How to Plan Meals for the Week

Quick Answer

Planning meals for the week in Family Values takes just a few minutes and saves you hours of daily decision-making. Open the Meal Planner at familyvalu.es, browse your recipe library, and assign dishes to any day and course. You'll see your whole week at a glance, complete with a summary of total meals, servings, and cook time.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

1. Open the Meal Planner by navigating to the /meal-planner page in Family Values.

2. Browse the weekly calendar on the left side. It displays Monday through Sunday, with each day organized into three course slots: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

1. Find a recipe using the recipe library panel on the right side. You can scroll through your saved recipes or use the search bar and category filter to narrow things down.

2. Click the "Plan" button on any recipe. A popover will appear where you can choose the date, select the course (breakfast, lunch, or dinner), and adjust the servings to match how many people you're feeding.

3. Click "Add" to place the recipe onto your calendar. It will appear under the correct day and course with the recipe name, cook time, and servings displayed.

4. Repeat for as many meals as you'd like to plan. Fill out the full week or just the days you need.

5. Review the week summary at the top, which shows your Total Meals, Unique Recipes, Total Servings, and Total Cook Time for the week.

1. Generate a shopping list when you're happy with your plan by clicking the shopping cart button. Family Values will consolidate all ingredients, scale quantities by servings, merge duplicates, and create a categorized shopping list for you.

Tips

• Start by planning dinners first -- they're usually the most involved meals. Fill in breakfasts and lunches afterward with simpler recipes.
• Use the week navigation arrows to plan ahead for next week or look back at what you made previously.
• Hit the "Today" button to jump back to the current week if you've navigated away.
• On mobile, the recipe library appears below the calendar in a stacked layout, so just scroll down to browse and add recipes.
• You can reuse the same recipe on multiple days if your family has a favorite they want more than once a week.

Related Questions

• How to Add Recipes to Your Meal Planner
• How to Generate a Grocery List from Your Meal Plan
• Tips for Efficient Weekly Meal Planning with a Recipe App