Weekly Meal Planner — Google Sheets Template

What’s in this template

This Google Sheets template has two tabs:

Tab 1: Weekly Meal Plan

A grid with days (Monday–Sunday) as rows and meal types (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks) as columns. Each cell is wide enough to type a full meal description plus ingredients. At the bottom of each day, an optional Totals row auto-calculates calories and protein if you enter nutritional data.

Tab 2: Auto-Generated Grocery List

This tab reads your meal entries from Tab 1 and extracts ingredients into categories: Produce, Dairy, Protein, Pantry, Frozen, and Household. The formula splits ingredients from the pipe format (Meal Name | ingredient1, ingredient2) and groups them automatically.

It’s not magic — you’ll need to add quantities and clean up duplicates (if Monday and Wednesday both need “broccoli,” it’ll appear twice). But it eliminates the step of manually transferring every ingredient to a separate list.

Key features and formulas

Auto-grocery extraction: Cell formulas in Tab 2 use SPLIT and FILTER functions to parse meal entries. If you type Sheet Pan Salmon | salmon fillets, asparagus, olive oil, lemon in a Dinner cell, the Grocery tab will list “salmon fillets,” “asparagus,” “olive oil,” and “lemon” in their respective sections.

Color-coded cooking assignments: Right-click any cell → Format → Fill color. Use green for “you cook,” blue for “partner cooks,” yellow for “eating out.” This visual system makes it clear at a glance who’s responsible for each meal.

Week archiving: At the end of each week, right-click the “Week Plan” tab → Duplicate. Rename it “Week 1,” “Week 2,” etc. Start fresh on the original tab. Over time, you build a library of weekly plans you can rotate through.

How to customize

Adding a “Prep Notes” column: Right-click column F → Insert 1 right → Label it “Prep Notes.” Use this for reminders like “thaw chicken Tue AM” or “prep overnight oats Sunday night.”

Adjusting for dietary needs: Add a column for dietary flags (V = vegetarian, GF = gluten-free, DF = dairy-free) to quickly scan the week for allergen compatibility.

Sharing with a household: Click the blue “Share” button in the top right corner. Add family members by email. Set permissions to “Editor” so everyone can add their meal preferences. Use the “Comments” feature (right-click → Comment) to discuss meal ideas without editing the plan directly.