Using a weekly Family Meal Plan takes the drama out of midweek dinners. Stay balanced, save money and save your sanity!
This is the 4th weekly family meal plan I will be sharing on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and so many of you asked for all of the info in one place, so here it is. Watch out for the videos of each recipe coming each night this week, so you can cook along.
The meal plan this week is also extra handy as every meal takes less than 30 minutes to cook from start to finish. Whoop!
For reference, I shopped for this Meal Plan in April 2022 at Aldi and it cost £35.09.
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 of my Weekly Meal Plans here:
Meal Plan 3 – £35 from Tesco
Meal Plan 2 – £33 from Aldi
Meal Plan 1 – £35 from Aldi
My book “What’s for Dinner?” with 100 recipes in 30 minutes is OUT NOW! Order it here…
📚 AMAZON 🇬🇧
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.
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Weekly Meal Ideas: The Recipes
Dinner 1
⭐️ Swap the white onion in the recipe for red onion. I used x2 onions instead of one as they were super small.
⭐️ Use x3 green peppers and x4 sticks of celery (which is more than stated in the recipe) to up the veg quota to two portions per serving.
⭐️ Use the 400g pack of chicken rather than 500g in the recipe as this was the pack size available.
Cajun Chicken Pasta {One Pan Recipe}
Dinner 2
⭐️ Serve with wraps and Greek salad.
⭐️ Use x4 tomatoes, half of the olives jar, a red onion, a pepper and a third of the cucumber to make the Greek salad (I left out the feta cheese, but you could add to the shopping list if you wish). The Greek salad dressing is optional too if you have time/ingredients. If you don’t, sprinkle on a little olive oil, mint or oregano and salt you’re good to go!
⭐️ Use the natural yoghurt instead of Greek yoghurt for the dip.
Lamb Koftas with Tzatziki
Dinner 3
⭐️ Serve with potato salad and sweetcorn salsa.
⭐️ For the potato salad: Boil the new potatoes until cooked, add mayonnaise and chopped red onion.
⭐️ For the sweetcorn salsa: Mix the tin of sweetcorn, with a third of the cucumber, red onion, 1 red pepper and 100g of yoghurt.
⭐️ Omit the lime juice and cress.
Halloumi Burger {15 Minute Meal}
Dinner 4
⭐️ Serve with Egg Fried Rice. I served with the recipe linked, but minus the eggs, so NOT egg fried rice! (As there was already plenty of protein in the pork of the Yuk Sung).
Easy Pork Yuk Sung {Chinese Lettuce Wraps}
Dinner 5
⭐️ Serve with a tapas board.
⭐️ For the tapas: Use the baguettes sliced and toasted, x3 sliced peppers, half the jar of olives, the Spanish mixed meats/cheese pack, Spanish grains, the pack of cherry tomatoes. (Sangria on the side is optional if you’d like to add it. 🤩) All items on the shopping list.
Gambas Pil Pil {Prawns with Garlic and Chilli}
Quick reminder, the printable shopping list can be found here.
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My book “What’s for Dinner?” with 100 recipes in 30 minutes is OUT NOW! Order it here…
📚 AMAZON 🇬🇧
Angela Hardy says
Wow! Made these tonight! Big hit with the family & sooo tasty! Will definitely be making them again! I’ve just started your Week 4 Menu Plan & followed the shopping list (plus extras I needed!) Excited to try the rest of the meals! Xx
Kate says
I made the lamb koftas and the flat breads- Wow! The recipes were so easy and the end result was so tasty. I was especially surprised as how easy the flat breads were to make and they will definitely be made for other dishes. Ideal for gluten free cooking. I bought the dip and made a salad with figs and cheese to go with them. A huge success, thank you so much. 😀
Julie says
Do these recipes really feed 4 adults? I have a house full of boys, I’m thinking I may need to double up?
Sarah Barnes says
Hi Julie, obviously it depends on your appetite but these are based on standard portion sizes or thereabouts, so say 125g of mince. Sometimes there is less meat and more veg etc to save money. Of course you can adapt and add more! They aren’y ridiculous like 1 chicken breast between 4 or anything though!!
Donna says
Absolutely love these meal plans, makes food shopping easy and all the meals have been a hit! 🙂