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Menu Planning - Spin Off of What are You Reading thread

RebeccaH

RebeccaH

Life is exciting, yes it is!
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In the What are You Reading thread, Trish brought up menu planning, and it was suggested we start a separate thread related to menu planning and meal ideas. So here it is!

Come share your ideas. How do you plan out your menu? What's on the menu for you this evening / week / month??? We'd love to see it! Maybe we can all keep each other inspired!
 
I shared my own menu planning system in today's blog post

Here's what's on our menu for today:
Layered Enchilada Bake
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning & water (per directions on seasoning pack)
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 cup salsa
1 pkg soft taco shell tortillas
shredded cheddar
fresh lettuce, tomato, onion, and other toppings as desired

* preheat to 375
* brown the beef; drain; add taco seasoning and water according to the directions on the seasoning package
* add black beans, salsa and a hand full of shredded cheese to the meat mixture
* in a lightly greased 9x13 caserole dish, lay taco shells slightly overlapping to cover the bottom; layer the meat & bean mixture, another layer of shells, another of meat, and a final layer of shells
* top with additional shredded cheese
* cover with foil and bake about 30 minutes; remove foil and bake another 10ish minutes to brown the cheese a bit

to serve, cut into squares and top with fresh veggie toppings, sour cream, salsa, etc.
 
That sounds so yummy, Rebecca! Thanks for sharing and the great blog post. :)
 
I have been trying out a ton of recipes lately from Pinterest! I never realized all the blogs out there with a ton of recipes.

So anyway....I kinda plan once a week for grocery shopping but usually have to stop by the store to pick up special stuff if I find a recipe I want to try out that night.
 
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Great post!! And thanks for the recipe... I think we'll have that too, tonight! :)

I manage to menu plan for three weeks and then stopped... I really need to keep this going... it's great to know what is coming so have the items in the house to make. And I love the idea of your planner... I was doing it in a word document calendar... however I like that yo use the monthly calendar and then the weekly ones to nail down the details!

Thanks!
 
Loved your post, Rebecca, and your planning system. I am going to have to try that in the new year.
I try to plan each week, but I haven't been great at sticking to it.
 
RebeccaH said:
I shared my own menu planning system in today's blog post

Here's what's on our menu for today:
Layered Enchilada Bake
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning & water (per directions on seasoning pack)
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 cup salsa
1 pkg soft taco shell tortillas
shredded cheddar
fresh lettuce, tomato, onion, and other toppings as desired

* preheat to 375
* brown the beef; drain; add taco seasoning and water according to the directions on the seasoning package
* add black beans, salsa and a hand full of shredded cheese to the meat mixture
* in a lightly greased 9x13 caserole dish, lay taco shells slightly overlapping to cover the bottom; layer the meat & bean mixture, another layer of shells, another of meat, and a final layer of shells
* top with additional shredded cheese
* cover with foil and bake about 30 minutes; remove foil and bake another 10ish minutes to brown the cheese a bit

to serve, cut into squares and top with fresh veggie toppings, sour cream, salsa, etc.
Click to expand...

I have a recipe almost identical to this. It is one of our favorite meals!

RebeccaH said:
and i can say that this is a go-to cookbook for me when i need ideas. i've tried a lot of recipes out of here and they've all been great!
Taste of Home Mom's Best
Click to expand...

I get the Taste of Home Magazine and those recipes are always the best!

I "try" and plan a month of meals at the beginning of the month. Then I go shopping each week. On that day if there are meals that didn't get eaten from the previous week because we were to busy {ie I was to lazy to cook} then it gets bumped down on the menu. Needless to say I right in PENCIL on my menu. I still do my menu's with paper and pencil because it helps to have a copy of them in the kitchen so I know what I'm having on what particular day. Now I'm off to see what you posted on the blog!

ETA: Just looked at the blog post and I LOVE your planner idea! I may just have to incorporate that into my menu's.
 
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Right now we do a weekly meal plan. We sit down and look at meat prices and then recipes for what's on sale and plan it all out that way.

