


Don’t feel like everything needs to be a formal recipe. I recommend starting the spreadsheet with 35-50 recipes and keep adding as you go. While not necessary, it can also be helpful to include the URL for the recipe as well as how many servings it creates. Copy and paste your recipe name for however many ingredients you have, and then fill in the ingredients and quantity for each on the corresponding lines. The first step is to create a running list of your favorite recipes in Tab #1, “Recipes (Add Recipes Here.)” The trick is that each ingredient needs to be listed individually for this to work.
Meal planning sheets download#
To get started, download my template here and either edit it in Excel or by re-uploading into Google Sheets (personally, I find pivot tables 100x easier in Google Sheets and highly recommend that option). You will find that a little investment up front makes your meal planning come together in a snap each week on average, it takes me about 10 minutes to write my shopping list. I played around with Google Sheets to create a meal planning system and I hope what I’ve created can be helpful to someone else. I’ve been known to use Google Sheets and pivot tables to plan everything – I may have created a wedding planning Google Sheet embarrassingly soon after getting engaged a few years ago. I knew ultimately that meal planning was such a silly thing to stress over, but I still felt it was important, so I sought out a solution to make it easier. However, when it comes to selecting recipes and planning the week, it always takes longer than it should. We understand that meal planning is a great idea – it can help you save money, make healthier food decisions and cuts down on food waste. In our real world, meal planning is a bit of a stressor. In my ideal and super-Instagrammable world, my husband and I would spend Sundays poring over beautiful cookbooks and food blogs to plan our week in meals.
