Meal Plan

There's this blog I found yesterday via a friend's pin on pinterest. Not even sure everything that's on this blog, but it's called Three Boys and a Dog. However, she was talking about meal planning and has a contest going for people to post about how they meal plan. I like how we meal plan - been doing it off and on for something like 5 or 6 years. So, here's my post

Years ago when I started menu planning, I took three or four cook books off the shelf, picked up my calendar, and put things on the calendar that looked yummy. I would just sit there for a couple of hours flipping through the cookbooks picking things I wanted to eat until the month was full of food. Then Friday night (or so) I would sit down with the calendar again and a piece of paper and open up the recipes and make a shopping list for the next 7 days. I leave the calendar hanging on the wall so Mr Top Gun never had to ask "what's for dinner" (although, interestingly enough, he always does). I always write the page number and the cookbook in the calendar too so I know where to go back to, when it's time to cook. 

This has been a good plan. I find that I don't always cook what's on the menu (probably only 60-70% of the time actually), but I'm much more on top of "what's for dinner" simply because I wrote something down. And, generally, we eat earlier (and then get to bed earlier) when we know what's next.  However, when I first started doing this I just threw recipes on the menu w/o much thinking about it.
Lately I've been trying to put some thought into it too. I don't want a week of Chicken. I don't want to have fish on then menu when I'm low on money, have none in the bank account, and it's 5 days till pay day. So I try and plan so that if we're having something that we don't normally have on hand, I plan that meal right after pay day, not before.

A lot of our food requires some preparation the day/night before, I've been trying for years to get better and planning ahead - having the menu is supposed to help. I just seem to forget to look at it in advance. Last month I figured out that cozi has a meal planning link. So I put all the meals for the month of January on their menu. Still can't remember to consistently look it up the night before, but I'm getting there. One thing I LOVE about cozi is you can add the recipes to your recipe box and then import the ingredients to your shopping list. I can access the list from my smart phone and even check them off as I go through the store.

We also spent some time and money last summer stocking up on fresh, local, organic veggies and freezing much of them, so this winter I'm trying to plan meals that use the veggies we have on hand, rather than shopping for a lot more. It takes more creativity in the planning part = takes longer to plan, but it keeps the shopping bills down.

I also really enjoy ethnic foods, so often we'll have a month that's heavy on one cuisine or another from around the world b/c that's the cookbook I'm using that month. It makes it nice b/c when you do have to buy a random, obscure food item from the ethnic grocery, chances are that you'll have to use it again at some point that month.

Now that I've talked all about the menu... I'm off to see what's on it for the next meal, and, most likely, thaw some meat. And I'd better get to February's menu!