This January 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 a full month of meal plans. There's this January meal plan, plus my February meal plan followed by March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December, each one giving you an entire month’s worth of recipe ideas for easy, healthy family dinners.
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 January. And it's been completely updated for 2025.
(Fun fact, I've kept the link to the previous 2024 January meal plan at the bottom of the post as well, in case you want to reference that for even more ideas.)
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.
January 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 your 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!
Speaking of, you can totally use some cheater substitutions.
Pick up pre-made meatloaf, seasoned pork chops or frozen burgers instead of making those from scratch yourself.
Same for mac and cheese. I love my stovetop mac and cheese and it’s ready in about 15 minutes. But I won’t tell if you make yours from a box. No judging here.
It’s all about what works for you.
Also, 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 January 1 on the calendar to January 31, with the date listed too, which will hopefully make things easier to find throughout the month.
OK, let’s get to it.
January Recipes:
1 - One pot hoppin' John and quick Southern collards
2 - Sausage stuffed butternut squash with spinach
6 - Healthy slow cooker chicken chili
7 - Baked shredded chicken tacos
8 - Italian chicken skillet with pesto
10 - Potato leek soup
12 - King Ranch chicken casserole
13 - Slow cooker vegetarian curry
14 - Sheet pan chicken fajitas
15 - Mediterranean salmon
16 - Easy healthy chicken pot pie
17 - Breakfast tacos
19 - Instant Pot pork tenderloin
20 - Easy moo shu chicken
21 - Taco pasta
22 - Sheet pan chicken and broccoli with peppers
23 - Healthy white turkey chili
24 - BBQ turkey burgers
26 - Healthy beef stew
27 - Italian ground turkey skillet
28 - Chicken enchiladas
29 - Honey garlic shrimp
31 - One pot creamy chicken and mushroom pasta
OK then, hopefully are you all set now!
Here’s to a wonderful - and delicious - start to the new year!
**January meal plan PDF**
You can download and print the January calendar from that link, or save this page to come back to. Whatever is easy for you.
And as promised, here's the 2024 January meal plan PDF link if you want to check that one out as well for more dinner ideas.
Happy cooking!
XO,
Kathryn
Stacey Crump
Do you have this years monthly meal plans since this is 2023
Kathryn Doherty
Hi Stacey! I did these monthly year plans for a full year, ending January 2022. You can find them all here: https://www.familyfoodonthetable.com/?s=meal+plan
I also have 30 days of dinner prompts here: https://www.familyfoodonthetable.com/30-easy-healthy-family-dinner-ideas/ as well as a collection of easy weeknight dinners that might be helpful in planning: https://www.familyfoodonthetable.com/easy-weeknight-dinners-ideas-recipes/
Thanks for commenting and if I hear from enough people, maybe I'll bring back these monthly meal plans! 😊
mary
Thank you! Love the meal planning such a help!
Kathryn Doherty
I'm so happy to hear that! Happy New Year!
Megan
New here and really helpful! This might be a duplicate question but how do you shop? Once a week? Do you plan your week by using similar ingredients throughout the recipes within that week?
Kathryn Doherty
Hey Megan! Yes, I grocery shop once a week. I make my grocery list from my dinner menu plan and generally don't have a lot of extra (I hate wasting food!) If there is extra, I use it on the Saturday blank day or for lunches during the week. (Also, I mark my calendar and adjust if I know we are traveling or having dinner with friends or family one night - or need a slow cooker meal on soccer practice night, for example.) I hope that helps!