Menu Planning Tips

I have been in a rut lately for planning meals.  Sometimes it's hard to please everyone in our household when it comes to dinners. These tips are great for bigger families or for family with kids to get them excited about planning meals and eating dinner.

It's easier for me to plan meals if they go with some sort of theme so you could do homemade pizza night every Friday or Taco Tuesdays for example.  I decided just to have 12 or so themes/categories for meals and rotate them on a random basis.  I made menu planning into a fun family game.  I put all our categories into a bowl/hat and then we all take turns drawing for the week.  I say Sunday, then you pull the category, Monday, etc...  I then ask for suggestions for actual meals that everyone likes or wants to have, but if I don't get any I just take it from there and plan.

I post it to our menu board and now everyone knows whats coming up for the week.  This saves money so we don't have to wonder whats for dinner each night and I am loving it because David and Max head out early on Saturday morning to do the shopping while I sleep in.  Win-Win for me.

Here is a sample Menu for this week:
Sunday: Superbowl, we ate pizza & wings at a party
Monday: Salad- Taco Salad
Tuesday: Soup/Stew: Minestrone Soup
Wednesday: Mexican: Chicken Enchiladas
Thursday: Sandwiches: Chicken Pesto Paninis
Friday: Pasta: Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs
Saturday: Pizza: Homemade Pizza Night

Do you have any menu planning tips?

Menu Plan Monday- January 17th Week

This weekend I just wanted to be out of the house since the snow days had me stuck inside a majority of last week so we went to Ippolittos on friday night (a great italian restaurant). I had the Chicken French. It was so good and we stuffed ourselves on their amazingly huge rolls. Take a look at all the food we consumed.

 We both started with salads (they come with the dinner meals)

 I had chicken french and it has sun dried tomatoes (great extra touch).

 David had the lasagna.

 And we both ate like 3 rolls a piece. They are gigantic, but seriously the best food I've had in a while. Can you tell we don't get out much, but it really was that good. Btw, I stole these photos from their websites and a food critic review.

All this food talk had me wanting to plan all the yummy food I was going to make this week.

Monday- Chicken Pesto Panini

Tuesday- Pioneer Woman Cajun Meatloaf (It makes a ton so I make meatballs from this as well)

Wednesday- Pasta With Olives and Tomatoes

Thursday-Leftovers

Friday- Homemade Raviolis. We were going to make these this weekend, but I just didn't feel like it so sorry David, I promise we'll make them this weekend.

Saturday-We're taking his nieces and nephews to Pizza as a delayed xmas gift.

Menu Plan Monday- November 7th week

I had such high hopes of shopping this weekend, but we basically used the weekend for resting. After our big Halloween bash David and I fell apart. He had a horrible back ache all week and I had a painful neck ache that was still around. So we just lounged around and slept a lot of the weekend, which was much needed and great. We did venture to the mall on saturday afternoon, but it was SO crowded. People were parking on the grassy area where it only gets crowded during Christmas time! Traffic was out of control. Are people already shopping for xmas? I think so and did they realize we are still in a recession? I think because it was so cold this weekend (30's as lows) that people thought it was time to celebrate. I almost put a Christmas Movie in myself this weekend. I tried to go in to the stores to find my cute jeans and boots, but just wasn't in the mood for crowded picked over items. There's always next time. With the extra hour from daylight savings I used it to meal plan and shop while David installed a new garage door opener for us (more on that later).

One other quick note, I added a printer friendly icon to each of my blog posts. This will make it easy to print a recipe. Just click on this button under the blog post/recipe that you want to print.

Here are my meals for the week:

Meal 1- Chicken Finger Subs. Nothing hard about this one, you can definitely make your own chicken strips, but I'm going to use the good ole fashioned frozen chicken strips. Add your favorite toppings and you're all set.

Meal 2- Chicken & Broccoli Stuffed Shells

Meal 3- Beef Lettuce Wraps


Meal 4- Spaghetti and Meatballs or Sesame Noodles

Meal 5- Garlic Lime Tilapia 

Meal 6- Tortellini Sausage Soup- This one takes a little effort to make, but is sooo good. Perfect for cooler weather.

Head on over to Organizing Junkie for more meal ideas!

Menu Plan Monday- October 11th Week

I am organized for week number 2 in a row! I went shopping and even made one of the meals already. I'm not sure when we are having what so I'll just call them Meal 1 and so on.

