Monthly Meal Planning

I have tried so many ways to plan meals in my 16 years of marriage.  When I was first married, it was one of my most favorite things to do.  I tried a new recipe each night and had my husband give me feedback so I could take notes on each recipes.  Finally after about 2 months of having 60 different meals, he sheepishly asked me if maybe we could repeat some of the recipes that he had given me good reviews about.  :)  Needless to say, I actually enjoy planning menus.

I would love to eventually tell you about all the ways that I have planned menus but for today, I'm just telling you what I've done for this month of March.  I love my crock pot and use it several times every week.  I actually use THEM several times a week - I have 2!  I got my Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook (all crock pot recipes) and flipped through it to find recipes that mostly call for things I already have on hand or things that wouldn't cost too much to purchase.  I made a list of a variety of 20 meals, writing the page number on the left side and any ingredients that I would need to purchase on the right side.  Then I got to the end of the cookbook and realized there is a good number of crock pot desserts that call for things I already have on hand.  I added 6 of them to the list - not that I would make all 6 - but at least have a choice to give them a try if we are having a sweet tooth (I usually  make a dessert on the weekends.).

As for the other 11 nights of the month?  Well, we usually do a breakfast meal one night a week and oftentimes a leftover night every so often.  Of course things might come up that would send us elsewhere for supper but 9.9 times out of 10, we are home.

What I love is that each morning before we start homeschooling, I check my list, see what I have a hankerin' for and lay out the meat to thaw (or check it the night before if it needs longer to thaw).  Ahh - the ease of not panicking at 5:00 p.m.!!