February Menus and My Grocery Goal

Monthly meal planning has continued at our house though I was tempted not to plan for February.  Baby 3 will join us soon and I know that plans will have to be very flexible. 
I decided to plan menus that used things already in our pantry and freezer.  Not only will this make life simpler, but it will also save money.  My goal for February is to shop the perimeter of the store.  We'll need to buy things like fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, and eggs but I hope to buy little else. 
I'm hoping this will make our transition to a family of five a little smoother while keeping us on track in our budget.

Meal Planning: May

Today, I sat down to prepare our menus and have tried to plan menus that contain ingredients that we already have in our pantry.  The continuing goal is to always plan healthy menus but I'd love to keep my grocery budget as low as possible.  I've also noticed our pantry is starting to overflow and I do not want to waste food.  My goal is to only have to buy the fresh produce for the recipes.

Hanky Panky Sandwiches are one of Jon's favorites and an easy meal to prepare for a busy Sunday.  A friend was the first to introduce us to this recipe and to be honest, the name of the sandwiches still makes me smile.  One making of the meat makes enough for four meals for our family and it freezes well.  If you are interested in an easy meal to make for your family, I recommend trying these sandwiches. 

I can't believe that it is May already and I hope this month is a great one!

April Menus

This month we have lots of plans during the day time so my goal was to plan easier meals for the month.  Meals with few ingredients or ones that I can assemble ahead of time were definitely the first choice.  Homemade chicken nuggets are an easy but still healthy dinner when paired with steamed vegetables.  I feel a little less "mom guilt" by making my own nuggets.  I also discovered a new family favorite recipe, Lasagna Casserole, from Money Saving Mom.  Sweetpea ate more of this casserole than anyone else at the table last month.  Since we are working on her weight gain, any recipe that fit the easy criteria and that she enjoys automatically made the month plan. 
With springtime weather here, Jon has asked to grill more so I've included nights for him to grill.  Because he'll take care of all the dinner preparations, and sometimes even clean up, there are no complaints from me!
All in all, I am glad to have April's meals planned and I'm looking forward to the month ahead.  I'd love to hear about any of your family's favorite quick and easy meals as well.  Sharing recipes is always fun!

Meal Planning: February

I planned our February menus today and my goal this month was to have a more varied menu.  Jon pointed out that I tend to cook chicken a lot and he is right.  This month I've incorporated more beef, pork chops, and seafood, hopefully Jon will enjoy.  Each week also has a family favorite added: Crusty Lasagna for Buddy, steaks for Jon, Chicken Rotel for all of us, and Gumbo for me.

When we finally have a chance to get out of the house (it is still snowy here), I'm planning to buy the ingredients needed for meals and cook ahead as much as possible on Saturday.  I've been rushed lately at dinner time and want to make the prep work easier.  The beauty of planning out my meals in advance is to be able to cut down on the preparations for each meal because I can do several at once.  For example, I am not a fan of browning ground meat and so I can brown several pounds at once and divide it out for meals.  Spaghetti, tacos, and lasagna all start with browning the meat and by cooking it all at once, it is done and in the freezer ready to go for the day's meal.  Grated cheese is another item that can be prepared in a big batch but frozen for smaller meals.  We use grated mozzarella for pizza pockets, lasagna, homemade pizza, and several other casseroles.

I love having the organization of having my meals planned in advance.  I hope that your meal time is less hectic as well because of a meal plan, whether it is weekly or monthly.  If you are not sure where to start, check out my post on how I plan my meals by the month!

Meal Planning: January

I know I am a little behind, as today is the fourth day in January, but I finally had a moment to sit down and plan out our menus.  As a Southern girl, cooking healthy is always a challenge but I really tried to make the meals this month a little lighter in calories.  Both Jon and I have the goal of getting into shape and becoming healthier this year so our meals need to reflect that plan.  One of my favorite cookbooks to pull lighter recipes from is my Taste of Home Cookbook.  It has an entire section for lower caloric main dishes, appetizers, and desserts.  A lot of our meals this month come from this cookbook or from a recipe I adapted from an idea in it.  Each week, though, has a meal that isn't as healthy because I have given up in the past when I try to eat right all the time!  In moderation, I can enjoy a somewhat less healthy meal, which will add the variety that I crave and prayerfully keep me on track over the long run.

Another goal, as I planned out the meals, was to have at least one meal each week that Buddy can help me make.  Buddy is starting a preschool at our church on Thursday so that night we're having his favorite, Crusty Lasagna.  This is a family favorite that is actually titled Crescent Lasagna but was renamed at some point when I was a child.  Buddy loves this meal and loves to help prepare it with me.  He loves to cook and bake and so we'll have fun making Crusty Lasagna, Enchiladas, Chicken Pot Pie, and Homemade pizza.  I'm looking forward to making the meals with Buddy and having that time together.

