Upon listening to the “Wannabe Clutter Free” podcast a couple weeks ago, I stumbled on an episode that gave me some really great ideas to get organized and on track this summer to accomplish all the fun summer bucket list items we’d like to!

One thing that came up was how she sets up her meal planning that really takes most of the thought out of it. I love the idea of having this easy system set up with some great basic structure, and just filling in the gaps with your family’s favorite recipes or filling in with nights you might eat out, etc.

Here was a great base structure she uses for one week:

Monday: Meatless Monday
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday
Wednesday: Pasta Wednesday
Thursday: Slow-Cooker Thursday
Friday: Pizza Friday
Saturday: Burger Saturday
Sunday: Leftovers Sunday

This particular set of options for each would work great for my family! We love tacos, burgers and pizza and of course there are so many various burgers to mix these general categories up with. For example, we love Mexican food and Asian food here at our house so I love that to make things even easier and give great variety to your meals for the week, you can have a theme like Asian food or Mexican food. That way there is some overlap with flavors and the leftover day won’t be so random either. You’re not eating leftovers of bean and cheese burritos with wontons or something ha!

It also seems like a great way to cut costs to only buy the flavors and herbs and spices that you would need to use all week. One bunch of cilantro will get me through a week of Mexican food at home with tacos, fresh salsa, etc. One bunch of parsley will do the same with a week of Italian recipes and pasta dishes. This helps you be less wasteful of any herbs or spices you might not use up if you are just using it for one dish.

Here are example meal plans for a Mexican theme with the layout from above, as well as a week of Asian-inspired meals too.

Mexican Food Meal Plan Theme:

Monday: Bean and cheese burritos
Tuesday: Carne Asada Tacos
Wednesday: Taco-flavored pasta casserole
Thursday: Slow-cooker taco soup
Friday: Taco pizza
Saturday: Jalapeno burgers with cotija cheese
Sunday: Leftovers

Asian Food Meal Plan Theme:

Monday: Tofu Stir Fry
Tuesday: Korean beef tacos
Wednesday: Homemade “Grown-up” Ramen noodles
Thursday: Slow-cooker orange chicken and fried rice
Friday: Thai chicken pizza
Saturday: Asian burgers with Hoisin ketchup and garlic chili mayo
Sunday: Leftovers

What do you think of this meal plan structure? Does it seem like something that would work well for you and your family? Do you have a meal plan structure in place already? Please share any thoughts or tips you have in the comments below. I am really excited to put this in place this summer and keep it going into the next school year. It seems really perfect for our family to get variety, yet take out a lot of the guesswork for the dreaded daily question, “Mom, what are we having for dinner tonight?”