Meal Planning

I used to have a daytimer, where I would write down every month what our family's meals were. I learned many many years ago that when I know what dinner is going to be before nine in the morning, the rest of the day is less stressful for me. However, I didn't get the refills to my daytimer this year because I have a tablet, and am saving paper.  Its a little slower for me than writing, but typing here is fast, so I'm going to be listing my monthly meal plans once a month.  Just pretend that the last few days were already included. School just starts tomorrow so I've still been in vacation mode.

Before the Food Nanny had themed nights, I had also realized those made sense for me. Mexican Monday has long been a happy dinner night at our house but she introduced me to a weekly plan and that has been great for organizing things and not repeating within the month. Most of my recipes are either from my own experience, the Food Nanny cookbook, Our Best Bites blog, The Food Networks Ina Garten recipes or Sunset Easy Cooking cookbook that I got for a wedding present. I do cook all our own meals except for Fridays when I go out with Mike (we're recommitting to more regular date nights) so if it says beef and broccoli I'm not planning on ordering out for that.

Sunday - Comfort Food
Monday - Mexican
Tuesday - Seafood (trash man comes on Wed.)
Wednesday - Soup or Meatless
Thursday - Italian
Friday - Easy foods the kids can fix themselves - Not necessarily a balanced meal, but this is my night of rest
Saturday - Fun foods we all like and are good for if the kids have their friends over

6 Mon - Taco salad with ground turkey
7 Tues -  Salmon, broccoli, mashed potatoes
8 Wed - Minestrone soup, bread sticks, green salad
9 Thur - (Missionaries coming)  Turkey breast with cranberry, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls
   apple crisp for dessert
10 Fri - French toast with blueberries and whipped cream
11 Sat - Bbq chicken tenderloins, home fries, zucchini tomato saute
12 Sunday dinner here - Crockpot tri tip and root vegetables, green salad, creamed spinach and garlic knots
13 Mon - Crockpot Salsa chicken with blackbeans, cilantro lime rice and green salad
14 Tues - Tuna melt sandwiches, fresh vegetable sticks, homemade baked potato chips
15 Wed - Crockpot chicken vegetable soup, garlic biscuits, Italian green salad
16 Thur - Ground turkey marinara with whole wheat penne, roasted broccoli and cauliflower
17 Fri - Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
18 Sat - Grilled burgers with mushrooms and onions, mini cob corns, green salad
19 Sunday dinner at Mom's   Dessert - me - Cheesecake bites with blueberry sauce
20 Mon - Chicken tortilla soup with green salad
21 Tues- Tilapia with bruschetta, Greek salad, crash red potatoes
22 Wed - Spicy quinoa cups with black bean soup, fresh vegetable sticks
23 Thur - Spaghetti with ground turkey, spinach salad
24 Fri - Coleman hot dogs on buns, baked beans, sliced cucumbers
25 Sat - Beef and broccoli with rice, mandarin orange romaine salad
26 Sunday here - Crockpot cherry pork tenderloin with carrots, roasted cauliflower, garlic herb scalloped potatoes, red and green salad, rolls
27 Mon - Chicken fajitas with green salad
28 Tues - Shrimp curry with rice, kale chips, apple slices
29 Wed - Baked potato soup with green salad
30 Thur - Sausage ricotta manicotti with broccoli
31 Fri - Pizza with root beer and Italian salad

Bon Appetit!