Weekly Meal Plan — What We’re Eating at the Longstreth House August 2–8, 2026
This week’s weekly meal plan for a family starts with my daddy’s famous crockpot chili — cornbread, shredded cheddar, and Fritos on top, with Toll House chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert — and runs all the way to Friday’s sheet pan quesadillas, with beef and broccoli stir fry on Monday, BBQ chicken legs and campfire potatoes on Tuesday, and creamy beefy shells on Thursday. Every one of these dinners fed our crowd of seven before I shared it, so I know they hold up. I post a new weekly meal plan for a family every Saturday morning, grocery list and all, so you can shop and plan the week ahead without the guesswork.
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Stephanie’s
13 Essential Kitchen Ingredients
A Baker’s Dozen 🥖
When you follow my weekly meal plans and grocery lists, I’m assuming you already have these 13 basics on hand. They show up in almost everything I cook and bake — keep them stocked and you’ll always be ready to make whatever’s on the menu.
Why This Weekly Meal Plan for a Family Works
Here’s what’s different about this weekly meal plan for a family. Every meal you see below is a meal my family actually ate before I shared it. If something didn’t work, I fix it. If a recipe needs a note, I add one. What you’re getting is a tested, real-world weekly meal plan for a family — not a template I filled in from a spreadsheet.
- Tested by a family of seven first. Five kids, two parents, two cats. If my crowd eats it, your crowd probably will too.
- A real grocery list, organized by store section. Meat, Produce, Dairy, Pantry, Frozen, Bread — the way you actually walk through the store, not the way recipes list ingredients.
- A per-meal breakdown for flexible weeks. Only want Tuesday’s dinner? Scroll to Tuesday’s card and grab just what you need. No math required.
- Every recipe links to a tested post right here on this site. No dead links, no mystery techniques — the full recipe with step-by-step instructions is one click away.
- A printable PDF for newsletter subscribers. I send the full plan plus the grocery list to my email list every Saturday morning so you can print it for the fridge or take it with you to the store.
This Week’s Weekly Meal Plan for a Family — August 2 to 8, 2026
Here’s exactly what we’re eating this week at the Longstreth house. Tap “Get the Recipe” on any night for the full post, or “See What You’ll Need” to jump straight to that meal’s grocery list below.
Saturday we usually order in, go out, or let the kids make pizza — five dinners at home is our rhythm. If your week needs a sixth, swap in any of my crowd-friendly recipes or let Saturday be the night off.
🛒 Full Weekly Grocery List — August 2 to 8, 2026
Here’s your full shopping list for the week, grouped the way you actually move through the store. I’m assuming you’ve already got my Baker’s Dozen on hand — flour, sugar, salt, pepper, eggs, butter, milk, oil, and the rest of the 13 essentials — so the list below is just the additional ingredients for this week’s five dinners plus Sunday’s dessert. Need the basics? Grab the Baker’s Dozen above.
🥩 Meat & Proteins
This week: 2 lbs ground beef for Sunday’s chili plus 1–2 lbs for Thursday’s shells, 1 lb top sirloin steak for Monday’s stir fry, 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts for Friday’s quesadillas (steak or ground beef work just as well), and 3–4 lbs chicken drumsticks for Tuesday.
🥦 Produce & Fresh
This week: broccoli, shredded carrots, and an onion for Monday’s stir fry; 4–5 large Russet potatoes and another onion for Tuesday’s campfire potatoes, plus corn on the cob; half an onion for Thursday’s shells and a bagged salad on the side; and a large onion for Friday’s quesadillas. Grab two green bell peppers — one for Monday and one for Friday.
🧀 Dairy & Refrigerated
This week: shredded cheddar for topping Sunday’s chili and filling Friday’s quesadillas; heavy cream, shredded mozzarella, and finely shredded Parmesan for Thursday’s shells; and sour cream and guacamole for serving alongside Friday.
🥫 Pantry
This week: chili seasoning, tomato sauce, Better Than Bouillon beef base, both light and dark red kidney beans, dried minced onion, chili powder, garlic powder, and the secret ingredient — ground cinnamon — for Sunday’s chili, plus cornbread mix and Fritos for serving and vanilla and semi-sweet chocolate chips for the cookie bars; soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, cornstarch, sesame oil, ground ginger, and white rice for Monday’s stir fry; onion powder, smoked paprika, and BBQ sauce for Tuesday’s chicken legs, with Mediterranean olive oil as an optional swap for the butter in the campfire potato packets; medium shells, Italian seasoning, and spaghetti sauce for Thursday; and sliced black olives, taco seasoning, salsa, and hot sauce for Friday’s quesadillas.
