How I Meal Plan

With Adam getting home late {after 8p} so many evenings, I've had to step up my cooking game.  One of these days I will share a few of my easy recipes that your toddler could probably master! ;)  Today I'm sharing how I meal plan each month.  It's pretty simple {I use excel -- comment below if you would like me to email you my template}, but I love seeing the entire month and knowing what's planned.

• I start by laying out the month and adding in any days we will be out of town {high five for dining out!} or have dinner plans to go out with friends {I'll be honest, this is very rare these days!}
• Next I add any reoccurring meals.  In our house we have pizza every week.  Usually Friday, but sometimes Sunday evenings. Tuesday night a sweet, sweet friend of ours hosts us -- yes, every single week.  No, I don't take this for granted.  If for some reason we can't make it {like we're late getting home from taekwondo} my backup meal is 'Breakfast for Dinner'  We always, always, always have the ingredients for scrambled cheesy eggs and sides {fruit, yogurt, pancakes/mini bagels}
• From there I fill in all remaining dinners {& lunch on the weekends}.  To keep this simple, I Mondays are pasta night {spaghetti, chicken spaghetti, chicken Alfredo, lasagna, macaroni, etc.} Wednesdays are always some form of chicken {chicken & rice, chicken Marsala, chicken enchiladas, chicken Parmesan, grilled marinated chicken, chicken cordon bleu, chicken Parmesan bites, homemade chicken strips, etc.} Thursdays are always some form of a beef meal {open faced hamburgers, lasagna, maid rites, meatballs, roast, cheeseburgers, tacos/walking tacos, french dips, etc.}  For the weekend I just plug in meals that aren't already listed somewhere.  I keep a list of family favorites {chicken nachos, scalloped potatoes & ham, paninis, baked potato casserole, chicken friend rice, fish, beef tips over rice, bacon ranch rollups, grilled pork loin, smoked turkey breast, etc.}  In the fall/winter we always have Soup Sunday -- a few of our favorites include chicken noodle soup, chili {Adam's, not a favorite of the kids and I!}, tomato soup & grilled cheese sticks, beef tips over rice, cheesy potato soup, mushrooms and wild rice soup, hamburger beer cheese soup, 

If all else fails -- peanut butter sandwiches for all! ;)

How We Wednesday | Meal Plan Edition

I'm joining Mix & Match Mama & A Little Bit of Everything today to share how I meal plan.  

In our house, Adam does 95% of the cooking and I do 95% of the grocery shopping/pickup, meal planning, and cleanup.

Grocery 'shopping'

As we run out of staples I add them to the cart in the WalMart app {that link will give you $10 off your first order}.  Then on Thursdays I try to do a big pickup on my way out of the city for the week.  Fridays I go to other 'specialty' stores if needed.  Fareway or Dayton's Meat locker for meat {not often since we buy beef and pork every year}.  If I get seafood we go to HyVee {unless we're making sushi, then I get that a Waterfront since they fly it in daily}.  McNallys has awesome cheese and is only 20 minutes from our house.  For last minute stuff, we have a little grocery store 5 minutes from our house.  They don't have a huge selection, you have to watch their expiration dates, and they're pretty pricey but so convenient!  Also, they have a good selection of alcohol {excluding wine!} for a good price. Not that I need that right now {currently on a 30 day 'water only' streak -- Aquatober}

Meal planning

I make a monthly meal plan.  I insert any days we're out of town and then plug meals in from there.  Every Tuesday night our friend hosts us for dinner.  This started once we moved to the lake.  We call it Burger Night but it's evolved and now she makes all kinds of dinners.  It's incredibly sweet!  Plus she's a great cook and loves trying new recipes, so it's always a great night!  {Trust me, we don't take this for granted!}.  Other than that, we used to get pizza once a week {before we moved to the middle of nowhere}.  Also noteworthy, we just use this a a guide when we don't have a different idea, so we probably only eat 75% of these meals, and rarely on the day it's listed.  If it's cold we pull a soup or slow cooker meal from the list, if it's hot we will pull a grillable meal, etc.  It's mainly just some of our favorite 'go to' meals.  We're currently doing soup every Sunday in the fall and hope to start doing a big family style dinner every Sunday after football season.