Menus Monday

So far in this mealing planning series we talked about shopping with a list and organizing our freezers.

Tip #3: Do a 5 Day Meal Plan. "Structure your meal plan. You can do this by designating a theme per week night. Finding recipes that will slot into an evening can be the starting point to great variety during the week."

Example:

Monday - Chicken recipe

Tuesday - Beef recipe

Wednesday - Vegetarian or Pasta recipe

Thursday - Slowcooker recipe

Friday - Pizza or Soup recipe

Weekend - Leftovers or Eat Out (These would be great days to pull out the frozen leftovers we discussed last Monday.

Obviously, the items could be changed and you would want to accomodate what your family likes to eat. If there is a day that you know you do not have time to cook, use that day as the leftover day or plan to eat out. For me Wednesday and Thursday are both days that I do not have time to plan. I work those two days and picking up the little one from Grandma's does not leave much time to plan a meal before bedtime. What I may start doing is making one of the nights and eat out night and the other one a slowcooker night. This way we are not spending a lot of money on take out.

Mine will probably look like this:

Monday - Chicken recipe

Tuesday - Pasta recipe

Wednesday - Eat Out

Thursday - Slowcooker recipe

Friday - Vegetarian recipe

Saturday - Pizza recipe

Sunday - Tuna recipe

Do you have any other ideas or things that you do at home? Share your tips or ideas here or link to your site!

Menus Monday

Two weeks ago I introduced the 100 Day Meal Planning Kit that is full of excellent ways to save money, get organized and easily prepare meals. Last Monday I wrote about Tip #1 Shop with a Shopping List. This week I want to write about organization.

Tip#2: Organize Your Freezer. "Freeze left over meals like casseroles, stew, curries and soups. However be mindful of labelling containers or zip lock bags so they can be found again! This way you can always meal plan a frozen meal into your week."

I think this is a great idea. Make double what you know your family will eat and freeze the leftover. This way you are saving time in food preparation. It may take you a little longer now but later you will have an easy to re-heat meal. I tend to get really busy as the week goes on so having a frozen meal to just pull out and heat would definitely be a bonus.

Another positive to this is that lots of people do not like leftovers or at least the idea of leftovers. If you do not have it for a week or more, it will seem like a brand new meal rather than a leftover!

I have found that labeling is very important. If I didn't label, I would never know what is in there. It also helps if I send my husband down to grab something for me. He is able to easily tell what is in the freezer and what needs to be brought up.

What are your thought or ideas on organizing? Is there something that you do that really helps? Share it here.

Menus Monday

Well, last week was the first Monday for my Menu Made Easy Monday postings. I don't know about you, but I always have trouble figuring out what to make for supper, not to mention lunch half the time. I posted a link for a 100 Day Meal Planning Kit last week. In the kit, it gives 27 Tips for Successful Meal Planning. Each week, we will discuss the different tips. Be sure to comment if the tip helped you at all or to give a tip of your own!

Tip #1: Shop with a Shopping List. "This is the key to saving money. There are plenty of things you can buy, but having a purpose for each ingredient is imperative."

I have found that having a list is definitely helpful. If I don't bring a list with me, I either forget half the stuff I was supposed to get or I end up leaving with twice as much. What we do at our house is keep a shopping list sheet on the fridge. Whenever we see we need something, we write it on the list so we do not forget to get it when we go to the store. If it is on the list, I try to find a coupon or a store that has the item on sale which helps to save us even more money.

What do you do? Leave a comment and share!

Menus Monday!

Do any of you have trouble planning meals for your family? I know I do. I wait too long to plan and either don't have the time or the ingredients needed to make any one meal. I seem to have a lot of miscellaneous ingredients but never enough for one particular meal. Here is a resource I found that may help anyone like me to be more efficient at meal planning. It is "Menu in a Box 100 Day Meal Planning Kit" so go here to get it.