Meal Planning - Jackson,MI

http://orgjunkie.com/menu-plan-monday-guidelines/menu-pla...

I think the Menu Planning Helpers are what you want. I also love http://www.5dollardinners.com/

Personally I get the grocery ads on Tuesday and paid every other Wednesday. So every other Tuesday night I check and see what we have, check the calendar to see wha we have going on the next two weeks, and then set down with the ads and make my lists...

I don't know if this will help you or not, but this is what I do. I cook only on Mon, Tues and Wed. Enough for a little left overs each day. Then we eat those leftovers on Thurs so I don't cook at all. Friday is always pizza and salad for family movie night. We have our kids every other weekend so if its a kid weekend, we just wing it depending on what we are doing. We will try to eat out for either lunch or dinner on Sat, usually lunch and I will make something easy like burgers, hot dogs or pasta on Sat for dinner. Sunday I don't cook at all. We usually eat lunch out after church and have something easy like soup/salad/sandwich for dinner. So I limit my "big" dinners to only Mon-Wed. It really helps. Good luck!

I love meal planning! For dinner I use 3 books - Betty Crocker, 1001 Meals w/ 6 Ingredients or Less, and Crockpot recipes.

I make sure I make 1 beef, 1 pork, 1 chicken, 2 fish, 1 salad, and 1 leftover/junk food each night.

I rotate the order each week (Week #1 - Sun- beef, Mon- fish, Tue-pork, Wed - chicken, Thu fish, Fri salad, Sat leftovers. Week 2 - Sun fish, Mon chicken, Tue salad, Wed beef, Thu pork, Fri leftovers, Sat fish. Week 3...etc).

Usually on Sundays I sit down w/my 3 cookbooks and pick the 1st recipe I haven't tried according to the day I'm on. I mark the page and write down the date next to it and write my grocery list out as I chose recipes. The dates also remind me what I've already tried previously so when I'm sitting down w/the cookbooks next week I know what recipes not to do that week. I also put a smiley face/frowny face or notes to let me know what to do different or make it better or if my family absolutely hated it.

I never tear out recipes from magazines if I can help it. Having 3 cookbooks has saved me alot of time. I have other cookbooks which I pull out on occassion but during busy season, this is my system.

hth!

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I used to make a list of all the meals for the next week on Saturdays along with a grocery list to make it all. Go to the grocery store on Sunday for the whole week. Sticking to your plan and list will keep you organized and stay in your budget. I would keep the menu on the fridge so I would know what I had planned. I also kept a list of snacks so no one would eat an important ingredient for a dinner LOL! Worked for me! All the best to you...three isn't a whole lot different than two, you have gotten past the big shocker of 1 to 2.

I was obsessive for a while, but I'm also terribly lazy. (I work days and then have a 6 hour "shift" as SAHM while my husband works--it stinks!)

I try to only do one major grocery trip per pay period. We start out our list and write out the meals we want right on the side of the list. I type my grocery lists and organize them by department around the store to make the trip more efficient (I also identify what items I have a coupon for or need multiples of). I make columns, label my departments, and then write out dinners by day. Once I've got my list and my meal ideas I cross-check them, so if I have some bigger items that are not part of one of the meals and are not a regularly needed food I take them off. If I realize something one of the meals needs isn't on the list, I add it. I try to combine big things, like two hamburger-based meals, so I can buy the club pack (which I inevitably forget to separate and freeze).

On the nights my husband works I unfortunately end up making grilled cheese or something really bland for me and the kids. They have simpler tastes and I rarely care what I eat. :)

hi there,
my sister always has this problem, i told her to plan a menu for the week even if its somewhat vague like pasta dish 1-2 times week, salad one day pizza friday you know. at least if you know what type of food your having on the day then you can go with it.. like my vague plan is: hamburger/meat dish monday, mexicandish, wed spagetti day, thurs salad or lite dish, friday pizza, sat who knows in case you go out, sunday wholesome sunday dinner like a pot roast..... i hope this helps but stick with a template for the week and then you can at least know where to start! :)

Updated

ps i forgot to say that if you know which days your having what then when you go to the grocery if you have aplan for the week or even 2 weeks you can know what to buy but its just like dieting, if your on a diet you have to prep everything to keep you on track. so we make a list of what dinners were eating and then buy accordingly.. :P

This is less ambitious than many others, but I do my meal planning in one-week compartments. I've tried planning for an entire month at a time, and it doesn't work well for my family or myself. I have a dry erase board that I bought at Target that has three columns: lunch, dinner, and notes. I only sometimes keep track of lunches (but this is very useful for letting my husband know when I'll be gone/out for lunch or if we do have specific plans), use the notes column to keep track of things that will impact meal planning (e.g. am I preparing a meal for someone else that day? do we have to be somewhere at 5:30 pm? do we need to cook for a potluck or party?), and then plan my dinners. In an ideal world, I make sure I include 1-2 meatless entrees, 1 fish, and then I try to accomodate at least one reasonable request from each family member. I then make a shopping list based on the list (plus making sure we have breakfast,lunch, and snacks) and go to the store once per week.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, and with baby #3!

