“What’s for dinner?!” AGAIN? 😩 Copy my system to save your weeknight meal sanity
Steal my go-to weeknight meal spreadsheet, trusty shortcuts and my personal list of zero-brainpower dinners to make weeknight cooking a lot more manageable.
Yes, that is a turtle sticker on my jeans
Tell me your LEAST favorite part of juggling weekday mental load and why is it always “gahhh WHAT DO I MAKE FOR DINNER!!”? 🫣
Add kids into the mix and it’s now even more of a chore. (What will everyone eat? Can you make it healthy-ish? In the least amount of time?)
Cooking happens to be one of my favorite hobbies (as you probably already know if you’ve been around for a bit!) but even for me, weeknight dinner planning is a MAJOR pain point.
Sometimes I look forward to cooking because it’s a nice way to disconnect from the rest of the day (and a fun thing to do as a family!) but sometimes I don’t want to cook AT ALL–but I don’t want to keep racking up the take out bill.
I am often left feeling like I constantly am “re-inventing the wheel” as it pertains to cooking dinners every week and I wanted cooking to be less stressful and actually fun again! (I’m also not usually one that can pull off a weekly meal planning/full week shopping trip on a Sunday–that’s just not really my style LOL.)
When I published my latest Hot Mess Aunties newsletter (easiest weeknight meals EVER edition!) I realized that I certainly wasn’t the only one who feels like weeknight meals are a TOTAL pain in my ass–so I thought–let’s make this topic an ongoing series, focused on more no-recipe-recipe ideas, favorite easy recipes from other creators, AND….
This great little Google spreadsheet I’ve created for both of us to keep track of our own go-to recipes and make weeknight dinner planning WAY easier. (Truly, this was born out of my own needs, but I figured you probably could use this too 😉).
Here’s a preview below populated with my own favorites. (Which you can delete on your own copy, or keep if you’d like to try them too!)
What you can expect from this post:
My #1 favorite tip for avoiding that brain-melting overwhelm when it’s 4pm, you haven’t done any shopping and you’re like, “FML what am I making for dinner 😭”
My weeknight meal organizer google sheet template (populated with some of my personal favorite easy recipes, but intended for you to duplicate and make into your own customized list!)
It includes a place for description, recipe link, and you can tag each with your own categories to make searching for what you want even easier.
Also includes a second tab to add in the recipes you want to try next–so you don’t lose them in the Instagram or Pinterest abyss forever!
Note, you must have Google drive to access!
My easiest veggie-cooking tip that saves me lots of time and makes it easier to incorporate veggies into meals. (Justice for the microwave. 👀)
A list of my personal favorite weeknight meal shortcuts that save me time and hassle each week. (Including no-cook dinner ideas that aren’t expensive takeout for when you don’t want to cook AT ALL).
Ready to dive in? Let’s do it. Keep reading for my tips + the link to download the template!