Our current meal planning

I transitioned from working part time to becoming a full time working mother about three years ago. At first I found it difficult to juggle work, kids, home while keeping a healthy meal on the table MOST days of the week. If only I could buy time.
With a lot of trial and error; spending too much on food, I realized that I might be complicating things trying to simplify things.
So to simplify our meal planning, I sat down and wrote a list of a few recipes that fit the following criteria:

• Simple
• Fast
• Healthy
• The whole family can enjoy

Simplifying the meal planning process saved me my sanity and kept everyone in the family full and eating healthy :)

Every Sunday, I sit down for 5 minutes and pick 5 of the following (Friday is going out to eat, Saturday is Pizza and movie night) and then put the grocery list together.

• Ground Beef, Red Pepper, and Potatoes
• Taco Salad
• Soup (Carrot Soup, Lima bean Soup , Chili , Chicken noodle Soup, sopa di Toscana (copycat from Olive garden) served with Cheese quesadillas or Grilled Cheese sandwich
• Fish with roasted Cauliflower and rice
• Grilled steak and green beans or edamame
• Seafood or grilled chicken with Spaghetti with Salad and/or steamed broccoli

Also instead of cooking everyday, I cook every other day by preparing the next day meal while I am cooking dinner. On the weekend, we either barbeque or I take the time to try a new recipe.

Do you have any tips on how to make meal planning easy?

You can find more menu plan @ orgjunkie.com