2 Week Meal Plan, My New Years Resolution!

You know the feeling, it is five o'clock, the kids are beginning to ask 'What's for Dinner Mom?'  You think to yourself good question... You realize you have nothing you WANT to eat in the house, so you wind up eating Spaghetti for the second time that week, or you order out.. (If you live in a place that has order out, I don't have many options where I live).

Um yeah, this has been happening way too much at my house lately.  The thing is I LOVE to cook, I really do, but I do not love being in a bind at 5 o'clock at night wondering what creation I can come up with... This by the way is the time my kids are the crankiest!  It makes meal time NO FUN for anyone!  So my new years resolution this year is to have a two week meal plan... My resolution last year coincidentally was to have a one month Meal plan... it did not happen, not even once.... WHY?

I think it is because I like to COMPLICATE just about everything!  I see the wonderful, amazing, meal plan binders, large color coded calenders, darling menu boards, and I think I need to do that.  But the reality is, I am not that organized, it is just not me.  I need to keep it very simple in order for it to stick.  So after a year of thinking about meal planning this is what I have come up with.

I created a simple layout in Word.  A table with days of the week on one side, and what we will have for dinner on the other side.  I include the meal name and where to find it, if it is in a cookbook, I put the page number, or if it is on Allrecipes, etc..  OBB stands for Our Best Bites by the way, I got their cookbook for Christmas (SCORE, LOVE IT).  Here is what I am eating for the next two weeks, want to come over?

Weekly Meal Planner

January 30-February5

Monday	Beef Barley Soup (Beef soup bone, beans, green beans, tomatoes, red potatoes, celery, beef broth, barley)
Tuesday	Guiltless Alfredo Sauce, with turkey/broccoli OBB p. 158
Wednesday	Freezer
Thursday	Shredded beef enchiladas
Friday	Out
Saturday	Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers, OBB  p. 113
Sunday	Jello

February 6-February 12

Monday	Creamy Corn Chowder, OBB p. 97
Tuesday	Spaghetti Sauce
Wednesday	Freezer
Thursday	Orange Chicken with Snow Peas  OBB p. 118
Friday	Steak and Potatoes
Saturday	Left-overs, Date Night
Sunday	Cobb Salad

I am a PBS nerd, and totally love the show The Food Nanny.  If you have not seen the show before, The Food Nanny assigns each day of the week a different theme. This helps you come up with what to eat.  These are my themes:
         

       Soup or Salad Monday,  Keep it simple!

        Stock Up Tuesday, I make five freezer meals each month with my SIL, I try to stock up on 

                              Tuesday. I make a meal we can eat that night, and freeze two for the future.

        Freezer Wednesday, Wed is my busy day, so we use a freezer meal.

       Out of the Country Thursday; I love food from other countries, Mexican is probably my
                                      favorite.

         Flexible Friday, If we go out to eat it is usually on the weekend, so I try to stay flexible, so on

                                          Fridays we can have left overs or a freezer meal, if we are home.

         What’s New Saturday, I love trying new recipes so I decided to designate a day to try 

                                                 something new.

          Salad or Dessert Sunday; We usually eat at my Mother In Law's on Sunday and every 

                            week she tells me I can bring a salad or dessert.

I really like this method because it is pretty flexible.  I have been doing this for about a month, and I have found some weeks, I do not use all of the meals, so I just roll it over to the next week.

 

I also created a simple grocery list to go along with it.  I look at the recipes to see what items I do not  have on hand.  I organized the grocery list food categories to correspond to the layout of the grocery store I usually go to.  This really works great.  I print it out and pencil some additional things I need.

I have been trying this for about a month now, and I LOVE IT!  As a family we are eating healthier, and dinner is a lot less stressful!  This has worked well for us, it is really simple, it takes a little time to make the schedule, but definitely worth it in the end!  I tape the menu into the inside of one of my cupboards.. does not get much simpler than that!

How do you meal plan?

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I like to link at these parties!