Meal Planning and a Meal Plan

Several People have asked how I do my meal plan and my grocery list. So this week, I am giving you BOTH! I am sharing with you my FREE PRINTABLE meal plan and grocery list, my meal plan with links to recipes is below AND I'm sharing my personal meal plan and grocery list!

So, here's a couple pictures, one blank and one in progress. Then I'll give you my steps!

In Progress

Blank

Weekly Meal Planning Step by Step Guide:

First, I check my calendar. I use an Erin Condren Life Planner, to keep track of all the things going on at my house. I find that doing this BEFORE meal planning generally means that I don't plan a complicated meal on a busy night or after I've had a day that really is not conducive to cooking. It also means that I can check for when I might have time to do prep work the night before and I can put it in my calendar when I need to.

Second, I talk to my kids about what things they like to see on the meal plan. My little ones generally want the same things, but my big kids have started exploring Pinterest and watch the Food Network now and again and they have shown an interest in branching out! It also helps them feel more involved in what we're eating and doing when they get to help make the plan.

Third, we check the cabinets and the refrigerator. Maybe what you want is already in your house. Maybe something strikes you as sounding wonderful! Or maybe you realize you shouldn't buy that snack anymore because no one is eating it... No matter what, checking the pantry, fridge and freezer is a smart thing to do before moving forward.

Fourth, I gather the recipes and start planning out my meals and groceries. I do it all on one sheet. It's here and this helps me make sure that I don't get too much or not enough. Or, if I'm using half and half creamer, for example, I know I don't need the whole container that is purchased, so I may check for another recipe to use up that last little bit rather than have it go bad in the fridge.

Finally, I check the coupons and the circulars for sales!!! Chicken was on sale week before last for 39 cents per pound!!! So I got 20 pounds. So last week and this week have been lots and lots of chicken. Which obviously means, this week is.....chicken!

Here's my meal plan and grocery list.

And here are all the links to all the recipes!

Monday:
BBQ Chicken
Macaroni and Cheese
Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

Tuesday:
Shredded Chicken Tacos with fixings!

Wednesday:
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Veggie Stir Fry
White Rice

Thursday:
Chicken and Spinach Alfredo Casserole

Friday:
Leftover Baked Potato Bar

Saturday:
Burgers and Hot Dogs
Fries

Sunday:
Beef Stroganoff
Salad

How's your week shaping up?

Coupons, a cooking club and a meal plan

A few weeks ago I shared that I was trying to save money by being more conscious of where and how I was spending money. One friend suggested I try couponing. So, I'm giving it a go. It's a bit of a numbers game and I am just getting started, but I used the coupons to help plan out the meal plan for this week. I got 2 newspapers to double my coupons and organized them into categories that worked for me: Baby, Cleaning, Dog, Hair & Body, Mouth, Feminine, OTC, Paper & Plastic, General Food, Fridge & Frozen, Restaurants and Extras. Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I'm keeping a running list of recipes that we will be using so I can put all of the coupons for those recipes in the very front to start getting those things together. I'm also planning to try to be more aware of the circulars that jam up my mailbox and may even save a few extras digitally. I use a few different apps on my phone to help with saving money, I'll link them if you don't have them so that you can start saving some money too!!! Where it is applicable, I'll put my referral code next to the link and then you can thank me by joining with my referral code and then let me know what you think of the savings apps too!!! Some of them are super user friendly and that only makes it more awesome!! 

In no particular order....

1. Cartwheel for Target, secret coupons or percentages off for every item you can think of! The more you use it, the more coupons you can have on your barcode at a time!

And a RedCard!

2. Kroger Mobile Coupons; it's like having secret Kroger coupons and the regular mailed circular in your phone! How easy is that? Click on the coupons to add them to your list!

3. Ibotta: (referral Code: azbqrq) Earn rebates for items you purchase all the time!! My total savings since I joined are up to $30.95. Once you join and use my code, you get an extra $2!

4. Receipt Hog, (referral code: clump306) snap pics of your receipts and then you get coins that add up to amazon cash. Spin the wheel to win extra spins or cash credit for your last receipt!!! Once you sign up and use it with the referral code, we each get extra spins!

And now for the meal plan: 

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner; pancakes, bacon, and eggs

Monday: Taco Night!!!

