When I initially created this blog I thought it would be a fun creative outlet for me. What I forgot is that it takes a bit of time, and life happens. So, between my last post in uh.... April... I planted my garden, tended my garden, spent summer vacation with my kids. Harvested my garden, preserved my garden, and winterized my garden. There have been a million things I could have blogged about, but... Eh. Such is life. Not sure my 5 followers even missed me.
So what made me break my silence you ask? Well, this week we had our monthly MOPS meeting, and the topic was once a month freezer cooking. Now, most people will agree, that if I can make something more difficult on myself I will. But our speaker seemed to have over complicated the whole thing to such a degree that even I couldn't follow her. It involved excel spread sheets, color coordinating, a 3 ring binder and a white board. What the hell? My way is SO much easier, and after the first initial weeks, our menu is basically on auto pilot.
Last august I got sick of menu planning. No one could ever decide what they were hungry for. We kept forgetting about favorite meals, we would eat the same things over and over again. My family got sick of me hounding them for dinner ideas and started answering my " what do you want to eat this week" thing things like, " Legos" Enough is enough.
I sat down with a notebook and listed out about 30 things that we really like to eat, and organized them into categories. We have Time consuming meals, left over meals, easy meals, and soups. Then I listed them all out on a old school paper calendar. I scheduled easy meals on mondays and tuesdays because those evenings are the busiest for our family. I scheduled time consuming meals for the weekends, and leftovers in between. Every week we have one soup night. Once I had everything planned out, I plugged it into my Google calendar, and told it to repeat every month. I will never have to plan another menu again! This method has allowed me to make better use of my left overs. We have way less food waste, and have managed to shave about $100 off our grocery bills monthly.
So, here is a sample of our monthly menu:
Monday-left over chili
Tuesday-Macaroni and cheese
Wed-spaghetti
Thurs-Gumbo
Fri-tacos
sat-pizza
sun-brats
Mon-left over Gumbo
Tues-Gezpacho Cube steak
Wed- garlic potato soup
Thurs- Ham
Fri-Sandwich night
Sat- Margaritta Pizza
Sun-Enchaladas
Mon-Hot Dogs
Tues-Sloppy Joes
Wed- Augratin Potatoes
Thurs-Pancakes
Friday- Mac and cheese
Sat- sushi
Sun- Ravioli
Mon-Grilled cheese
Tues-Left over ravioli
Wed- Fried rice
Thurs-French onion soup
Friday- Alfredo
Sat- Turkey
Sun-Pork loin
Mon-left over turkey
Tues-Left over pork loin
wed- chili
Thurs-lemon chicken
Fri-Tacos
Sat-Left over chili
Sun- seafood chowder
Cooking each meal in bulk and freezing helps me cut down on prep time. I usually double a recipe and freeze half for next month.
What method do you use for meal planning?
we basically do the same exact thing except we have Mexican Night, International night, Pizza night (every week),and kids cook night each week. And we add one new recipe each month and we all rate it. If it gets over 25 points, we will add it to the rotation. The last few winners have been chicken with goat cheese, chicken and veggies in red curry sauce over rice and tofu burritos.
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