What we've been working out is a 6 week meal plan that we will rotate through next year (it comes up to like having each meal 8 or 9 times - not too bad - especially when you have picky eaters). Each week has 4 dinners, we usually eat at my mom's once a week, plus, I refuse to cook every night, so it's a total of 24 meals. The week's meals are planned out like this:
Monday - Chicken
Tuesday - Pork
Wednesday - Beef
Thursday - Chicken

I mixed in some of our most made meals, plus went through and picked out meals out of our two favorite cook books that we'd either had once and liked, or sounded like something most of the house would like.

I'm printing mine all up into a small 5x7 book that has each week's meals listed, plus has a shopping list for each week.
 
We plan our menu weekly, my husband enjoys it and always thinks of something we havn't had in a while. Usually there is one item where I purchased something the week before, like something on special or something I thought of while shopping, and one day left for eating out.
This week we have just moved into our new place and have eaten out all week, I need to plan and do an initial grogery shop, but am too scared to tackle the traffic here.
 
I think I saw this idea on Pinterest and it's a colour-coded menu board which I'm thinking of making. My kiddos are so fussy and between us, nobody ever eats the same thing at the same time! So I end up cooking their meal (or sometimes meals) then I eat after they go to bed if it's our dinner time meal. They're pretty good on lunches which are usually sandwiches of some sort but it's the evening meals we always have issues with. They're now on 6 weeks school holidays as of today so thought it might be fun to pick out our favourite recipes and start it now while they can have input.

The links for the whole project are in the Archives down the right side of her blog for April 2011.
 
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Love these ideas! Rebecca, your blog post was great. I am going to try to do something like that in the new year. Maybe that will be my big resolution.

My problem is that we are often out and about from 4-6:30 and then absolutely starving when we get home. DH isn't home for dinner most of the time too, so we eat out way too often. Maybe I need to break out the crockpot more often.
 
carolee said:
Love these ideas! Rebecca, your blog post was great. I am going to try to do something like that in the new year. Maybe that will be my big resolution.

My problem is that we are often out and about from 4-6:30 and then absolutely starving when we get home. DH isn't home for dinner most of the time too, so we eat out way too often. Maybe I need to break out the crockpot more often.
Click to expand...

Carolee, this was my MAJOR problem! Time. It was killing me as far as dinner is concerned.
I found that the crock pot helps, although I must admit that most of my crock pot meals have been an adventure in learning. :giggle my husband has claimed we've had to eat "Survivor Stew" and other such delights.

This month was the first time that I was on top of it enough to actually plan ahead more than usual, and it has helped out A TON. Since I had my monthly menu, I bought the meat I would need for the month and prepped it at the beginning of the month (on a weekend day). I trimmed-diced-froze the chicken I would need. I browned hamburger and froze it by the pound. And it has saved me more than once. One day I forgot about dinner, and was able to throw a pot of chili toether in literally 3 minutes. If I hadn't had all that stuff ready to go, I would have skipped on cooking and grabbed restaurant food.

Not that it's easy, and not than anyone really WANTS to cook on a free weekend day, but I guess it CAN be done if it's what you really want to do. It's just whatever you choose I guess.
 
I have the worst time with menu planning.

I have a tentative system set up like Trish's where the same kind of meat/meal is served on the same day of the week. The problems occur when I factor in (a) DH has to eat GF, (b) DD does not eat enough most of the time to be considered a separate person/serving, (c) SS is superpicky abt his food and does not eat casseroles, soups, chilis, crockpot meals, or anything else that is 'mixed up' which means that if I make such a meal that I also (d) have to factor in a separate meal/meat that DH or SS will have to prepare at the same time, and (e) DH starts second shift next week (and was working third shift), so our family meal has to be at lunchtime.

When either DD gets bigger, DH starts to work first shift, and/or we have more children, I will be more motivated to institute a regular meal schedule. Right now, it is just such a hassle.
 
I menu plan by going to the store and buying what looks good and won't be difficult to make. If I'm working a lot of evenings, I pick up things the boys can make themselves or if my dh is home, something he's comfy with making. I usually write out basics I know I need before I head to the store, and then wing it from there. I like organization though so it would be good to have some sort of menu planning in place.
 
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