Meal Planning is easily one of the best ways for us mamas to feel like we've got our life together. When you've made your meal plan, there is less of a chance you'll be scrambling to throw something together at the last minute, eating cereal, or heading to the drive thru. Here's a crazy simply way to make your Weekly Meal plan on autopilot using Themed Dinner Nights!

What exactly is Themed Dinner Nights?

Themed Dinner Nights do not have to be reserved for parties or special situations! And they are basically what it says - each night of the week there's a different theme for dinners.

For example, you may choose a certain type of meal, like Italian or Mexican, for a certain night of the week. That way when you are meal planning, you can quickly make decisions about what you are going to meal plan based on what that night's dinner is.

You could also choose a theme based on how you are going to cook that night. Maybe certain days of your week an easy crockpot dump style dinner is going to make your evenings run smoother. Or maybe you reserve every Sunday for BBQ. 

And of course, you can mix and match your themed dinner nights with these two methods - it's what we do! 

What are some examples of Themed Dinner Nights?

Oh my... I think there could be a massive amount of themes, but here are a few that come to mind that we use:

• Burrito Bowls - any kind of meat & toppings of choice
• Breakfast for Dinner - one of our faves!
• Pasta Night 
• Soup Night
• Sandwich Night
• Wrap Night
• Meatless Monday (or any other night)
• DIY Nachos - build your own plate
• DIY Restaurant Night - try to recreate your favorite Restaurant Foods
• Movie Theatre Night - aka popcorn for dinner with fun toppings (I Looooove Popcorn!)
• Pizza Night - we do homemade and sometimes out for this
• Snackitizer (I'm not fancy - this is how we say charcuterie ;) )
• Try a New Recipe Night - pick something you've never tried before!
• Big Salads
• Casseroles
• BBQ
• Crockpot
• FFA - Free For All aka fend for yourself (and please eat all the leftovers!)
• Out - yes, you can Meal Plan and plan to not cook! 

Now that you have a slew of ideas for your Themed Dinner Nights, it's time to move on to the next step. And that my friend, is choosing what themes you are going to pick for what night. But, there are a couple things to ponder when choosing your themes:

 - How much time do you have each and every night - is it the same each night, or are some of your nights crazy and hectic?  

When you are going through your Weekly Meal Plan and Adding those themes, you'll want to make sure that you are NOT planning a cooking intensive meal on a night that you generally have 15 minutes to get food on the table. 

- The other thing you should really consider doing this is your budget.  If you shouldn't be spending money on eating out during this season of life, definitely don't plan a meal that you have to go get at the drive- thru! Try the DIY Restaurant night instead! 

Making a Weekly Meal Plan using Themed Dinner Nights will help make meal planning uber-easy, but the last thing you want it to do is drive your grocery bill through the roof! You can still have great food without spending a ton, yet still saving you time in the evenings. 

If you keep in mind your time and your budget - both of those things will help keep you sane when meal planning! 

Friend, it's time for you to get to planning out your Themed Dinner Nights! Once you have all of those themes in place, making your weekly meal plan really will be crazy easy! Meal Planning is a must for all us busy mamas, but we don't need it to take a bunch of time, or brain power to get it done. Try this method to make meal planning simple and quick!