Meal 1- Bruschetta with a Garden Salad- We had this last night and it was so yummy. I'll post the recipe now so you can see, recipe is from Our Best Bites.
Ingredients
2 C diced tomatoes (squeeze out seeds before dicing)- I used 5 on the vine tomatoes
1/3 C diced red onion
1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
a few cracks black pepper
1/4 C chopped fresh basil leaves
1 french baguette or bread of your choice
additional olive oil

Combine tomatoes, onions, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and 1 tsp olive oil in a bowl and mix to combine.  Add basil and gently toss to distribute.  Give it a taste and add additional salt and pepper if necessary.  Cover and chill. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice baguette into half inch slices and place on a baking sheet.   Drizzle or brush some olive oil on top.  Place in oven for 8-10 minutes until just lightly toasted.  Remove pan from oven.

Top with about a tablespoon of the tomato mixture.

 Look at how yummy everything looks!

Meal 2- Teriyaki Chicken and Fried Rice

Meal 3- Nachos with Grilled Fajita Chicken and Pico de Gallo

Meal 4- Practice Mummy Hot Dogs (for Halloween) and Mac and Cheese

Meal 5- Asian Noodles

Meal 6- Stouffers Lasagna. Now I'm not crazy about frozen food, but I like their lasanga and at $3 for a family size meal you can't beat that. Kroger is having Buy 10 get $5 off sale this week and I stocked up on some great items (garlic bread, rolls, bacon, waffles, hotdogs, lunch meat, california pizza kitchen pizza, etc..) I spent $68 this week and saved $37.

Menu Plan Monday- October 4th week

I decided to get myself organized last night with meals for the week. I wish I could just stay home today and cook up everything!

Monday- Ravioli in a white wine cream sauce I'm looking forward to trying this new recipe.

Tuesday- Sausage with Pumpkin Pasta (from Taste of Home). I'll post on this once I make it, I thought it was time to get in to fall festive mood.

Wednesday- Stuffed Green Peppers I made these before, but they were so hard to eat whole so I'm going to make these into bite size pieces. 

Thursday- Baked Chicken-Bacon Alfredo. I made this for a friend at work when she had her baby a few months ago. I made it and froze one for her and one for me. It makes a great freezer meal for a later time. Maybe I'll make a double batch.

Friday- Sausage Calzones- Thanks to Erin R for this suggestion. She was talking to me saturday night about these and I got to craving them.

Saturday- Chicken LoMein Always a favorite in our house.

What are you having for dinners this week? I'll post tomorrow on our weekend, but we had a great time at Dave Ramsey!

Menu Planning and a Happy Celebration!

We had crazy thunderstorms driving home last night from work. The lightening was out of control! Needless to say, I wasn't stopping at the grocery store. I did want to share my menu plan for the week of what's for dinner at our house. Most of the recipes come from Pioneer Woman and Our Best Bites this week. I have never made number 2, 4 and 5 so  I will post on those after and let you know!

Meal 1- Margherita Grilled Pizza (if you haven't tried grilling your pizza, you need to!) We make our dough and you cook one side on the grill for a few minutes. Then you bring it inside and flip it over on the cooked side to put your toppings on. Throw it back on the grill on the uncooked side and there ya go! We do ours on foil to make sure it doesn't burn.

Meal 2 - Butter Chicken

Meal 3 French Dip

Meal 4- Bow-Tie Lasagna

Meal 5- Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

Breakfasts- I am going to try to make homemade granola

I also wanted to give a shout out to Bill and Karen! There was a surprise 30th wedding anniversary celebration up in NY this past weekend and I wanted to show some photos with you that my Mom sent.

How cute!

Here they are at the party with 2 of their kids- Christie on the left and Heather on the right. Congrats Karen and Bill and may you have many more years to come!

Menu Plan Tuesday

I think I get an excuse for posting this on Tuesday since yesterday was a holiday and I just couldn't get myself organized. I like to post the recipes on here so I can reference back easily. My favorite recipe from last week is the one I posted today. The grilled corn salsa was amazing as a meal and would be great for parties as a dip. Oh, and we finally made that chocolate cobbler from a few weeks back! I'll post on that later this week. This week though, nothing has seemed good to me so I went searching around the internet for inspiration. Here is what I came up with.

Meal 1- Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken with Mexican Rice. I never did make this last week. I am adding the Mexican rice in because I hear it's fantastic.

Meal 2- Tasty Lettuce Wraps from The Pioneer Woman

Meal 3- Chicken Strips- I'm way behind on my Oprah's (like 3 months) so I just watched the episode on making your own chicken fingers and was craving them.

