This April meal plan has a full month of ideas for easy, homemade family-friendly dinners. Includes a free printable PDF calendar with each day's menu idea for easy planning.
A few years ago, I started a new feature here on Family Food on the Table with my January meal plan and February meal plan followed by the March meal plan. Each one gives you an entire month's worth of recipe ideas for easy, healthy family dinners.
(And there are also the May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December meal plans.)
I myself love to menu plan and schedule out our meals. It does not feel like a chore at all, and I really do enjoy it. I think it's the type A scheduler in me coming out in full force.
If you're interested, I've got a whole post of my official guide to meal planning, with all my tips and tricks.
And previously, I've shared a list of 30 easy healthy family dinner ideas that could work for any month of the year.
But today, I'm trying to make it easy on YOU by giving you another full month's worth of ideas for healthy family dinner ideas.
This will carry you through the entire month of April.
I've included the photo of the meal plan here if you want to pin it, but there's a free printable PDF link at the bottom as well, so you can easily save and print.
So let's dive right in.
April Meal Plan Notes:
- Each day has its own recipe idea, complete with sides if needed to make a full meal. (Some things like tacos are more all-inclusive, though you could add sides if you like.)
- You can make easy swaps to suit your family's tastes. Use whatever vegetables are you favorite to steam, make mashed potatoes instead of baked potatoes, choose white or brown rice, etc. Customize to your heart's content.
- Saturdays are blank. This is intentional and meant to be reserved for either using up any leftovers from the week or ordering dinner in or going out to eat. Cause we all need a break!
- Of course, you can switch your "free" day around to Friday or Sunday or whatever works best for you.
The calendar and meal plan are ideas for prompts to get you started.
If you also need specific recipes, I've got some included below. You can also grab recipes from your own collection, your favorite cookbooks, or from Pinterest or Google.
(Many of the recipes below are from my site, but I've also included recipes from others.)
Oh, and I included these ideas in order from April 1 on the calendar to April 30, with the date listed too, which will hopefully make things easier to find throughout the month.
April Recipes:
2 - Slow cooker chicken pot pie
5 - Classic Southern deviled eggs and creamy mashed potatoes
7 - Turkey tacos (with easy homemade taco seasoning)
8 - Salmon and leeks
17 - Chicken fried rice
20 - Mediterranean chicken skillet
21 - Baked potato bar
22 - Baked pesto chicken
23 - Lemon garlic shrimp
OK then, hopefully are you all set now!
You can download and print the April calendar from that link, or save this page to come back to. Whatever is easy for you.
** April meal plan PDF **
I hope you have a wonderful - and delicious - month!
Kathryn
Jessica says
Thank you for updating these meal plans for the current year, they have been so helpful to me and my husband since January! It is so easy to be on the same page with each other, know how to budget meals for the month, and strategically shop! All of your recipes are as simple as they are delicious!! We appreciate you!
Kathryn Doherty says
Oh wow, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment - it made my day! And I'm so very happy to hear these meal plans have been so helpful! 🙂
Megan Murphy says
Thank you for this! For me, the most frustrating part of cooking is meal planning. This has made my life so much easier and has taken the burden off. I appreciate everything you do!
Kathryn Doherty says
Oh yay, I'm SO happy to hear that these meal plans are helpful and making meal time a tad easier, Megan! Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
AliciA says
Please continue this!! This is my first month trying it and it has already helped me tremendously!! As a new mom I’ve been trying to find ways to not feel overwhelmed and this has been a huge relief!
Kathryn Doherty says
Oh Alicia, I'm SO happy to hear that! It can be such an overwhelming time and I'm just thrilled I can help in some small way. I'll definitely keep them coming!
Shelly says
I’m trying to make more meatless meals. I’m going to give you Greek grain bowls a try!
Kathryn Doherty says
They are one of my favorites! I hope you love them! (Also, I have a couple of vegetarian curry recipes as well that are really popular for another meatless meal idea.)