As you may know, last week I scheduled an entire Vegan meal plan. It went pretty well. I didn’t eat any meat (I did have some Parmesan cheese on some pasta one day). I didn’t stick with the meal plan I created and felt pretty lost. Quite a few nights I was the only one home to eat and it seemed crazy to cook this huge dish for just me. It also seemed once I found a dish I liked it was easier to just keep making that lol…
Well, that was fun, and I felt pretty good but this week ends planting season so my husband will be back to eating dinner with us again, which pretty much (unless I wanna cook 2 separate meals ~ which I don’t… ) ends Vegan dining. I did like it though, and I’m going to try to create Meatless Mondays and cook one night with no meat.
I have also found that by just identifying 7 meals ~ I haven’t actually made them. I tell myself I want to leave room for “flexibility” so I can make what I am in the mood for that night. Yeah, that doesn’t really seem to be working very well. I think I might need just a little more structure. 🙂 So this week I’m going to give the meals days, and see how that goes.
Here’s what’s for dinner at our house this week:
Sunday: (Father’s day)
Grilled Steak, corn on the cob, salad and bread ~ we also had my mom and her husband over. YUM.
Monday (meatless)
Ratatouille Polenta Bake ~ this sounds so good, and the picture looked so yummy I just had to try it. Of course I live in the sticks and no one even knows what Polenta is… I asked my mom and she told me corn meal mush would work as well… that they had. So we shall see.
Tuesday:
Chicken Wild Rice Salad
Wednesday:
Sheppard’s Pie with Salad
Thursday:
Taco Salad
Friday:
Chicken Quesadillas
Saturday:
Grilled Pork Chops
Baked Zucchini Fries
After my interview with Michelle Stern of What’s Cooking with Kids (which will be live next week) ~ I was so inspired by her, and picked up her new cookbook The Whole Family Cookbook while I was in town shopping for Ryan’s Father’s Day present. It is the best cookbook I think I’ve ever bought. I kid you not, I will make every single recipe in the book. I don’t think that’s EVER happened before. The zucchini fries on our menu this week are out of that cookbook. We also made the Baked Apple Puff for Ryan for Father’s Day and it was very good. 🙂
He received a new fangled Ice Cream maker for Father’s Day and we’ll be experimenting big time with some homemade natural delicious yummies for sure. We’ve already made Strawberry ice cream. I’ve got chocolate ice cream in there right now. I can’t wait to test out Blueberry Coconut Milk Ice cream and well as Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream. YUMMO.
Meal planning has seriously saved me. It saves me money at the store. It saves me time in my day. It saves me GRIEF! If you’re not meal planning I truly recommend trying it out. If you’re having trouble coming up with menu ideas here’s a couple tips.
- Identify the meat on sale at your local grocery store.
- Choose your protein from what’s on sale.
- Go to Allrecipes.com and look up recipes for that protein
- Grab my free month of meals worksheet, and as you find meals your family loves write them down so you can grab one or two a week to make a couple days really easy. Finding “go to” meals your family loves will make planning really simple.
Last but not least, jump over to OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Monday. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for your meal plan or need tips getting started, Laura is a great place to start! There’s hundreds of other people who link up their meal plans ~ the ideas are endless.
Good luck with your meal plan!
Great blog! I was a stay-at-home mom until my son was 10. Then when the economy took a hit I had to start working part-time. :o( It is hard juggling homeschooling, working outside of the home & keeping up with everything else. Sigh! So glad I found your blog! :o)
The were supposed to be 🙂 not :o) lol
Your plan looks great. I like the sound of the zucchini fries and the polenta bake.
The polenta bake was DELICIOUS!! Even my carnivore husband who happened to be home for dinner, and complained that I “could have just thrown some chicken in it” lol ~ snarfed down a whole plate full. 🙂
I was too lazy to come up with a new menu every week, so I sat down with the family and made a month schedule. (Well, 4 weeks)
I just keep rotating through the same month. Weekends are “unplanned” because a lot of times we eat leftovers or out on Sundays – plus, I’m never sure if the kids are going to be here or at their mom’s. And, I’m walking distance from the grocery store, so if I have to, I can always run and pick up something we need.
Actually, this is how we USED to do things – for the last 6 months or so, we’ve been getting all of our food from restaurants because it’s cheaper (these are “working man” diner type places that are particular to Peru, they serve an appetizer or soup, main dish and drink for under $2 – we eat the main dish at lunch, save the soup for dinner). But we’re getting pretty sick of eating a lot of soup and are planning on starting up the ‘Menu’ again soon – my kid is begging for lasagna again!
Hi Kelly
I found the same thing when living in Koh Samui Thaialnd for a while. Going to a store and buying then cooking was more expensive that going to street markets or on street eating places.
Like half the price and no washing up to me thats the best kind of planning 🙂
Aside from that this is a great menu plan for when back at home thnaks
James
Even if I don’t stick with my meal plan, I feel less scattered. It at least gives me something to fall back on. Does that make sense?
Absolutely ~ I do the same thing. I don’t think we ever make all 7 meals on the list ~ however ~ I do go to the store with a list in hand, and don’t just buy a bunch of crap willy nilly. Then once the food’s home… well it doesn’t cost me anything extra to make something a little different. 🙂
I have never been able to meal plan and then buy groceries for only those meals. I feel like it would save us money but I can never decide what to cook ahead of time.
Would love to read more about your process!
I always say I am going to plan out my dinners for the week – and it has yet to happen…. This is a great line up.. they are all my favorite! #commenthour