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Using a weekly Meal Plan takes the drama out of midweek dinners. Stay balanced, save money and save your sanity!
This is actually the first weekly meal plan with a budget that I shared on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and so many of you asked for all of the info in one place, with a shopping list, so here it is!
Watch out for the videos of each recipe coming each night this week, so you can cook along.
For reference, I shopped for this Meal Plan in March 2022 at Aldi and it cost £35.58.
Why use a weekly food planner?
⭐️ Knowing exactly what food to buy for avoids food waste, saving you money.
⭐️ Having a plan for dinner avoids the mental load of “what’s for dinner?” question every night.
The printable shopping list can be found here.
You can find more Weekly Meal Plans here:
Meal Plan 2 – £33 from Aldi
Meal Plan 3 – £35 from Tesco
Meal Plan 4 – 30 Minute Meals
Some tips for using a family meal planner:
➡️ Check for any items on the shopping list that you already have in your cupboard.
➡️ Maybe think about doubling up and freezing a recipe or two where the recipes are suitable, so save cooking another day or for the weekend.
➡️ Remove ingredients for any meals that you don’t want to cook.
➡️ The shopping list includes the cheapest version of each ingredient. Obviously if you want to buy lower fat mince or free range etc, that’s personal choice.
➡️ All of the recipes are to serve 4, so if you’re cooking for 2, simply halve the ingredients.
Weekly Meal Ideas: The Recipes
Dinner 1
⭐️ You could reduce the cost further by using more vegetables and only one pack of halloumi.
⭐️ Cold leftovers would make a great lunch, just add extra soy sauce.
Peanut Butter Noodles with Halloumi {Satay-Style Stir Fry}
Dinner 2
⭐️ Serve with homemade chips:
⭐️ For the chips:
- 1kg potatoes
- 2tbsp oil
- 2tsp salt
- 2tsp garlic granules
- Preheat the oven to 200c, and cut your potatoes into chips (I don’t bother peeling as am lazy 🤫)
- Coat in the oil, salt and garlic granules and spread on a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on your chip size!) turning once.
⭐️ For the slaw:
- Half a cucumber, diced (save the rest for Friday recipe)
- Half of a 285g can of sweetcorn, drained (save the rest for friday recipe)
- 100g natural yoghurt
- Juice of a lime
- 3 spring onions, chopped
⭐️ Make the salad, by chopping and mixing everything together.
Tasty Chicken Tikka Burgers
Dinner 3
⭐️ You could make this cheaper (and vegetarian) by substituting the mince for an additional can of beans in chilli sauce.
⭐️ I got a lot of grief on TikTok from people saying this wasn’t a full meal. I mean, it’s the equivalent of two baked potatoes each with half a kilo of mince and mountains of veg between you but as always – YOU DO YOU 😆
⭐️ You might want to reduce or increase the seasoning depending on your family tastes.
Cheesy Chilli Loaded Wedges
Dinner 4
⭐️ I substituted parmesan for cheddar in this recipe as it saved money. It worked well and was super cheesy.
Chorizo Pasta {30 Minute Recipe!}
Dinner 5
⭐️ The small size Aldi wraps are my fave for this. Good hand holding size.
Easy Cajun Salmon Tacos {30 minute meal}
Quick reminder, the printable shopping list can be found here.
If you’ve found this useful, let’s be friends on Instagram @tamingtwins
Enjoyed week 1, thank you! Mint sauce seems to be missing off the shopping list for the salmon tacos.
You have to be mindful of energy prices, for example cooking chips for 40-60 minutes is not affordable for a lot of us,
Its obvious you put a ton of time and effort into these it helps alot ..I’m just wondering if there is anyway to get a printable of recipes for the meal planning as well ?
If you go to each individual recipe, you can click “jump to recipe” and then there’s a button under the ⭐️s that says print and it’ll print just the recipe 🙂
Omg you have give me so much knowledge & confidence to get back in the kitchen & cook delicious food for the family, I can’t thank you enough.
So so happy to help! Long may it continue for you!
I love your recipes and they are alays a crowd pleaser, more of the same please