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Save yourself some time, money and stress by using this FREE Meal Plan that is full of amazing recipes. Each plan includes 5 dinner ideas, 2 side dishes, 1 dessert and a shopping list making meal planning easier than ever!!
WEEKLY MEAL PLAN #24
Each week, I share with you a FREE meal plan that consists of 5 dinner ideas (Monday-Thursday plus one Weekend meal), 2 side dishes, and 1 dessert!
Included is a grocery list with EVERY ingredient you need for all the items on the meal plan.
This is meant to help simplify menu planning, shopping, and cooking so you can more easily enjoy meals with your family throughout the week!
TIP OF THE WEEK
Christmas Dinner can be one of the biggest meals of year! It’s a wonderful way to share tradition and time with family or friends. And the food is a huge part of creating those traditions and memories!
In my family, we always gather together to enjoy dinner on Christmas Eve (Mexican food is always on the docket). All my siblings gather and we have a fun night with games and good food.
So, to help you make this week easy and enjoyable, we have compiled tips for planning, preparation and OF COURSE, we have covered all the dishes you might possibly want to include for your Christmas feast!
Find it all HERE! Merry Christmas!
BENEFITS OF MEAL PLANNING
There’s nothing worse than the dread every time a family members asks, “What’s for dinner??” And your answer is “I have no clue.” Having a meal plan for the week eliminates that completely, which is the number one benefit in my book!
Besides having a game plan in place, there are several other benefits of meal planning, including:
- Cost: When you have a plan set in place, and a specific list of groceries, you eliminate cost wasted on impulse items or produce that never gets used.
- Decrease Waste: No wasted money, and no wasted food! Having a set grocery list will help to avoid both of those issues.
- Variety: Our meal plans specifically include a lot of variety, with Mexican, Italian, Breakfast for Dinner, and so much more! You can expose your family’s palates to all kinds of meals.
- No Indecision: Did you know there’s such thing as “indecision fatigue”? The idea is that when you can’t make a decision on something (like what to make for dinner) it actually makes you mentally fatigued. When dinners are already planned out, though, you avoid indecision completely!
- Health: When you plan for/anticipate making well-rounded meals, you’re much more likely to actually make them rather than defaulting to convenient boxed meals, or unhealthy fast food!
As you can see, there are so many benefits to meal planning!
And if you want to create your own menu, be sure to check out all our recipes and visit our recipe pages, including: Main Dish, Side Dishes, Desserts, Appetizers and Breakfast!
Monday
Beef Flautas
Tortillas filled with meat and cheese and fried to perfection! Crispy, flavorful flautas are a delicious dinner for everyone!
Sometimes we like to use leftover Sunday Pot Roast for the filling, or if we don’t have any on hand, we’ll make Chicken Flautas instead. Either way, you have to serve them with Guacamole and Salsa.
tuesday
Italian wedding soup
This classic Italian Wedding soup is hearty, comes together quickly, and is filled with mini meatballs, carrots, Escarole, orzo and more. It is easy to put together for a perfect weeknight meal!
You can’t have soup without bread, and the yeast dinner rolls on the plan this week were made to go with this soup!
Wednesday
Christmas Breakfast Casserole
Quick and easy Christmas breakfast casserole is packed full of savory flavor. The best part is it doesn’t require many ingredients…or time!!
This breakfast casserole is the perfect thing to feed your holiday guests in the morning (or for a breakfast dinner)! Serve it with fresh fruit or yogurt parfaits.
Thursday
Chicken Stroganoff
This Homemade Chicken Stroganoff is perfect for dinner any night of the week. It’s full of flavor and is made start to finish in under 40 minutes!
If you have any leftover yeast dinner rolls from Tuesday, you can also serve them with this stroganoff!
Weekend
honey glazed ham
Our favorite recipe for a holiday ham. Simply place a spiral cut ham in the crock pot, cover with a 5-ingredient glaze, and 4 hours later you’ll have a tender and juicy Honey Glazed Ham!
This one is Honey Glazed, but you could also switch up the glaze ingredients for a Brown Sugar Ham. We like to serve our Christmas ham with Twice Baked Potatoes (one of the sides on the plan this week)!
Sides of the week
Our Top Two Choices
After having these Twice Baked Potatoes, you’ll never want regular baked potatoes again! These super easy potatoes are loaded with sour cream, cheese, bacon, and seasonings!
These are the perfect mate for your holiday ham this week! Although, if you don’t have oven space for these potatoes, you can always make Crock Pot Baked Potatoes instead!
Homemade Yeast Dinner Rolls are delicious, soft and fluffy. They’re a wonderful side dish to any meal!
In fact, they go great with the soup, stroganoff, or ham on the menu for this week! You may as well cook up a double batch. 😉
Dessert of the week
Christmas Tree Brownies
Chewy Christmas Tree Brownies whip up in minutes and are perfectly delightful to decorate for kids of all ages.
For more festive Christmas desserts, try:
Download the meal plan!
Click the link below to download this week’s FREE Meal Plan!
And remember – if you want to create your own menu, be sure to check out all our recipes and visit our recipe pages, including: Main Dish, Side Dishes, Desserts, Appetizers and Breakfast!
Click here to download the pdf!
