Menu planning

Meal planning is hard enough to do when you don't have kids around. I've found now that we homeschool, its even harder. To make this task easier for me, I make a menu out for the entire month. Lunches are usually leftovers and/or things I pick up just in case there aren't any leftovers.

How do I make a monthly menu plan? First thing is by opening up my blank menu calendar, fill in the dates of that month (I have February's already in as a starter idea). Started by writing down any nights we may be busy, not at home, or birthdays/special events kinda things that happen that still need planned for. Busy days I plan super easy meals such as crockpot, soup, and/or sandwiches. Next I wrote down all our family favorites. While I wrote, I had to make sure we didn't eat beef, chicken or pork two days in a row and we had at least one meatless meal in the week. Third thing I did was asked the kids and hubby what sounded good to eat; asking helped me fill in more blanks. Even planned breakfast for supper a couple nights. The kids love this. Lastly, I looked around in all my cookbooks and the internet for ideas. New recipes to try are fun to plan too.

Breakfasts and lunches are pretty easy. We try to keep a basic staple supplies on hand for these meals. Leftovers are a given in this house. Eggs, oatmeal, rice, cereal, hot dogs, frozen pizzas or pizza bites, chef boyardee for the kids, soup, bread, lunch meat, etc., are a few examples of the staples we keep on hand each week. Don't forget the fruit and veggies. We try to eat a fruit at breakfast and a veggie at lunch. Some times we don't, but not always.

Give it a go. Feel overwhelmed? Start off with a week, save that week and do another. Keep making up a new week and saving it. By the end of 4 weeks you'll have a month's worth of menus. Sneaky way of doing it, but if you have to trick yourself by taking smaller bites out of a big project, I say go for it.