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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 {One Pan 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
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