Hidden Vegetables

Hidden Vegetables:

I was chopping up carrots for dinner and as I threw them into the taco meat, I thought "I am a sneaky mom!".  Before having children, I always told myself that I would never hide the vegetables in other foods but that my children would eat them.  Ha!  Buddy was a really good eater until around two years old and then he started balking at the vegetables on his plate.  Jon and I started trying to sneak them by him in with other bites but he eventually caught on to that trick.  Instead of having a huge battle at supper time over eating carrots, I started sneaking them into other dishes.  I still offer them to him on the plate but I'm not as worried about making sure he eats them because I know that the main dish has a serving of veggies for everyone. 

I don't blame Buddy though, I grew up in the South and discovered that the only way I truly enjoy to eat veggies is soaked in butter, dipped in ranch, or sprinkled liberally with salt.  Jon on the other hand just likes the taste of the vegetable by itself.  Sometimes, hiding the vegetables in our dishes is as much for me as for Buddy.  On the plus side, Buddy ate his entire soft taco tonight and had a full serving of peas and carrots without blinking an eye!

A few examples of where I hide veggies:
Lasagna, Spaghetti, or anything with a tomato sauce -- finely diced or pureed carrots
Enchiladas -- finely diced broccoli and carrots
Tacos -- finely diced carrots in the meat and pureed peas in the soft taco
Grilled cheese -- finely diced broccoli

Minibooks:

We'll be traveling for Christmas and I've been working on finding Buddy a few small and light activities to pack in our carry-on and for layovers.  I found some great Minibooks over at BibleStoryPrintables.com that print on one sheet of paper and fold into a book.  (How to Fold Tutorial)  I printed them in black and white and plan on coloring them ahead of time or even allowing him to color as he reads on the plane.  If you choose, the books can be printed in color also.  Buddy just was not thrilled about coloring today. 

If you have any great ideas of you get your children to eat vegetables or activities for travel, I'd love to hear from you in the comment section!

Meal Planning Pt. 2 How I plan my meals

Reading through Once a Month Cooking  made me reevaluate how I planned our meals and how I shopped.  I had always planned and shopped by the week but often times wouldn't stick to the plan.  So when I first started planning by the month, I planned for two weeks.  That worked for me because we had enough flex to be able to shift the meals throughout the two weeks.  I then branched out to planning a whole month.  It took me almost two hours because I sat down with all my cookbooks and a pencil and proceeded to get overwhelmed. 

I had so many recipes that I liked and so many ones that I wanted to try.  I finally had to realize that there were only so many days a month and I decided to try only a few new recipes a month.  Our family also has favorites that we have once a month.
I loved the principles in the book but when I began to plan our meals, I realized how many simple meals that we make that would not freeze and Jon is not a huge fan of most casseroles.  I also did not like cooking once a month because I love to cook.   So I adapted the strategy for our household.  I make our plan on an Outlook calendar with the recipe location underneath the name.  The photo at the start is our actual December menu.  Then I write out my list of ingredients needed, go shopping (hopefully) every two weeks, and when I do make a meal that freezes, I try to make a double batch.  One meal is frozen for a night in the future (a lot of my December meals are actually in the freezer since our schedule is a little more hectic).  We also are flexible and not rigid about our plans.  There are days that what was planned early in the month does not sound appealing at the end of the month.  Some meals leave more leftovers and some meals don't leave as many as I thought.   We adapt the plans to fit our needs. 

If meal time preparation is hectic for you, I challenge you to think about planning your meals at least for two weeks and then maybe branch out to a whole month.  The important thing is to find what works in your household to keep meals less stressful and less time consuming.  If you have something that works, please feel free to share!

Here are a few other menu planning helps.

Planning The Menu Magnetic Note Pad

The Weekly Feeder

Money Saving Mom

Meal Planning Pt.1: Why I plan my meals once a month

 December will be here tomorrow and so it is time to plan my monthly menus again.  I have been planning my menus by the month since visiting Jon's mom last August. She gave me a book called Once a Month Cooking  by Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson that I read and started to apply in our household.  It is a great book that has ways to save money through planning and cooking only once a month.  Sample menus and recipes are included.  Each day, you pull a meal out of the refrigerator or freezer for supper that night, heat and serve.  Voila! 

This book answered a lot of the frustrations I had had at supper time.  I hated the question "what's for dinner?" when Jon got home from work because I would realize I had no idea.  I would scrounge around and pull out something, realizing I was missing one or two ingredients.   Back to the pantry I would go...only to make something that neither of us really liked or head out the door to eat out.  I saw that we wasted a lot of money eating out, buying food that we didn't eat, and throwing away leftovers.  I decided that we needed to change.

Tomorrow I will be posting the second part of "Meal Planning" and will focus on how I do it.  If you have anything that you do that you find works, please feel free to post your suggestions.