Tuesday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Wednesday: Chicken Alfredo and Broccoli

Thursday: Pizza Night

Friday: Sausages, Macaroni and Cheese, and a yet-to-be-named Green Veggie

Saturday: Leftovers

On our family landing board, I put up the meal plan so that I can stop getting asked by people who read, "what's for dinner?" But, I figured since I need to hold myself accountable to keeping my house a little cleaner, I'd add a chore for each night. If I can stick to this, well, my house might look MUCH better!!!

I'm also working on making my friends join me in a cookbook club! We'll get together periodically, each making something from a new cookbook and get to all share in the work! I'm excited!!! Anyone ever done one?

Got any time saving tips or tricks you'd like to share?

I don't have much time to spare!!!

A day late and a dollar short

So, I was supposed to post this meal plan yesterday...buuuuuut, my internet and my computer decided not to talk to each other...

So, here's the meal plan, a day late and a dollar short.

And just a warning, it's very carb heavy because we have a swim meet coming up...and you need carbs stored up for a swim meet...

Sunday: Meatball Subs and Country Salad (we used the meatball recipe from Spaghetti and Meatballs; see recipe on friday.)

Monday: BLTs and grilled cheese; what's your favorite way to make this classic? I'm planning to try adding some cut up pepper slices to mine!

Tuesday: Pan-seared chicken, mac-n-cheese and green bean casserole

Wednesday: beef and broccoli stir-fry with rice. I've really wanted to try this and I'm excited. If you try this recipe too, please let me know what you think!!

Thursday: We are headed to out to dinner with my cousin to talk race day prep for my daughter's first Half Marathon!!!

Friday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, green beans, bread

Saturday: This is swim meet day 1, I'm planning on sandwiches and leftovers because we will also be going to a Halloween pumpkin carving party. I'm bringing corn dip.

Sunday: This may also be a leftover/chill day...because Swim Meet weekends make me really tired. (Let's just face the reality of this...I use paper plates to avoid much clean-up and I find making dinner after a swim meet is tiring on top of being tired and I'll probably have a decent amount of clean-up to do around my house. So, yeah...)

What's for dinner? And breakfast and lunch and dessert

Fall break has begun at my house and with it comes LOTS of cooking. The list of recipes in this post will be MUCH longer than usual. You may want to par down if you have a busy week. If not, if love to hear how these recipes turned out at your house!!!

Breakfasts: We have a supply of biscuits, bagels and cereal for the week. Let's keep it simple.

Lunch: Chicken salad, Egg and Avocado Salad, Lunch meat, PB & J or leftovers.

Sunday: I'm hoping to kick our week off with some snuggles, a movie and tortellini soup. We're going to try out making freezer ice cream too!!

Monday: My husband is on the road for a photo shoot, so tonite is meatball stroganoff and country salad, since he doesn't really like it. And why not make an apple pie, but we use a freezer dough instead of making raw dough, to (hopefully) go with the ice cream from last night. 

Tuesday: oven fried chicken, spinach, macaroni and cheese and we're going to try the Martha Stewart chocolate cupcakes. 

Wednesday: By this point, I'm expecting to be a little worn down in the kitchen so this is going to be a simple taco night and as a surprise to my husband, we'll be making a chocolate chip pound cake! This recipe is a labor of love that is so tasty! 

Thursday: This is one of my favorite meals, especially when there are lots of leftovers; baked potato bar! This is a great one for entertaining too; pull out lots of toppings or have friends bring their favorite and set out a bowl of baked potatoes. Cut them in half and allow everyone to dress them as they like. So yummy!

Friday: Dinner out with family

Saturday: I'm hoping by Saturday we have cleaned our house or most of it, so we'll be ordering a pizza for sure! 

What does fall break look like at your house?

No recipe shared for macaroni and cheese because I'm wanting to know what your favorite recipe is!! Share in the comments!!

No grocery list this week, to encourage you to pick and choose what you'll make!

Cheers to a great week!

Before you write a meal plan...or any plan.

It may seem a bit out of order, that last week I would write about how to write a meal plan and this week, I'd write what to do before you write a meal plan...but hear me out!

If you have just started meal planning, it may feel daunting. You may have struggled before and only jumped back in because I suggested it. That's ok! There are always challenges when we are learning new things. Below are some recommendations I have for next week when you sit down to plan your meals..

