Meal Planning

I'm still slowly giving my planner an update and thought I would share my weekly menus and my dinner menu planning system. I used this several years ago and am not sure why I stopped, but am now using it again. It takes the headache out of making my grocery list every week.

I admit that I'm not a morning person and that most mornings cold cereal or toast made by 6yo is all that's on the menu. But I am doing better and actually make breakfast a few days a week--a very simple breakfast, but I'm proud even of that! All these breakfasts include fruit if we have it and milk.

M--Eggs and toast
T--Oatmeal
W--Waffles, pancakes, or french toast
Th-Cereal
F--Toast, cinnamon toast, or cheese toast
S--Muffins, biscuits and chocolate gravy (my husband's favorite), or sausage biscuits
Su-Cereal

I enjoy big breakfasts, but when we do have them, they're for supper ;-)

For lunch we eat leftovers if we have them, however, leftovers are becoming more and more rare around here! If we don't have any, we follow this menu which includes veggies if we have them and juice.

M--PB&J (this one is with milk of course!)
T--Mac and cheese or Mac and Mae (macaroni and tomato sauce--shredded cheese optional. My kids LOVE this!)
W--Sandwiches or wraps (tuna, chicken or egg salad, deli meat, cheese)
Th-Baked potato or salad
F--Mexican--quesadillas, burritos, nachos, etc (our favorite lunch day!)
Sa-Whatever we can find!
Su-eat out


For making my dinner menu for the week, I start by looking at the week's menu at www.menus4moms.com to see if there are any new recipes I want to try. I also like to try a new recipe from my Food and Family magazine, or just any new recipe I came across. Then I fill in the blanks with my meal list.

I made a list of 31 meals our family likes, which gives us a different meal for each day of the month. For instance, this week I had to plan meals for the 17-19 of March, so I looked at the list of meals and chose meals 17, 18, and 19. I didn't have to think about it or search the internet for half an hour for meal ideas. They were there and I already knew we liked them and they would fit into our budget.

On this same note, I read a really good ebook about meal planning the other night and it was free. If you sign up for the A Minute With Molly email newsletter, you can download her Menu Planning ebook for free. Sign up at Econobusters. In is she shares a similar menu planning systers, free forms to help you, tips for saving money, and some really awesome recipes!