CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Monday, November 15, 2010

Menu Planning

So I guess this part has been the easiest for me since I love lists.  List making might even be so much fun for me that it could be a downfall.  That's what my husband says at least.  Anyways, when you start meal planning, start with just one week.  Decide which day of the week you want to start with and go from there.  I like to grocery shop on Sunday.  So I normally meal plan on Friday or Saturday.  Below is a typical week.

Breakfast
Cereal, yogurt, eggs, bread, milk, OJ

Lunch
David takes frozen lunches to work, so I buy those at Wal-Mart because they are the cheapest there.  Under $2.50 for Healthy Choice lunches which is $10 a week for lunch since he has a lunch meeting every Monday.  Then I normally eat leftovers, sandwiches, soup, grilled cheese, or whatever I manage to make with a baby on my hip.

Dinner

Sunday - Mini Cheeseburgers, fries, and fruit

Monday - Spaghetti, rolls, fruit (I always have meat in my sauce)

Tuesday - Slow Cooker Fajitas

Wednesday - Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Thursday - Creamy Cheese Chicken, couscous, fruit

Friday - Frozen Pizza and veggie

Saturday - Whole Baked Chicken, rice, veggie

From the above list I then make my grocery list.  After the grocery list is done I look at what I have on hand and cross off anything I don't need if it's already in the house.

Oh, I do add in something for dessert as well, but not every night.  Sometimes I make cookies one night, or brownies.  Maybe a cake or smoothies.  This is normally on a whim and whatever is on sale.

Just a reminder, I love to cook, so I always try to have at least one new recipe a week.  This way things are always new in the kitchen and we never get bored with what we are eating.  I would like to eventually have about 90 recipes that we LOVE and I can rotate through, but we aren't even close to that number yet.

Hope this helped get you going on your meal planning.  I'll post a few recipes soon.

1 comment:

  1. I need easy, quick recipes. After a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is come home and slave in the kitchen. As you know, I am not that into cooking and need to ease into it. We are so bad about just going out because it's easy, but I deperately want to save money and cook at home. Where do you get your recipes from? Any suggestions where to find easy, quick and healthy ones? Love your blog and love your tips! I am taking your advice by starting slow. I've menu planned for 1 week and did my grocery shopping on Sunday. I started by purchasing primarily store brand items and using coupons. I am saving my receipts so that I can calculate at the end of the month what I've spent. I am focusing this month just on menu planning and using what we've purchased. Next month or so I will try and work on lowering the grocery costs by a little more and see what I can do.

    ReplyDelete