1. Look in your kitchen!!
Do you have 15 cans of diced tomatoes? Let's plan some recipes that will USE the diced tomatoes! Try to make sure you have at least 2 meals that include half of the ingredients that are already in your house. It will make you use what's there and not build up a giant pile of food that needs to get eaten sitting next to a pile of leftovers that need to get eaten.

2. Make room for leftovers.
If you plan a meal for every night, you will not be able to eat ALL the leftovers! Unless your family eats every bite of every thing that you make,  there is going to be food left. Throwing it away is not economical and you can't always finish an entire lasagna for lunch! With that in mind, leave space in the schedule for a leftover night. Is it the most fun? Probably not. Practical though?

3. Build up to it.
You are not going to be on Master Chef tomorrow. I promise your children will still grow into normal functioning members of society even if you use a microwave! If you'd like to have some veggies and frozen is more practical than fresh, go with it. It's cool.

4. Make habits.
Have you noticed in your own life that you have patterns and habits? Maybe you take 3 sweet-n-low in your coffee? Swiffer the floors on thursday? These are patterns and habits. If they work well in other parts of your life, why would you not incorporate them more often? I try to do some meal prep for the next night, while I'm working on the current meal. Sometimes I even get farther ahead than that.

5. Create patterns.
Some call them theme nights, I call them patterns. My children know to expect chicken mid-week and to expect Italian-type meals on Monday. I tend to grill on the weekends and every 3-4 days, we tackle leftovers. Whatever works, you decide, but look for the things that make the process easier, not harder!

Happy Meal Planning!!

The home stretch

It always feels to me that the week leading into a break; fall, spring or summer, feels hectic and chaotic and stressful.! As swim season gears up and extra-curriculum activities get moving for all our school children (that count is now 3/5).  This week is no exception for us, after school meetings, swim practice and HOMECOMING at my school are all happening this week! Our house is only getting busier!!!

Today was day 2 of my daughter's swim meet, my son had Hebrew class at religious school and due to the rainy weather here, my daughters had limited play space at the swim meet. But, as a testament to what an amazing community our swim family is; my girls got in plenty of indoor and outdoor supervised play time because they are loved by sooo many people. I'm so grateful for all of those men and women. 

Here's the plan for this week: 

Sunday: We're headed to my uncle's house for dinner. We get to hear all about how my brother is doing and China! 

Monday we have a swim meeting and dinner so we will be eating out! (Whew, no dishes!)

Tuesday: We have a busy night tonite so we're grilling chicken breasts and hot dogs, making potatoe wedges and Country Salad. 

Wednesday: cheesy chicken and rice casserole and steamed broccoli 

Thursday: This is the homecoming game for my high school, which means we are tailgating with the faculty and their families! Favorite tailgating recipe is homemade corn dip. What's your favorite homemade tailgate recipe? Make sure to share it in the comments below! 

Friday we are having dinner out with my parents since they're going to be in town! First time in a while! And another night with no dishes!!! 

Saturday: (Happy fall break!!!) I'm hoping to start getting some yard work done today, which means I'm planning a make-up on the grilled Brauts and veggies. If you had yours, maybe tonite is the night to try grilled cheeseLTs? It's a grilled cheese with bacon and an extra piece of bread to dress the BLT part! A bit much, but so tasty! We had ours with homemade potato wedges. 

Here's the grocery list for your shopping! 

And best wishes to you all for a great fall break! May it be restful and useful and everything you and your family needed! 

How to write a meal plan

Are you someone who says "I don't understand or I can't write a meal plan"? Do you wonder how others "stay organized"?

I find that this is something I am really good at. I can make lists, plan parties and organize spaces quickly, efficiently and (usually) get it done inexpensive. Here are a few of the tips I have for getting started on writing a meal plan of your own.

1. Make a list of things your family likes to eat.
If no one likes beef, don't include beef in your meal plan. You'll end up buying, cooking and storing leftovers of a food that will not be consumed and will go to waste. That's not beneficial.

2. Pull some recipes or look through some books or the internet for things you'd like to try.
Have you been pulling recipes from magazines and printing them off the internet because they sound good? Let's make a couple of them!

