Meal Planning- The Method Behind the Madness

So here I sat, dreaming of the impossible... a long list of values, motivations and standards to incorporate into my Meal Plan to End All Meal Plans... Our Family Recipe book of the past, present and future.

I had the hope and dream that if I put in the hard work now...it would really pay off later.

I had my stack of recipes, my spiral bound notebook and my tea and then inevitable dark chocolate...

Where to start???!!

I came up with a formula...and then filled in the blanks...then edited and tweaked what I had.

So here was my formula:

Sunday: Crock Pot Meal, Chicken or Roast 

Monday: Beef Night (Quick, easy, meal because my husband works late on Mondays and is not home for dinner.)

Tuesday:  Personal Pizza Night...everyone got to make their own on a whole wheat English Muffin. (At the time it was my husband's day off... and I didn't know about my kid's allergies)

Wednesday: Something using leftovers from previous meals, incorporate meat from the roast or chicken. Or a chicken dish.
Thursday: Beans, possibly vegetarian. Beans are very cheap (and come free from WIC), and going meatless for one night a week has its benefits both financially and physically.
Friday: Seafood/Fish -- this sounds more glamorous than it is...we get a lot free tuna fish from WIC and I wanted to find creative ways to incorporate tuna into meals. (Although, I do have a special night with Teriyaki Salmon Steaks.)
Saturday: Left Overs or BBQ on the grill.

*You may have noticed that we do not have Pork Night...simply because we do not love Pork. However, ground sausage does show up in a meal occasionally.

For us, five days worth of meals works out well. This give us a chance to use up any leftovers, and fill in with my husband's favorites (Burgers and Pizza...which he would be very happy to eat every day.)

This formula was a great frame work for me to use to organize our meals. I started putting the pieces to the puzzle together. Some meals didn't make the cut, while I had to go searching for new ones to make the flow work.

I did repeat meals...especially favorites that happen to be super easy. Other frequently repeated meals are Roast and Cooking a whole Chicken. These are easy, and a great source of left over meat to incorporate into later meals.

Once I had the formula...the weeks of dinners really came together!! In fact, I was surprised when I came up with 10 weeks of dinners!! It was a bit much...but when I considered that I wanted a Family Cookbook...it was a nice amount of recipes.

Once I decided on what the plans consisted of, I had the arduous task of typing them up and formatting them nicely into a recipe book. When I started doing that...10 weeks seemed like over kill!! But, it was worth it in the end.

Then came the shopping list phase...more on that later!