Menu Planning

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I have a love/hate relationship with menu planning.  I'm often a Fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of girl. Especially concerning cooking.  I cook what I FEEL like cooking most days.  Makes for difficult decisions on days I DON'T feel like cooking.  Know what I mean?  I've planned menu's several different ways....  monthly, weekly (possibly weakly? lol ), a list of 20 meals to pick from for a month, etc.  They all work as long as I stick to them.  

Menu planning is good for my budget.  Allows me to easily work with what I have in my freezer and pantry.  Let's me know ahead what I need from the grocery store, so as to avoid aimless wandering.  Gives more opportunity for family input on what we eat.  Just this morning we came to a compromise on soups... the little girls agreed if I made one of their favorites this week, they'd try to eat one of my favorites next week! On days I don't feel like cooking, I don't have to think.  I just have to cook.  :) 

One thing that has helped with menu planning in the past, is to assign certain nights to certain types of food.  Tuesday is always Soup Night.  A weekend night is often home made pizza.  Sunday's are most often a more formal meal.  I'm not a die-hard about switching things around a little, but it helps with ideas.

I'm ready to let menu planning simplify life again.  I thought I'd try posting my weekly menu's here through February and see how it goes.  I will be doing a week at a time so I can work off of grocery ads from the previous week.  I will only be planning dinners.  Breakfast depends on how much energy I wake up with... and lunch is often leftovers.  Here we go!!!

Menu February 1-7

Monday - Meatloaf, potato patties, green beans, fruit salad.

Tuesday - Cream of Potato soup, french bread, orange slices.

Wednesday - Chicken and Vegetable Stir-fry over rice, apple slices.

Thursday - French Bread pizza (using a loaf of hm french bread from Tuesday's menu)

Friday - Ham & Bean soup, Kentucky Biscuits, applesauce

Saturday - Leftovers from the week.

Sunday - Hawaiian Haystacks unless the family rebels and requires the usual Super Nacho's for Superbowl Sunday.  Possibly apple pie for dessert.

I may decide to make a list each week of after school treats and desserts to make.  We'll see how this week goes.

Comments

  1. DesFebruary 1, 2010 at 3:43 PM

    thanks for the inspiration. meal planning is my worst nightmare!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnnaFebruary 2, 2010 at 8:37 AM

    I'm a "planner" anyway so meal planning helps me out tons! Especially since I'm not very good @ just finding stuff & throwing it together to make something yummy. I'm a big fan of meal planning! Hey, maybe it should be an enrichment... sounds like Des would come!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joyfulmom8February 2, 2010 at 1:02 PM

    I'd come! :) I'd love to just see what other people eat. New ideas. I've been thumbing through the ward cookbook trying to find some inspiration for next weeks menu.

    ReplyDelete

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