Meal planning and preparation is an area of my life that I can always improve in. By the time we get home from work and school and get settled in for the evening it is close to 5:00pm. If I don't have a plan in place for our meal that night then we usually end up hitting a drive-through, ordering a pizza or even head over to Outback for curbside takeaway... and that is expensive!
I'm pretty good at planning our meals a week at a time. Then there are those weeks that I'm too busy or forget to plan and it's on those weeks our budget falls apart...this happens more often than I'd like to admit.
On the good weeks I follow the plan and even do some preparation for the next nights meal while I'm in the kitchen. It works great on these weeks and I hope planning a month in advance will make every week go that well.
It usually takes me approximately an hour to plan a weeks worth of meals.
It took me an hour and a half to plan a months worth of meals. This fact alone is a great reason for me to do this every single month!
When you look at our menu plan you'll see that we eat regular food at our house...nothing fancy or complicated. I like the idea of having this meal calendar on our refrigerator at home so everyone knows what is on the menu every day.
I use a few resources when I'm planning meals...
What's For Dinner (a nice blog I just found)
The Grocery Cart Challenge
RecipeZaar (my favorite recipe site)
Woman's Day Month of Menus
I also subscribe to Taste of Home Magazine and get a lot of great ideas from there.
Next order of business is how to get our paper under control. The photo below is Kyler "playing with the Moon" as he calls it...he loves to get on Google Earth and play around. The not so great part of the photo is the basket of paper mess. Another area of improvement for sure!
I'd love to hear your meal planning tips and tricks...please share!
Jackie
You always teach me something big sister! Maybe I should start doing this for Ken and I.....
ReplyDeleteI used to plan meals for a month also...it made that part of the day so less stressful! I really don't know why I stopped...but now that you posted this I am going to hit the cookbooks and the sites you mentioned and start all over again!
ReplyDeleteI thank you, and my family thanks you!
Jackie, your menu plan looks most excellent! I'm a sorta fly by the seat of my pants gal when it comes to menu planning. We almost never eat out, or pick up something quick to eat. I do cook somewhat in bulk though, so if you're at my house, be prepared for leftovers :) Now I'm focusing on more fruits and veggies, healthier proteins, and gonna cut out the baking goodies (big whine on that one!). So far, so good on all the above. Thanks for sharing your tips. I do know I could work on being a better menu planner! -Tammy
ReplyDeleteOhhhhhhhh loooooook here!!!!!!!! Lovely new blog look! Lovely header pic. Simple set up. Oh I love it!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd Congratulations on your month of menus! You rock!
One of my daughters in law does the posting of meals [for the week] in kitchen too. Then, who ever gets home first, can start. :-)
That's awesome--a whole month planned out! I love recipezaar.com too. I also use Better Homes and Gardens magazine and Everyday Foods magazine for really good, useable recipes.
ReplyDeletewhat a great idea to plan a month's meals.
ReplyDeletewhen i homeschooled and had all five still
at home, i used to do that, too. it actually
gets easier the more you do it....and faster.
and i am also just a plain old cook, nothing
fancy at my house.
i enjoyed your blog, especially the moon.
won't mention the paper, because it is all
over my house too!
What a fantastic idea. I've been doing a weekly meal planner for most weeks this year, I might try a monthly one, too!
ReplyDeleteI love this website for recipe ideas...
http://www.taste.com.au/
What a great idea. And reminds me that I need to plan something for dinner tonight.
ReplyDeleteJackie - You are my HERO!!! All kidding aside, the last few weeks I have really considered planning my meals. I work full-time and work 30 minutes from home so it is nearly 5:45 before I walk thru the door. Then with ballgames, homework, church, well, you know ho it goes. I thought I would be doing good to plan a WEEK at a time. A month is EXTREME IN A GREAT WAY! I'd love some detail about how you actually "plan." Do you grocery shop once a week or once a month? What is the key to truly STICKING TO THE MEAL PLAN. We too eat pretty plan food, nothing fancy. My sister said she used to plan her meals a week at a time and LOVED IT, but got away from it and is wanting to get back. Any details you can share would be GREATLY appreciated! Oh, and the homemade soap and fabric softener, you would SERIOUSLY LOVE IT!!! I just gave a friend of mine a gallon over the weekend to try and yesterday she e-mailed me for the recipe. She's hooked, and so am I :)!!! I am making 5 gallon tomorrow night for my sister. Wish you were close enough . . . I'd bring you a gallon to try :)!
ReplyDeleteI think you are amazing! I'm just too hap hazard to plan - I think by the day and hope I have something in the pantry. Maybe one day I'll become a planner.
ReplyDeleteThat would be extreme for me too but what a great idea! There is nothing worse than trying to decide what to cook when you're tired and hungry. The easy way out always wins, I've been there often myself, so I know how you feel.
ReplyDeleteSo are you going to provide us with recipes for some of these delicious sounding meals? You can just give me mine when I come for dinner, I'll be there the 9,10,12, 18 and 19th for sure. I'd really like to know what woodcrest is. Is that a meal or a restaurant?
As for paper, I can not believe how fast it grows. I have a basket just like yours sitting on top of our filing cabinet. When I open the mail, it's either a keeper and goes in the basket for filing, or its recycling which goes straight to the blue box or something urgent which stays on the counter but it must be urgent and can't stay there past the weekend. As long as I file regularly, all is good. : )
Great post, and I love your header photo; tulips are my favourite!
~Andrea~
Good Morning Jackie! I'm like Tammy, a fly by the seat of my pants gal for cooking dinner. We don't eat dinner out hardly ever and we love our leftovers. We do eat lunch out here and there and doggy bags from lunch usually become a dinner meal. Your meal planning is impressive and I tried it way back but it overwhelmed me!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea, planning for an entire month! It always helps me to plan a week at a time, I might take the plunge and copy you!
ReplyDeleteI can relate so much to what you say ... if I plan and shop accordingly, I'm OK. But if I don't, it falls apart really quickly. So you are planning for a month but not cooking ahead of time right? I know some people do that ... devote a whole weekend to cooking a month's worth of meals and then freezing them and eating them for the rest of the month. Thanks for the resources too ... they look helpful.
ReplyDeleteWe just enrolled with emealz.com. They offer weekly meal plans, complete with recipes and shopping lists. You can choose a specific diet plan (low-carb, points, family, cooking for two, etc.) and they provide the plan for each week. We love it. And the recipes rock!
ReplyDelete