Meal 4- Pasta with Sausage & Tomatoes:  I took this from a fellow menu plan Monday blogger. I just can't remember who.
Ingredients-
4 c. rigatoni
1 lb. italian sausage, either in casing- cut up, or loose
1 sliced red onion
1/4 c. tomato paste
1/4 c. sun dried tomato salad dressing
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/4 grated parmesean cheese

Cook pasta, brown sausage and drain, add in onions and tomato paste- cover and cook 15 min. Stir in dressing, serve on top of the pasta, top with parsley and cheese.

Meal 5- Black Bean Burgers- I've always wanted to try a burger without ground beef/turkey and with all the bbq's this weekend I don't want a real hamburger for a little while.

Meal 6- Stuffed Pizza Rolls- Oldie but a goodie. If you haven't made these yet, you need to try them. Have I posted this one yet? I can't remember, but they are amazing! You can use any toppings inside that you would like.

What are you cooking this week? I need more suggestions, I'm starting to eat the same things over and over. Check out Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas.

Menu Plan Mondayish

So, I'm a day late for Monday's menu plan post. The good news is I already went shopping for all this last night and only spent $55! This week I have a common theme- Asian and Mexican food with a lot of chicken. I think it's because I had a big juicy hamburger at a bbq this weekend and I don't want hamburgers for a while now. I can't wait to try meals 2, 3, 4, and 5 because they are new to me! I wish I could go home right now and just start cooking. What are you having for dinners this week?

Meal 1- Chicken Lo Mein- Had it last night and it was mmm mmm good.

Meal 2- Grilled Roasted Corn Salsa (Nacho style with some chicken) I've heard this is fantastic and I can't wait to make it. I'll share with you once I'm done.

Meal 3- Crock Pot Sante Fe Chicken from Fairhope Foodie

Meal 4- Beef and Broccoli from Pioneer Woman      

Meal 5- Grilled Chicken Pineapple Quesadilla from Pioneer Woman

Meal 6- Grilled Stuffed Zucchini- I never made them from last week because I forgot the Zucchini.

Menu Plan Monday- May 16th week

I decided since I was grocery shopping tonight that I would post my menu for the week. The weather has been perfect for grilling and I've been motivated to grill up some yummy goodness.  I don't know for sure what day I'll have what, so I'm going to post a bunch of recipes and decide as I go.

Meal 1- Chicken Ranch Casserole from Taste of Home Magazine that my sister likes to make.

Meal 2- Grilled Lemon Tilapia with Asparagus from Kraft Foods.

Meal 3- French Dip. I'm trying a new recipe from the Pioneer Woman so I can see how I like it compared to the Our Best Bites one that I've posted about here.

Meal 4- Sausage Calzones. We have been craving these for a while and since I'll be using sausage for another meal this week, it'll be perfect!

Meal 5- Grilled Stuffed Zucchini from Our Best Bites.

Meal 6- Butterflied Chicken with Lemon, Thyme and Garlic from Grill It! with Bobby Flay. We watched it this weekend and I've never butterflied a chicken and I got inspired. This should be fun, and if you click on the link, go to video to watch him do it.

Dessert-Chocolate Cobbler. Take a look at these pictures and tell me if you can resist something that looks this good. I don't think so...

What's on your dinners this week at your place?

Menu Plan Monday

I've been reading my other money saving food blogs and every week they do a Menu Plan Monday. I enjoy reading what they do so I'm going to start doing this occasionally (I'd like to say all the time, but I'm sure I'll skip a few). When I grocery shop I always have a weekly meal plan. It is the best way to stay organized and save money for me. Check out Organizing Junkie for more great menu ideas. At Kroger this week chicken is on sale for $1.79 per pound and the rotisserie chickens are $3.99. I have a loadable Kroger plus coupon for $2 off so that is why its a chicken week! I will post the recipes after I make it for step by step pictures and instructions, but I also linked to them from where I originally got them. This week it's a kraft foods week. If you haven't been to their website you need to check it out and make an account. You can store all your recipes in a recipe box and come back and look at all of them.

Monday- Chicken Pesto Panini

Tuesday- Chicken Fajitas

Wednesday- Italian Chicken Quesadillas

Thursday-Weeknight Lasanga Toss

Friday- Grilled Chicken Bruschetta with vegetables

Saturday-Steeplechase! (more on this later)

Sunday- Homemade Pizza (Not sure what kind yet)