Meal Planning...a first!

Here it is Wednesday evening already. Where has the week gone? 

Is it just me or does this year seem to be zooming faster than last year?? Oh well, no matter, it is what it is.

I'm going to start with this: God is good no matter how bad life gets. Well, my life is actually pretty good and God is even better. He's carried me through when I make mistakes, when I blunder along and when I do things that later I think oh, I shouldn't have done that! He is always there and He provides for us in every way. God is awesome.

This week has been a fairly busy one and that's why I've not been around. I've been adding things to my Etsy shops (BlossomBs, Kidchen Gnomes & Lossolleff), been trudging along with my school work and plugging along with doing school with the kids. You'll hear more about the school with the kids on Friday. 

I've also been making up my menu- for the entire month. This is something I tried to do last month but didn't do as well as I wanted. The main reason for planning was initially to save on the grocery bill. The other reason was that I was tired of looking in the fridge/freezer/cupboard 30 minutes before dinner and having no idea really what to make. I've read about others that do menu planning and I'm always interested in what they are having. It looks so much more interesting than our usual of burritos, sphaghetti or chicken with vegetables. 

Here is my months menu. Anywhere it has (x2) means that during the 2 weeks we will have it twice; usually once each week rather than in one week. And the lists are for reference. So if I want Eggs on Monday then I can make them again on Saturday if I really wanted to. When I went shopping it was a tremendous help to keep me from buying stuff that I wasn't sure I needed.

Ready?

Breakfast:

1st 2 weeks:

Scones with fruit and milk

Omelet with juice

Oatmeal with fruit

Eggs with toast and juice (x2)

Yogurt with fruit or granola (x2)

Coffee Cake with milk

Cold cereal with fruit (x2)

Waffles with fruit and milk

Grits with eggs and juice

Muffins (with fruit) with milk

French toast with juice

2nd 2 weeks:

Eggs with toast and juice

Cold cereal with fruit (x2)

Oatmeal with fruit and milk (x2)

Scones with fruit and milk

Yogurt with fruit &/or toast

Coffee cake with milk

Omelet with juice

Waffles with juice

Grits with eggs and juice

French toast with juice

Pancakes with fruit and milk

Farina with fruit and milk

Lunch:

1st 2 weeks:

Sloppy Joes

Mac & Cheese

Tuna Turnovers

Personal Pizzas (x2)

Hot Dogs with beans (x2) (I keep forgetting the baked beans though!)

Tuna sandwiches

PB & Banana or Honey sandwich with milk

Salad with chicken

Burritos

Chili Mac

2nd 2 weeks:

Quesadilla with tea

Meat sandwich with juice

Salad with chicken

Tomato soup with grilled cheese

Tuna Tortillas

PB & J sandwich (x2)

Salad with tuna

Sloppy Joes

Mac & Cheese

Personal Pizza

Tuna Sandwich

Burritos (x2)

Dinner:

1st 2 weeks:

Chicken Enchiladas

Pork chops with biscuits and veggies

Bean soup (x2) with cornbread or cheese spoon bread

Pot roast

Chicken with veggies

Spaghetti with garlic bread

Pork stew

Creamed chicken over rice

Meatloaf with veggies and biscuits

Chili

Cabbage Rolls

Chicken and veggies

Pizza

2nd 2 weeks:

Fish with salad 

Chicken and veggies

Chili w/ cornbread

Turkey Burgers and salad

Creamed chicken over mashed potatoes

Beef stew

Bean soup with cornbread

Burritos

Chicken Enchiladas

Pot Roast

Pizza

Sloppy Joes

Chicken and veggies (x2)

Snack Options:

1 apple & 1 string cheese (water)

dried fruit and 1 string cheese or 1 serving crackers (we have Wheat Thins, Animal Crackers, Cheezits, Ritz and saltines to choose from) (water)

1 apple & 1 serving of crackers (milk)

1 string cheese and 1 serving of crackers (juice)

1 carrot and 1 string cheese (water)

1 carrot and 1 serving of crackers (milk)

scoop of pb and milk

1 piece of bread with pb (juice)

1 piece of bread & 1 string cheese (juice)

sliced apple with pb (milk or water)

Something else that I've been trying to do is eat less meat and more wholesome foods. In my menu it looks like there is a meat in just about every meal! Not quite what I had in mind when I thought about cutting back. But some of those things- such as spaghetti, pizza, chili, even sloppy joes -can be made meatless. At first, honestly, I anticipate grumbles in my house. And no, I don't intend to use tofu- my poor hubby would starve because he wouldn't eat it! Haha! No, I intend to use beans- black, pinto, navy, great northern, but no garbanzo (again, hubby dislikes...picky man! heehee jk)- to replace the meat. Sometimes though, nothing else will be needed. Spaghetti is just fine with only sauce and pizza is good with lots of cheese and olives.

And for breakfast items, I am using more whole wheat products. I have almost always used whole wheat at some point and in differing amounts. Now I am making it more whole wheat than other flours. I am using honey also in place of the sugar and coconut oil in place of hydrogenated fats (you know, Crisco) and butter in cooking. I love butter though so that's a tough one. Can always have some butter on my whole wheat toast :) A problem with using wholesome ingredients for making foods is that it can be expensive :(

I think I've mentioned the More with Less Cookbook but there are two others that I use, but no where near as frequently. The Taste of Home Cookbook from Taste of Home Books and Reader's Digest. It is handy sometimes but it doesn't really help with how to make things from scratch often. It says to buy a can of cream of chicken soup when a recipe calls for something like a white sauce. It can be made super easily at home- that's where my More with Less comes in handy. The other book that I use for biscuits, scones, breads and those types is Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. It's definitely not the 1930s version! My mom has one that is older than mine and it's interesting how things have changed even in 10 years! I think hers is a lot older than 10 years. Anyway, I love that cookbook almost as much at the More with Less. And finally the cookbook that I use the absolute least is The Woman's Day Cookbook that was given to me by my aunt and cousins when I got married. I use this for one recipe and one only (at least for the last 14 years...). I still keep it around though because I can still never remember the recipe by heart.  Never know, I might someday find something else interesting in it!

So my meal planning took me a long time to complete. Probably a couple months. We usually eat the same things again and again and again and it gets so boring. The kids used to have cold cereal almost every single morning. Hubby still has, and possibly always will have, 2 eggs on Saturday and Sunday ;) Our lunches were not really much of lunches; we would look to see what was to 'munch' on and at call it lunch. 

I think that planning the meals has been a great help and will continue to be. I took inventory before I went shopping also and discovered 3 cans of salsa and 3 cans of spaghetti sauce! I would almost certainly have bought another when I went shopping had I not done the inventory first. Saved on some meat as well because I checked and we still had 2 bags of frozen chicken to use- I would have bought a few more. Not having to buy those things saved me at least $20.