I keep an inventory of my pantry, fridge, and freezers. I have a little magnetic shopping list on the side of my fridge, and a weekly menu posted on the fridge. (This helps in that I don't have to answer questions or think, and also when I'm up in the morning getting breakfast ready, I can see "Oh, I need to defrost the fish" or whatever instead of waiting until I remember it). There are some things that are on a "running list", that I will buy every week because they are always being used and I always want them in my inventory (milk, tomatoes, etc).
Get out your calendar or dayplanner so you can see at a glance what each day is like. We have days that are ridiculously busy (today: 2 back to back exercise classes starting in 40 minutes, then oldest to preschool a little late, story time with youngest, LOTS of chores to finish up before weekend, clean out/wash car, donate stuff that's been outgrown, lunch/nap with youngest-that's when I'll cook, oldest goes to kung fu for an hour, then we go to an indoor playground to get some energy out AND see the pet fair they're having tonight because we're searching for a new family dog, then the evening stuff begins). On days like this, you need either leftovers or something super easy (crockpot?). I have leftover bbq pulled pork in the fridge from when we had bbq sandwiches, baked beans, and home fries. Tonight I'll serve baked potatoes stuffed with the bbq, cheese, green onions, and a little sour cream, served with steamed broccoli. The easiest thing possible (bake some potatoes, steam some broccoli, give them the condiments, the end!). On the days that aren't crazy, you can have more involved meals.
Write the days of the week, then leave space for all 3 meals and a snack if you do snacks. Breakfasts are easy for us: I'll rotate cereal/banana and yogurt over granola on weekdays. Saturdays is oatmeal, Sundays we'll have something different (pancakes; eggs, bacon, biscuits; french toast and fruit, whatever). Lunches: Pasta salads, sandwiches, leftovers. Dinners: I rotate this around so that I'll have chicken, then beef, then vegetarian, then pork, then fish. Leftovers 1-2 nights/week. If there's leftovers, but not enough for a 2nd meal for all 4 of us, that's a lunch for husband, unless it's my favorite meal of the moment. (It's usually a small lunch sized portion left over, OR enough for everyone to have another dinner).
Try to come up with meals using what you already have in your house. Then on your shopping list, write what ingredients you don't have for that meal (need more butter, or an onion, or whatever). Then see what's in the sale ads and finish up the menu or even just have it in stock for another week (meats can be divided and frozen, etc).

This month I tried monthly meal planning. I sat down with my calendar and wrote what meal we would have each day of the entire month. Then I went through my freezer and pantry to see what ingredients I already had for those meals. Then I made a list of all food I would need to complete those meals and headed to the store. It took 2 grocery carts to get it all but my family of 7 will now be fed the whole month and I will only have to go to the grocery store to get milk and eggs as needed. Oh yeah, I only spent $340. I am saving so much by doing a monthly menu with one shopping trip rather than numerous shopping trips throughout the month. Each of our planned dinners has a meat in it and I cook a lot from scratch, it is nice to come home in the evening and look at the calendar and know exactly what needs to be made, no more standing in front of the pantry racking my brain for dinner ideas.

I rotate a three week menu. First you make a menu (Meatloaf, mash potatoes, corn and a salad) Then you simply make a grocery list from that meal (ground beef, seasonings, potatoes, corn and salad stuff). Make a few weeks (either a five day or 7 day if you cook dinner on the weekends too), like week one, two and three. You then have three dinner menus and three grocery lists that fit to the different menu. Just put out your menu and then print out the list for that week and you won't miss anything that you will need for that weeks menu. Then of course you can add whatever else you will need like soap, cleaning or paper products. I also list things out in the same order that I will be shopping in my store. Dairy first, then frozen, dry items, cans....... It's all in the order that I travel through the store. I stole the idea from ez mealz. I tried it out for a few months but we really didn't like having so many different meals all the time. We prefer out favorites :) It's kind of a pain to set up and you have lots of paper work before having every thing copied on your computer but once it's in place it's really great.
C.

R.,

I plan one week in advance and use Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner series cook books. You said you don't need any new recipes, but what I like about her cook books is she has a shopping list at the beginning of each "week", as well as suggested sides to go with the main meal.

I double the recipes every night so we have leftovers for lunch the next day. And I include a salad and fruit along with the serving suggestion.

By building the menu on Saturday or Sunday I can go shopping on Monday and pick up everything we need.

Also, I keep a stocked pantry filled with emergency meal supplies for the nights when I don't feel well or something comes up. I always keep on hand the following:

chicken stock
brown rice
lentils
canned red kidney beans
diced tomatoes
frozen veggies (broccoli, brussell sprouts, and cauliflower)
canned fruit
spaghetti noodles
jarred spaghetti sauce

With this emergency pantry I can make a quick meal like red beans and rice, lentil soup, or spaghetti dinner without having to run to the store.

Also, before going to the store I try to check with everyone to see if they need toothpaste, dental floss, etc. As well as other staples such as bread, veggies, fruit, lunch and snack staples, breakfast items so I have fewer runs to the store. Also, if I used any of my emergency pantry supplies the week before, I restock those so they are ready for the next unplanned meal. LOL! =)

I would recommend using stickers on your calendar to help you remember when you want to do your meal planning. Then give yourself a gold star when you complete the task.

Good luck adding meal planning to your weekly routine.

C. J.