Weekly meal planning for the family can feel like such a daunting task! There are times I sit and stare at my mountain of cookbooks feeling just more than slightly overwhelmed at the idea of planning an entire weeks worth of meals!! But in the back of my mind I know that our budget (and waistlines!) will thank me for taking the time to plan before I shop for the week. There is nothing better than a home cooked meal and a family dinner to end the day! By being prepared I know that I'm feeding my kids the best food possible...and enjoying the very entertaining and somewhat random conversations at the dinner table from my very talkative 5 year old.
So my challenge to you this week is to get a meal plan in place and grocery shop for the entire weeks worth of meals! I plan my meals on Wednesdays and Thursdays and always do my weekly shopping on Fridays.
Here is a list of my weekly meals for next week to get you started and give you an idea of how I put together my menu.
Sunday: Herbed Chicken, Rice, Green Beans, Apple Sauce
Monday: Creamy Garlic Chicken over Pasta, Mixed Sauteed Veggies, Rolls
Tuesday: Savory Beef Tips, Egg Noodles, Peas, Cottage Cheese
Wednesday: Greek Chicken in the Crock Pot, Orzo, Mixed Veggies **Crock Pot Meal**
Thursday: Grilled BBQ Chicken and Shrimp, Fresh Green Beans, Pasta Salad
Friday: Lasagna Casserole, Garlic Bread, Peas, Cottage Cheese
Saturday: Tacos, Corn, Chips and Salsa.
Before I sit down to plan out my menu for the week, I do a couple of things. First I make a list of everything I have stockpiled, in the basement, pantry and freezer. If I have meats or things frozen that are needing to be used up I will find a recipe to use that particular item. For example, this week I need to use a package of frozen boneless chicken thighs. So I chose the Greek Chicken recipe to use that package up. Because it's a crock pot recipe I planned to cook that Wednesday which is our busy day with Play Group, Pre-School and Dance.
Another thing I do is pick up the store ads to look over them and see if there are any cuts of meat on sale for that week. I use this time to stock up on meat and incorporate that cut into my weekly meal. Last week Dillons had a great sale on boneless pork loin. I bought a 3 1/2 pound pork loin and was able to make 3 meals from it: BBQ pork sandwiches, pork taco cups, and bbq pork turnovers. I froze 2 of these meals to be able to pull them out on a busy night when I run out of time to cook. So my pork loin that I paid around $6 for works out to be around $2 per meal...a great deal to feed a family of 4! We'll get into all of that soon though, for now, go through your old cook books and recipes and start planning!
A fantastic website for downloading forms to use for menu planning and grocery shopping is www.moneysavingmom.com. Another website I enjoy using is www.saymmm.com.
Happy Planning!
Next Post: Making the Most of your menu planning: COUPONS!!!! Learning to clip coupons and stack them with sales can equal great savings and become a fun little game.
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