Welcome to Menu Plan Monday. :) Someone recently asked me how I go about my menu planning. I've tried different methods over the years, but have been using my current plan for about 8-10 years. I assign different days of the week certain menu ideas - or themes ... Friday for instance, is always Pizza night. When it comes to planning what we're going to eat for the week, half of my work is already done. I just have to decide what kind of pizza to make on Friday. From time to time I've modified what each day's theme will be, but knowing what kind of food I want to make during the week has 1. prevented us from eating sandwiches for 5 nights out of the week 2. encouraged us to try new things and 3. saved me so much time just coming up with what we're going to eat! Seriously, I would go blank when it came time to menu plan ... It was so overwhelming to figure out what to feed my family week after week. Now, I just find stuff to fit each theme! This is how our current menu theme looks - Breakfast on Monday through Friday is always a choice of cereal, grits or oatmeal and a fruit. I cook breakfast for my family on weekends. Lunch everyday is either leftovers, sandwiches, soup or boxed mac and cheese. I don't stray from the breakfast and lunch menu too often ... usually if the Mister joins us we might change it up ... but that is very rare. Having a set breakfast and lunch menu week after week has literally erased the planning part for those meals! It's always the same week after week ... A quick check of the pantry and fridge and I know what to add to my grocery list for those meals. Our dinner themes are: Monday is either meatless/seafood ... Going meatless one night out of the week has helped our grocery budget. Tuesday is some sort of sandwich. Wednesday is soup night at our house. Soup is another one of those meals that is usually budget friendly ... And I'm almost always guaranteed leftovers because I usually double the recipe. Sometimes it becomes lunch for a couple days and sometimes I freeze it for a future day. Thursday is some kind of ethnic dish ... Asian, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Latin, Mexican, Mediterranean, etc .... Friday, like I mentioned before, is pizza night. Sometimes we have stromboli or calzones. Saturday is usually something that is quick and easy ... casseroles, leftover soup from Wednesday, anything I can throw in the crockpot, stuff like that. Sunday is always Sunday dinner ... just like going to Grandma's house ... it's the one day that is all out and always comes with a dessert! So there you have it, that's how I plan my menu each week! Using themes has helped me immensely. :)
Onto this week's menu and what we're eating at our house this week ....
Breakfast Monday - Friday: Cereal, Grits or Oatmeal
Lunch All Week: Leftovers, Sandwiches, Soup, or Boxed
Mac and Cheese
Monday - Homemade Mac and Cheese, Green Beans, Fruit, Rolls
Tuesday - Turkey Subs, Potato Salad, Fruit
Wednesday - Chili, Cornbread
Thursday - Beef Enchiladas, Mexican Rice, Side Salad
Friday - Philly Cheesesteak Pizza
Saturday - (B) Breakfast out
(D) Tater Tot Casserole, Side Salad, Rolls
Sunday - (B) Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Fruit
(D) Grilled Chicken, Cheddar Rice Casserole, Peas, Rolls,
No-Bake Cheesecake with Cherry Topping
How do you plan your menu? Do you use themes? What's on your menu this week?
Have a great Monday y'all! :)
Wow I really love that idea planning menu according to a theme.Because specially when you have kids they really like to try some different dishes.so this way I can plan a variety of dishes for my kids.
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