❄️ Frozen
This week: a box of frozen garlic bread for Thursday’s creamy beefy shells.
🍞 Bread
This week: 10 large burrito-size tortillas for Friday’s sheet pan quesadillas.
🍽️ Grocery List by Meal
Only cooking a few nights this week? Jump to any dinner below and grab just what that meal needs — each card is its own mini shopping list.
Meat
Dairy & Refrigerated
Pantry
Plus salt and pepper from your Baker’s Dozen for the chili, and butter, flour, both sugars, eggs, and baking powder for the cookie bars.
Monday — Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Get the Recipe →Meat
Produce
Pantry
Plus olive oil, brown sugar, and minced garlic from your Baker’s Dozen.
Tuesday — BBQ Chicken Legs + Campfire Potatoes
Chicken → Potatoes →Meat
Produce
Pantry
Plus olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper from your Baker’s Dozen. The Mediterranean olive oil above is optional — use it in place of the butter in the potato packets if you’d rather.
Thursday — Creamy Beefy Shells
Get the Recipe →Meat
Produce
Dairy & Refrigerated
Pantry
Frozen
Plus olive oil, salt, and pepper from your Baker’s Dozen.
Friday — Sheet Pan Quesadillas
Get the Recipe →Meat
Produce
Dairy & Refrigerated
Pantry
Bread
Plus avocado oil from your Baker’s Dozen. The chicken swaps out for steak or ground beef if that’s what you have — 2 pounds either way, cooked and cut into bite-size pieces.
Weekly Meal Plan for a Family FAQ — The Questions I Get Every Week
How do you plan this weekly meal plan for a family each week?
I plan each weekly meal plan for a family ahead based on what we’re genuinely craving, what’s on sale at Publix, what we already have in the pantry, and what will stretch into good leftovers for Wednesday. My family of seven eats these meals first. If something flops, I fix it before I share it with you. Every weekly meal plan you see here is tested before publication — never a list of recipes I haven’t made. For general guidance on building balanced meals around what your family already loves, the USDA’s MyPlate healthy eating for families guide is a helpful starting point.
Can I use this meal plan for a smaller family?
Absolutely. Every recipe post on this site includes a scalable recipe card — you can halve or quarter any recipe with one click in the servings field. For a family of four, I’d cut the quantities by about 40%. For two, halve everything. The grocery list amounts are for a crowd, so scale those to match your servings.
Where can I get a printable version of this weekly meal plan?
Right at the top of this page. The printable version of this weekly meal plan for a family — the full menu, the meal-by-meal shopping reference, and the complete grocery list on the back — opens the moment you drop your email in, no waiting and no second page. It’s formatted for the fridge and for your grocery run. Already on my list? Use that same email and it opens the same way. Every printable I’ve made is also gathered together at your Seat at the Table, and a fresh plan lands in your inbox every Saturday morning.
Do you include breakfast and lunch in the meal plan?
No — this weekly meal plan for a family covers dinner only, because dinner is where most families need the most help. We do breakfast casually (pancakes, eggs, oatmeal, cereal) and lunches are a mix of leftovers and easy builds. If there’s demand for a breakfast or lunch plan later, I’ll build one.
Can I swap out meals I don’t like?
Of course. This is your plan — use whatever’s useful and ignore the rest. Every recipe on the menu links to a full post with ingredients, so you can grab just what you need. The per-meal grocery cards above make swapping especially easy — pick the three or four nights that sound good, and shop only those.
Want a little note from my table every Saturday? Join my weekly newsletter — meal plans, recipes, family moments, and whatever’s happening at the Longstreth house. Sign up here.
About Stephanie Longstreth
Stephanie Longstreth is the home cook, mom, and storyteller behind StephanieCooksForACrowd.com. She cooks for a family of seven in Florida — five kids, two cats, and one husband who appreciates a good meal. Four of her children came home through adoption, and family stories are woven into everything she makes and shares. Find her crowd-friendly recipes, weekly meal plans, and real family life on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest @stephaniecooksforacrowd.