Menu Planning Made Easy

Many have asked for meal planning tips so I thought I'd share some on here. I've been planning my meals once a month since I was pregnant with my youngest and couldn't make it to the store as often, so for about 4 years! I've found some things to be so helpful in making it so simple...

1. Categorize your days (I have some examples of what my meal plan looks like for the next 4 weeks. I'm not done but here's a rough outline)....

Mondays - casseroles
(broccoli turkey supreme, baked chicken and stuffing, cheeseburger casserole, pizza casserole)
Tuesdays - crock pot meals
(marinated chicken breast over rice or noodles, chicken parmasaen, slow cooker chicken stroganoff)
Wednesdays - pasta or baked pasta
(lasagna, fett alfredo, filled shells, Hamburger helper)
Thursdays - Chicken
(garlic chicken, grilled chicken)
Fridays - junk food like hamburgers, pizza, etc
Saturdays - breakfast type foods
Sundays - chili, subs, sloppy joes, tacos (something easy so I don't have a big mess!)

2. Stock your shelves with all staple items and one extra so when one runs out you simply mark it on your next grocery list. You have a spare to use in the meantime. I actually suggest stocking up to 3 months worth of some items when you can find a good sale and use coupons.

3. Have a typed grocery list with all possible groceries that you might need in a month then you have a "check-list" to go through and check the groceries you actually need. Saves so much time and you don't ever forget anything!

4. Of course you will need to have a larger freezer to do this and will still need to go to the grocery to pick up fresh items as you need (but should get by with only going once a week for this).

5. After you get home brown up all your meat and put as many casseroles together as you can to freeze for later. Saves so much time for busy schedules.

6. My favorite places to get new recipes (I don't repeat meals within a month's time. Most of the time I don't repeat a recipe for 2 months or more). www.allrecipes.com, Taste of Homes Simple and Delicious magazine, Taste of Home magazine, and pillsbury.com.

I'm going on my next trip this weekend so I'll try to post pictures of what buying a month's worth of groceries looks like.