I know some bloggers who post their weekly meal plans, and I'm not sure I can commit to that. But I do know we desperately need to get back to consistent meal planning around here.
Remember my One Small Change that wasn't so small for May? I boldly said we'd not eat out for 4 weeks. Well, we're not doing so good on it. We've eaten out or had take-out, not one by four times this month. Three of those were surrounding the half marathon chaos. Not good. After a failure with April's One Small Change, well, let's just say I've got to get it together!
To break the cycle, we menu-planned, grocery-shopped, hit-the-farmer's-market and put-it-all-in-writing. Menu-planning seems to come naturally for some, but for some of us, it can be overwhelming. Others suffer from a loss of inspiration in your menu. These are some of the things we did to help us in both our planning and inspiration.
Each week before meal planning or grocery shopping, I check the coupon match ups for our local grocery store. I'd love to get to a point where all my food was sourced locally, but we still use the grocery store for some weekly staples. Coupons help me buy organic and natural items for half the cost or less. It doesn't compare to the savings of some popular couponers who will buy anything if it's cheap or free, but it does help stretch my grocery budget allowing me to spend more on high quality, local, organic foods. I also love to watch some of the natural deal blogs for great prices at amazon.com or other places. I occasionally find a great deal on something we regularly purchase and can stock up.
Armed with my list of coupon purchases for the week, I take a look at what I have in the house. The easiest way to do this has been using fridge and freezer inventories along with a somewhat organized pantry. We keep the inventory sheets on the fridge so we can regularly reference and check things off as we use them. We have a sheet for the downstairs freezer, the upstairs freezer, and the refrigerator.
With an idea of what I'm buying because it's a great deal this week and an idea of what I already have in the house, I write down a few ideas off the top of my head for meals. Then I hit up my favorite resources for recipes. I have a recipe binder where I throw recipes I find in magazines or have printed and used previously. That's usually where I check first. After that, I might pick one cookbook to reference for the week. I love my Holistic Moms Network cookbooks. I'll also check some of my favorite blogs including Frugal Granola, Kitchen Stewardship, and Passionate Homemaking for recipes. I find I get overwhelmed when every recipe for the week comes from a different resource so I try to stick to one or two each week.
Even with limiting myself to one resource, I can feel a little lost at this point in the process. To help with this, we decided to give each night it's own category. We planned the days around our schedule. Wednesdays are crazy so they are a great day to have a meal ready in the slow cooker. On Sundays, we go to the farmer's market and pick up a fresh chicken and seasonal vegetables so why not cook some of it? Many of our meals may be vegetarian whether grilling or pasta but we set Mondays as the day we always plan to eat meatless. In general, at least two to three other days will be meatless as well but we are flexible in which ones.
To finish it all off, we write it on our menu planning board on the wall so the whole family knows the plan. If I'm stuck at the kids' school late, hubby can take over. If we need to do some switching around it's clear to everyone what the plan was and the options for rearranging.
Without further ado, here is our menu plan for this week including our daily categories. We aimed for simple as we get back to good routines.
Chicken Roast Sunday: Chicken Roast and Asparagus with Quinoa Salad
Meatless Monday: Quinoa Corn Chowder
Grilling Tuesday: Steaks and Grilled Zucchini with a grain if we decide to add one.
Slowcooker Wednesday: Chicken Noodle Soup made with leftover chicken from Sunday Roast
Pasta Thursday: Lemon Garlic White Bean Pasta
Friday Pizza: Whatever veggies are left in the house!
Open-Fire Saturday or Misc.: Nitrite-free hot dogs from Farmer's Market cooked on an open fire with fruit and salad.
I also add to the list a few snack or breakfast items I'll be cooking to keep us stocked as we try to avoid relying on processed things. This week, I'll be making granola, maple chocolate chip cookies, and crackers.
Do you menu plan? What works for you? What doesn't?
Here are some great meal-planning resources:
SimpleMom's A Basic Guide to Menu Planning
FrugalGranola's Quick Meal-Planning 101
KitchenStewardship's Eat Well, Spend Less: Top 40 Frugal Meals
Remember my One Small Change that wasn't so small for May? I boldly said we'd not eat out for 4 weeks. Well, we're not doing so good on it. We've eaten out or had take-out, not one by four times this month. Three of those were surrounding the half marathon chaos. Not good. After a failure with April's One Small Change, well, let's just say I've got to get it together!
