april's MONTHLY FAMILY MEAL PLAN!! week 1 let's do it !!
let's map out april so we don't stress over meal time, yes?! i think yes too.
APRIL ARE YOU THERE?! yes, yes i think you are!! this is a weird time in new jersey. sometimes it is still chilly. others i am fine with no jacket. so my food often reflects that too. you’ll see this month is a mix of cozy comfort dishes like soups and warm food with a mix of some salads and no-cook kind of meals too.
but first - let’s do a quick refresh on how this works:
every friday you will receive your meal ideas for the next week. this will include: 1 breakfast, 2 meal prep-friendly lunches, 2 dinners and 1 snack/dessert to make (if you so choose) AND a store-bought snack too. i am open to doing more recipes if needed but let’s start here and see how it goes?! LMK if you want more!
every friday, you will get one email with the full monthly calendar in week 1’s email. then we will dive into each week with grocery lists, any swaps/sub ideas, tips to meal prep if you want, go-to products/tools i use to cook and more.
keep in mind that these lunch/dinner recipes are typically 4 servings per recipe. if you are feeding 4+ people or want enough for the next day and would like to double the recipe, go for it. plus no one was ever angry if there were leftovers in the freezer. especially for dishes like
i chose to do only 2 lunches and 2 dinner ideas as i thought it was less overwhelming for us to start with. if you guys want more ideas for each week, lmk and we can make it happen.
these recipes are not all to be meal prepped. some can be somewhat prepped. i dont want you to feel the need to do a full meal prep every sunday. the only full meals i usually prep are lunches to make it more efficient during the week, a breakfast and snack if i am feeling crazy. but for the most part, i like to meal plan over meal prep.
i also designed the monthly meal plan with similar ingredients in mind. you’ll notice overlap with the ingredients we use. for example, more than 1 dish has rice and feta cheese or a sauce. i cannot stand wasting ingredients so i try to use up everything as much as possible!
you’ll notice tips on how i feed a recipe to my husband and i versus my kids. yes, we all eat similarly for dinner. but it’s not always served the same exact way.
there are swaps for many of the recipes you’ll see listed in each weekly menu. i want these recipes to feel adaptable for YOU and what you have or love.
once you join the more, please family meal plan crew, you always have access to EVERY week so you can pick and choose what you want to make.
P.S. confused on why this is paid content? it takes me many many hours to pull this together for my substack crew! it’s a very reasonable 96 cents per week if you do the annual plan for someone to do all the thinking for you for meal times!