{{Printable}} April 22-28 Real Food Meal Plan + Shopping List

Let’s face it, life is easier when you have a plan.

Even when (and it really is when, not if) you get off track, at the very least, a plan gives you guidelines and a helping hand toward getting back on track.

As a mom, homeschooling my kids, taking care of the house and small farm, plus running a small business, one of the most important plans I can have is, you guessed it, a meal plan.

Why are meal plans important?

To understand why such a simple thing as a meal plan is so important; first, you have to understand what life is like without it.

• Scrambling every evening to figure out what to make for dinner
• Same breakfast every morning because I didn’t plan ahead, and now nothing is prepped
• Not getting all the groceries I need on my shopping trips
• Spending more on groceries because I don’t have a solid plan for what I’m buying.

We talk about the absolute best way to meal plan and save money on groceries in 6 Days To Slash Your Grocery Budget, but breaking that monthly list of meals down into a weekly plan has become key for me when I’m planning my week.

• With a meal plan, I know what I need to take out of the freezer to thaw before I go to bed at night
• I know what to prep ahead on busy days
• I know exactly what I need to get at the grocery store
• I have absolutely zero stress about getting breakfast, lunch, or dinner on the table every day.
• This week, I thought I’d share my meal plan and shopping list, because if making a plan makes life easier, imagine how cool it would be to have it done for you.

All you have to do is fill out the form below to get your access code to our meal plans page! This week’s meal plan is right at the top, along with some helpful recipe links. Enjoy!

P.S. Because I’ve been asked, yes, this meal plan + shopping list is free; however, in the future (because it takes forever to put together), we will be charging for the meal plan + grocery list + recipes packet.

Here are a few things you should know about this meal plan:

1. It uses 100% real food, but you should know that I count dairy (real dairy, not processed cheese) and grains as real food
2. This grocery list should cost right at $58 dollars shopping at Aldi and/or Walmart, assuming you’re buying everything as listed (I know a lot of our stock up on deep sales and use Zaycon Fresh for meat, which will make it much cheaper!)
3. Kale, sliced strawberries, walnuts, feta cheese, and Raspberry Vinaigrette are the intended salads
4. The vinaigrette brand I like is pretty expensive, so though it is listed with the groceries, I recommend making your own and even healthier version.
5. Ground turkey is on sale this week at Aldi, so you’ll notice that it’s on the grocery list and that the menu calls for sausage for breakfast. I didn’t think to make a note that the turkey is for making that sausage (we like making turkey sausage a lot more than buying pork sausage – so much less greasy, and no extra, potentially yucky ingredients!) Sausage is really easy to make using our breakfast sausage recipe.
6. The shopping list assumes you have some basics in your pantry, like salt and pepper, spices, and oil for sautéing.

That’s about it!

Click here to gain access