Last week I tried adding a to-do list for each day to help me remember what to prep for the meals the next day. For most days, it worked out great -- except when I forgot to make French Bread at the beginning of the week! Oh well. I've heard it takes 21 days to form a habit. I'll keep at it.
Recently, I've received a few questions about how I menu plan and make my grocery list based on my menu. A few months ago I wrote a series about how we eat healthy on a budget which might be helpful in answering some of these questions. But - I use three easy steps for making my menu plan and corresponding grocery list:
What is our week going to be like? Which nights do I need something fast, which nights do I have a little more time to prepare dinner?
What's on sale? We keep a good stockpile in our kitchen, so we always have the basics on hand. When special items go on sale, we got to our "go-to" recipes that contain that ingredient {did you know, you can search by ingredient on the right sidebar of my blog?}. That is the basis for the meals we choose for our menu each week.
What ingredients do I need to complete each recipe? I sit down one night with my blog, weekly ads and as I choose the recipe for our menu, I open the recipe and skim the ingredients. Any ingredients we don't have go on the grocery list. If we have coupons for that item, I pull those too and then leave the list with the coupons all ready for grocery shopping. Right now, I'm preparing menus on Thursday night and Frog Prince is shopping on Friday.
So -- do you menu plan? If you do, how do you do it?
Last week, we enjoyed:
Cherry BBQ Chicken
{recipe to come}
{recipe to come}
Sweet and Russet Potato Home Fries
{recipe to come}
{recipe to come}
Raspberry Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Pancakes
{recipe to come}
{recipe to come}
Goulash
{recipe to come}
This week is a short week with our college's fall break on Friday -- and we're having a garage sale! Time to get rid of extra stuff. Our weekend meals are going to be easy crockpot meals to enjoy in between the garage sale and our kitchen remodeling.
B - Berry Oatmeal Crumble
L - Clean out the fridge/leftovers
D - Cheesy Chicken Bacon and Rice Soup {new}
{To do: make bread, slice mushrooms, dice asparagus}
Monday
B - Scramble Melt
D - Mushroom and Asparagus Quiche
{To do: Dice bell peppers, make muffins}
Tuesday
B - Apple Muffins
D - Un-stuffed Pepper Skillet
{To do: Make penne dish for fridge}
Wednesday
B - Oatmeal with Skillet Apples
D - Penne with Spinach and Chicken
Thursday
B - Granola, cherries
D - Leftovers
{To Do: Pull out chicken legs, cook sweet potatoes}
Friday {Garage sale, and fall break}
B - Pumpkin Granola {new}
L - Grandma's Sloppy Joe's and whole wheat rolls
D - Crockpot Lemon Herby Chicken, brown rice and steamed veggies
Dessert - The Great Pumpkin Cookies
Saturday {Garage sale, and celebrating my sister's birthday!}
B - Maple Oat Scones {new}
L - Crockpot Chicken Spinach Soup
D - Chicken Alfredo Bake, French Bread with Garlic Butter {new}
Dessert - Birthday Cake Special!
