a Family Favorites list, a weekly meal planner and a grocery list sorted by aisle.

Step 1: Make your family favorites list

Before you plan a single week, write down 15 to 20 dinners your family already eats without complaint. Ask everyone for two or three. Group them:

Write each favorite on a recipe card template so the list and the recipes stay together.

This list is your menu. Most weeks you'll just pick from it. The Meal Planner & Grocery List ($3.99) includes a Family Favorites page for exactly this, along with a weekly meal planner, dinner plan and prep page, grocery list, monthly menu, recipe cards, pantry and freezer inventories and a meal prep checklist. If you also plan appointments and activities, a weekly planner keeps meals and schedules on one page.

Step 2: Check the family calendar first

Look at the week before you look at recipes. Which nights have practice, late work or school events? Those get the fastest meals or leftovers. Calm nights get the longer recipes or something new. Keep the recipes that work in a recipe journal so next month's plan is faster.

Step 3: Use theme nights

Theme nights shrink the choices. Taco Tuesday, pasta Wednesday, soup Thursday, pizza Friday. You still vary the recipe, but you're choosing among three tacos instead of every meal in the world. Kids love knowing what's coming. Our soup recipes give you 30 to rotate on soup night. For pasta night, chicken alfredo is an easy start, and our broccoli cheddar soup works for soup night. Chicken tortilla soup bridges taco night and soup night.

For a meatless night, pick from our vegetarian meal prep ideas and cook a double batch for lunches.

Stuck for what to put on each night? Our list of easy dinner ideas is grouped by theme, from sheet pan meals to tacos.

Step 4: Shop the kitchen, then write the list

Check the pantry, fridge and freezer before writing the grocery list, and plan at least one meal around something you already have. The FDA's tips to reduce food waste recommend writing your list with next week's meals in mind and checking the fridge first, and they note that confusion over date labels accounts for an estimated 20 percent of consumer food waste.

A printable grocery list template sorted by store section makes this step faster.

Waste adds up for every family. USDA's food waste FAQs estimate food waste in the United States at 30 to 40 percent of the food supply. A plan is the simplest fix. For more ways to stretch the grocery budget, see how to grocery shop on a budget.

Step 5: Prep once, eat twice

A little Sunday prep makes weeknights easy:

For more ways to cook ahead, our list of meal prep ideas covers grab-and-go lunches, freezer dinners and prep for picky eaters.

• Cook a double batch of one protein, like chicken thighs or ground beef, and use it twice. An easy meatloaf is one way to use the beef.
• Wash and chop vegetables for the first half of the week.
• Cook a pot of rice or pasta to reheat.
• Portion snacks and lunches into grab-and-go containers.

Keep leftovers safe. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours of cooking, and that leftovers keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days or in the freezer for 3 to 4 months. Label containers with the date so nobody has to guess.

Step 6: Get everyone involved

Meal planning shouldn't be one person's job.

• Kids pick one dinner a week from the favorites list.
• Older kids own a night, with help, once a month.
• Everyone helps clean up on the nights they don't cook.
• Post the plan on the fridge or a family command center so nobody asks.

When a new recipe becomes a hit, add it to the Family Recipe Binder ($6.99), which has a recipe index, recipe cards, a holidays section and a fillable version. Our family recipe binder guide shows how to set one up.

Step 7: Keep it in one place

Put the meal plan where the rest of the family's life already lives. The Household Binder ($6.99) includes a meal planner and grocery list alongside the monthly calendar, weekly planner, weekly cleaning page and family info, so the week's plan and the week's meals sit side by side.

To plan a whole month at once, use a monthly meal planner with all 30 dinners on one page.

Family meal plans: two sample weeks

Ready-made family meal plans are easiest to follow when they reuse ingredients across the week. Here are two weeks you can copy, swap and repeat. Each one uses theme nights, cooks a big batch once and plans a leftovers night so nobody cooks seven times.

Week 1: busy-weeknight family meal plan

Week 2: budget family meal plan

To balance the plates, try filling about half of each plate with fruits and vegetables, which is an easy check when you write the week. For a grocery target that fits your family size, the USDA's cost-of-food reports publish monthly estimates at several budget levels.

Want the month mapped out? Use our monthly meal planner, and for cheaper weeks see meal planning on a budget. Prepping ahead on Sunday? Our meal prep ideas has make-ahead recipes that fit these weeks.

Planning ahead for the holidays

Holidays are when a plan matters most. Before Thanksgiving, start with the Thanksgiving menu template and the holiday freezer meal prep plan, so busy weeknights in November and December are already handled. For the everyday budget side, our meal planning on a budget guide has more money-saving ideas.

Planning for a toddler? Our toddler meals guide covers portion sizes, safe cutting tips and a 7-day toddler meal plan. Short on time in the morning? Keep a list of quick breakfast ideas that take 10 minutes or less.