3. Get out your calendar!
Intuitively we know it is a bad idea to plan a 4 course meal on a night when all of your children have 15 things to do in 14 different places. But without our calendar, we might not know how our meals and our plans, line up.

4. Take it slow. 
Maybe just plan 2-3 meals and leave the other nights up to chance. See how it goes. I recommend that you write the meal on the calendar and put the title of the recipe next to it in your calendar. This helps you remember what comes each night and reminds you that you have an appointment with your kitchen. Going forward it may help that you have been recording this in case you are out running errands and need to get something for dinner that night or there is a change in the schedule.

5. Pick a day for grocery shopping.
The more consistent you get with meal planning, the easier it will get. The best way to be successful, is to have all of your needed ingredients when it's time to cook. It's frustrating if it is time to cook dinner and you need to run to the grocery for butter. In fact, it may make you not want to continue on the meal planning journey.

What other successes or suggestions do you have?

What other "How-To's" would be helpful to you?

October is Here!!!

I don't know about you, but I really like October. Especially the start of it! It brings with it cold and chill and PERFECT running weather. For some the excitement is PSL (aka, Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks), for others it's Target's annual fall campaign, which is PLAID this year! The weather is not so cold that you can't be outside and finally cool enough that it is acceptable to get your sweater out. At our house we are working on getting things cleaned up in our backyard so that we can have our big backyard party. In the meantime, here's what we're eating this week as we welcome in the cool air and pumpkins!

Sunday: Tonite is the first night of Sukkot. This is the Jewish Holiday which celebrates the harvest. It also happens to be a SuperMoon night!! Check this link to find out more and see it! In honor of such events, we are grilling out burgers and having homemade french fries.

Monday: Happy 3 Months of life to Georgia Waverly!!! Spaghetti and Meatballs, roasted broccoli and Country Salad.

Tuesday: I have to take Georgia to the doctor today for shots and it's supposed to be raining, so I want some comfort food today! Who's with me? Tortellini, Chicken and Veggie Casserole

Wednesday: My kids will be at Temple Israel for JYG, Jewish Youth Group, so the little girls and I will probably have a Chick-fil-a Night.

Thursday: A reprise of Sausage Alfredo Pasta, from last week, and some easy spinach.

Friday: I have been wanting some Breakfast for Dinner for a while. Tonite is pancakes, bacon, eggs and fruit salad! Share below how you do breakfast for dinner!

Saturday: Today is going to be a busy day! We have a swim meet in the morning, Fall Fest and 5k for Homecoming at my school in the afternoon, where my swim team will be selling lawn signs and my daughter is running in the Zombie 5k at Shelby Farms Park! So dinner will be easy.... brauts on the grill and some roasted fall veggies.

Here's the grocery list for this week's recipes.

Since October 4, Sunday, is the end of Sukkot, I'm hoping to take the girls to a pumpkin patch.

Time to eat!

This week feels more (and less) like normal. For more normal, we have a swim meet coming up this weekend. Which is pretty much a constant at our house. Less normal? This Monday marks 14 years being married!!!

So, here's the plan for this week!

Monday we are getting take-out from Brooklyn Bridge. It's a local Italian, family owned restaurant that we all really love. 

Tuesday: cheesy chicken and rice casserole and seasoned roasted green beans. For seasoned and roasted green beans, I get 1 lb of green beans, toss them will oil and seasonings in a large baggie, spread on a pan and cook for 20 minutes on Broil. 

Wednesday: We're trying a recipe I found in Family Fun magazine. It's a single pan recipe for meatloaf and potato wedges. It includes green beans, but since we're eating green beans tuesday, we're going to use broccoli. Here's the link. 

Thursday: This is a long night for us. I have an after-school meeting and later that night a band booster club meeting for the middle school kid, which means....LEFTOVERS!!

Friday: Sausage Alfredo and Country Salad

Saturday: Swim meet in the morning and a potential car ride to and from Nashville for my sister's baby shower means dinner has to be easy and something that can be put off if we go so.... Walking Taco night!! If you've never had a walking taco, it's a great fun way to do tacos! 

Best wishes to a great week!!!

Here's what you'll need when you go shopping...

Next Sunday I'm planning to make pumpkin bread pudding and homemade whipped cream with the leftover cream from Friday as a welcome to fall... Here's the link for the recipe I plan to try if things go as planned...