In need of meal planning tips...

[Michele B]

I just purchased the Motivated Moms 2009 calendar. I really need to get organized. I don't even know how to begin to meal plan. I am tempted to just write "spaghetti" for every meal! Please help and rescue my family from neverending pasta!

 

And I'm a vegetarian.

[lynn]

I just purchased the Motivated Moms 2009 calendar. I really need to get organized. I don't even know how to begin to meal plan. I am tempted to just write "spaghetti" for every meal! Please help and rescue my family from neverending pasta!

 

And I'm a vegetarian.

 

 

What I do is pick one italian meal, one mexican meal, simple beans and rice w/corn muffins, chicken meal, roast, ham or meatloaf, maybe a breakfast meal, pizza night, salad(pasta or other), grill out meal, chili, soup and sandwhich of some type, plan chinese takeout or bbqtake out. Then I make a list of 21 or so meals, write out my shopping list keeping it organized by meat, vegetables, soups, etc, eggs, milk, cheese and yogert are a given. I try to do 3 weeks of shopping all at once so I do not have to run out weekly. It takes some planning and some time but once you get a routine down it all works out.

[Ferdie]

Congrats on your new calendar! Don't you love being organized?

 

I plan our meals one week at a time. First, look at the calendar and see if you have any events that would influence your dinner plans - like a crockpot meal on a rushed day. Then just plan out your meals based on the week. I usually plan on 2 chicken meals, 2 ground turkey meal, red meat dinner, low cost dinner and a left over night.

 

You can also plan your meals one month at a time. Just get out your favorite recipes, (Allrecipes.com is great place to get ideas or look through the cookbooks at your library), and plan out 2 weeks of meals and then repeat the plan for the 2nd half of the month.

 

If you really want to treat yourself, there is a webiste called savingdinner.com and they have a menu planning service. I haven't used it for a few years, but for a few bucks a month they will email you a weekly menu plan and grocery list. Last time I checked they had a vegetarian option.

 

Also someone on this board had a cute suggestion for having theme nights for each day of the week as a base for meal planning: M-chicken, T-Italian, W-ground turkey, Th- crockpot, F-Mexican food, S-roast/BBQ, Sun-soup.

 

Happy meal planning.