Why Meal Plan?
Meal planning simplifies your life and saves time. It takes the guesswork out of busy nights. It’s one less thing to think about each evening. You have a plan and all you need to do is execute it.
Meal planning saves money. If you have a plan and buy only what you need from the grocery store, you’re much less likely to buy items you don’t need which may be wasted. You’re also less likely to eat out and that can save a bunch of money.
Meal planning is healthier. Planning meals ahead gives you time to think about incorporating healthy vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains. In addition, preparing your own food at home is always healthier than dining out.
Vegetarian Meal Plans
Budget Meal Plans
Special Diet Meal Plans
What Makes Rachel Cooks Meal Plans Different?
I know there are a lot of meal plans available. Some are free (ours are free!) and others cost money. So why choose ours?
- We plan them with a busy schedule in mind. Our main goal is to make these meal plans reasonable and realistic. That means we’re not just grabbing 5 random recipes and sending you off to the store with a ridiculously long grocery list. We think about what works well together and how to save you time.
- Balance: As you probably already know, the majority of the recipes on Rachel Cooks are easy to prepare. However, some recipes just naturally have longer ingredient lists than others. We’re keeping that in mind, and balancing the more complicated recipes with simpler recipes that have shorter ingredient lists.
- Fun Fridays! We will take it easy on you every Friday (TGIF!) with a fun, easy-to-prepare meal. Think tacos, pizza, or other kid-friendly recipes you can throw together with a few store-bought shortcuts.
- Categorized Grocery List: Not only is the grocery list categorized to make shopping easy, but it also indicates which day the ingredient is needed. That means if you aren’t eating home on Friday, you can easily go through the list and cross off the Friday ingredients. Maybe you think Monday’s recipe sounds…gross. We disagree, of course, but you can cross off those ingredients without having to comb through each recipe to figure out what you do or don’t need.
- Meal Prep/Make Ahead: Many of our recipes include ideas to get a head start on recipes. This is optional, of course, but sometimes doing a little meal prepping ahead of time (maybe on Saturday or Sunday) can make a huge difference on weeknights!
