Meals and Menus

Be prepared to the longest blog post ever! But it's worth it, I promise!

Awhile back I posted on Facebook that I meal planned for all of May and June, as I was super excited to have that done. Well, I guess lots of people don't like this chore and/or struggle in this area and have asked me how I do it, will I do it for them, can they just have my menus, etc...

First of all, I love being organized!!  Second, I enjoy cooking healthy foods for my family and Third, I like to challenge myself to spend as little as possible when grocery shopping for our menus.
To me, meal planning is a pretty simple task that makes the rest of life go much more smoothly. Feeding 7 people for each and every meal at home is time consuming, costly and not very much fun when at 5 pm you have no idea of what to fix and have to be somewhere at 7. :/ I started meal planning in the beginning just to give me an idea of what was for dinner, but as our family grew and my time didn't multiple like our family did, meal planning became a necessity. During much of our school year we have nightly obligations every night except Friday and Saturday, so without planning it becomes a disaster quickly! when I haven't meal planned, I don't feel like cooking, we grab something out more often and lots of other areas tend to follow suit being unorganized.

For my menus, I have done them a number of ways over the years, on a calender, in a meal planning book, using an app on my phone, but lately I've been using a spiral notebook and a do a week a page. This seems to work well for a number or reasons...although, I like keeping things electronically, I still like using a pen and paper. I can look back over the weeks (when my mind seems a little cloudy) and make sure we are getting a variety and I don't repeat the same meal too often. The downside is if that spiral notebook magically disappears, then I feel kind of lost, which isn't fun. When I start meal planning, I seem to just get on a roll and then before you know it I have 10 or 12 weeks planned, which feels glorious! For ideas, I ask my kids and hubby what they would like to eat, look through my cooking magazines and browse pinterest. I start our weekly menu on Sunday and most always include one dessert a week. I don't generally plan a full meal for Thursday night, as James and I are gone every Thursday night to our small group. On those nights the kids eat something easy, like quesadillas, breakfast or if I have an extra planned meal that didn't get cooked I'll do that or my parents will bring something they had. Other than Thursday nights I plan every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack for the entire week. By planning out even our snacks, I feel like I spend way less money and it makes food prep during the day much quicker, especially during school, that way we can get right back to school, instead of spending an hour on snack time...

I have a chalkboard up in my kitchen and each morning I write down our menu. This not only saves me time, but also from hearing "Mom, what's for snack/lunch/dinner?" a million times a day, and then there is a lot less rummaging through the pantry and fridge. I always have fresh fruit, veggies, dried/canned fruit and nuts in plenty, just in case we have extra mouths to feed, which is a couple of times a week. As for the menu, once it's on the board, it is take it or leave it. I remind my kiddos that I work hard to prepare the menu and meals and they need to be grateful we have food to eat whenever we are hungry. (and I might tell them there are kids starving in Africa once in awhile too) :)

After the menu is made I make a grocery list according to each menu. I have a 5x7 weekly calendar that I use to write down my list for each weeks menu. I write down absolutely everything I'll need for each meal to start and then before I go shopping, I'll cross off what I already have, like cheese, milk, quinoa, etc...Some weeks, if I'm running short on time, I'll just bring my menu notebook to the store and look at the meals, but mostly I make the list as I meal plan, a. because I'm already sitting there and b. I won't always know the ingredients for new recipes.

A note about my menus. I make almost everything from scratch. We eat mostly organic, whole foods, little sugar, no dyes and nearly no gluten. We love dairy, fruits and vegetables, fish and nuts. I don't eat red meat, so I only cook it on occasion. I buy as little processed foods as possible and really enjoy spending time in the kitchen. There are a few things I don't take the time to make-like ravioli, tortillas, bagels, flax crackers, sweet potato chips and occasionally I'll splurge out of convenience on fruit leather, granola and/or granola bars, and sometimes hummus, salsa or apple sauce.

So, now for the menus...I'm going to start with 5 weeks of dinner and see how that goes...Every dinner is gluten free, unless otherwise noted.

week 1
S- pizza, salad, banana cream dessert

M- Apricot chicken, quinoa, carrots, salad

T- Mexican casserole, salad

W- Turkey stroganoff, roasted brussel sprouts, salad

Th- Quesadillas

F- maple glazed Salmon, stir fried veggies, brown rice

S- Italian flying saucers, broccoli, salad

week 2

S- Chili, cornbread, chocolate chip bars

M- Coconut mahi-mahi, jasmine rice, green beans, salad

T- Ravioli, cauliflower, salad

W- orange chicken (pinterest), chow mein, stir fry veggies

Th- Sour cream enchiladas, crock pot beans, rice, salad (we hosted small group)

F- Chicken and rice soup, fresh bread

S- Asparagus pasta, salad

week3

S- Sloppy Joes, corn on the cob, salad, berry cobbler

M- Spaghetti, salad, garlic toast

T- Scrambled Eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls (pinterest), sliced melon

W- BBQ chicken, ranch quinoa, green beans, salad

Th- Quinoa minestrone soup, (pinterest) fresh bread

F- Tuna noodle casserole, broccoli, salad

S- Mahi Mahi tacos, beans

week4

S- Crock pot salsa burritos, salad, watermelon

M-Citrus salmon, pumpkin quinoa, broccoli, salad

T- Garlic brown sugar chicken (pinterest) mashed red potatoes, asparagus, salad

W- Baked Ziti & summer veggies (pinterest) salad, 

Th- pizza

F- Nachos

S- Cauliflower casserole (pinterest), salad, sliced melon

week5

S- Crock pot roast w/ veggies & potatoes, salad, brownies

M- white chicken chili, biscuits, salad, strawberries

T- Crock Pot mac n' cheese, roasted brussel sprouts, salad

W- Baked Potato Bar, salad

Th- cereal (great meal, I know, but the kids love it!)

F- Grilled Tilapia with mango salsa, corn & bean quinoa, chips & guacamole

S- Crock Pot Ranch Pork chops over pasta, squash, salad

So there you have it! 5 weeks of menus and a few recipes to boot! If you would like a specific recipe for any of the meals, just ask, I'm happy to oblige :)

Sharing this makes me happy, so if this makes your life easier or gets you out of a meal planning funk, then yay! Feel free to share!

More later...