To break the cycle, we menu-planned, grocery-shopped, hit-the-farmer's-market and put-it-all-in-writing. Menu-planning seems to come naturally for some, but for some of us, it can be overwhelming. Others suffer from a loss of inspiration in your menu. These are some of the things we did to help us in both our planning and inspiration.
 |
| Our Menu Plan Board |
Each week before meal planning or grocery shopping, I check the coupon match ups for our local grocery store. I'd love to get to a point where all my food was sourced locally, but we still use the grocery store for some weekly staples. Coupons help me buy organic and natural items for half the cost or less. It doesn't compare to the savings of some popular couponers who will buy anything if it's cheap or free, but it does help stretch my grocery budget allowing me to spend more on high quality, local, organic foods. I also love to watch some of the natural deal blogs for great prices at amazon.com or other places. I occasionally find a great deal on something we regularly purchase and can stock up.
 |
| Inventories are kept on the fridge for easy access |
Armed with my list of coupon purchases for the week, I take a look at what I have in the house. The easiest way to do this has been using fridge and freezer inventories along with a somewhat organized pantry. We keep the inventory sheets on the fridge so we can regularly reference and check things off as we use them. We have a sheet for the downstairs freezer, the upstairs freezer, and the refrigerator.
 |
| Inventory from Organized Home |
With an idea of what I'm buying because it's a great deal this week and an idea of what I already have in the house, I write down a few ideas off the top of my head for meals. Then I hit up my favorite resources for recipes. I have a recipe binder where I throw recipes I find in magazines or have printed and used previously. That's usually where I check first. After that, I might pick one cookbook to reference for the week. I love my Holistic Moms Network cookbooks. I'll also check some of my favorite blogs including Frugal Granola, Kitchen Stewardship, and Passionate Homemaking for recipes. I find I get overwhelmed when every recipe for the week comes from a different resource so I try to stick to one or two each week.
 |
| A semi-organized pantry helps us know what we have on hand |
Even with limiting myself to one resource, I can feel a little lost at this point in the process. To help with this, we decided to give each night it's own category. We planned the days around our schedule. Wednesdays are crazy so they are a great day to have a meal ready in the slow cooker. On Sundays, we go to the farmer's market and pick up a fresh chicken and seasonal vegetables so why not cook some of it? Many of our meals may be vegetarian whether grilling or pasta but we set Mondays as the day we always plan to eat meatless. In general, at least two to three other days will be meatless as well but we are flexible in which ones.
 |
| The menu plan hangs for all to see. |
To finish it all off, we write it on our menu planning board on the wall so the whole family knows the plan. If I'm stuck at the kids' school late, hubby can take over. If we need to do some switching around it's clear to everyone what the plan was and the options for rearranging.
Without further ado, here is our menu plan for this week including our daily categories. We aimed for simple as we get back to good routines.
Chicken Roast Sunday: Chicken Roast and Asparagus with Quinoa Salad
Meatless Monday: Quinoa Corn Chowder
Grilling Tuesday: Steaks and Grilled Zucchini with a grain if we decide to add one.
Slowcooker Wednesday: Chicken Noodle Soup made with leftover chicken from Sunday Roast
Pasta Thursday: Lemon Garlic White Bean Pasta
Friday Pizza: Whatever veggies are left in the house!
Open-Fire Saturday or Misc.: Nitrite-free hot dogs from Farmer's Market cooked on an open fire with fruit and salad.
I also add to the list a few snack or breakfast items I'll be cooking to keep us stocked as we try to avoid relying on processed things. This week, I'll be making granola, maple chocolate chip cookies, and crackers.
Do you menu plan? What works for you? What doesn't?
Here are some great meal-planning resources:
SimpleMom's A Basic Guide to Menu Planning
FrugalGranola's Quick Meal-Planning 101
KitchenStewardship's Eat Well, Spend Less: Top 40 Frugal Meals
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