I don’t think it will come as a surprise to any mom out there that dinner time is the witching hour at our house. I’ve tried menu planning in the past, but it has never stuck. It is a lot of work to do on a weekly basis.
The other day on Pinterest I saw someone that did their menu planning for an entire month and made one grocery store trip based on the entire monthly menu plan. I decided to give it a try.
Last week I sat down and planned out all of our dinners for an entire month. I’m going to share with you how I did it, and then I will revisit it at the end of the month and let you know how it went.
First I printed out a calender for the month of June.
Next I filled in all of the activities that I know we have planned for the month, dance recital, a trip to the lake, and a trip I’m taking for a work conference. After that I randomly filled in the “easy meals” that we eat all the time, spaghetti, pork tenderloin, grilled chicken, etc. Lastly I went through my Pinterest boards and recipe books and picked some new stuff to add in.
Here is a list of the meals I planned for the month just in case you would like to give this a try:
May 26th – Baked Potatoes with leftover BBQ Chicken I had in the freezer
May 27th – Lora’s Tortilla Chicken Soup
May 28th – Grilled Hamburgers (with fries I found in the freezer)
May 29th – Parmesan Tilapia (from Sam’s), canned beans, and brocolli
May 30th – Breakfast for Dinner
May 31st – Brown Sugar Chicken, crock pot
June 1st – Grilled Pork Tenderloin with spinach and mac and cheese
June 2nd – Cheesy Chicken Rollups (found on Pinterest)
Source: plainchicken.com via Jennifer on Pinterest
June 3rd – Homemade Meatballs with gravy and mashed potatoes
June 4th – Taco Pizza from Cooking Light (I’ll share this recipe later. It is super easy and we all like it)
June 5th – Dance Recital Rehearsal (we won’t be at home)
June 6th – Dance Recital Dress Rehearsal
June 7th – Dance Recital
June 8th – BBQ Chicken Legs
June 9th – Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Sandwiches
June 10th – Roast Chicken
June 11th – Grilled Salmon
June 12th – Spaghetti
June 13th – Chicken Enchiladas (with leftover chicken)
June 14th – Slow Cooker Lasagna
June 15th – Grilled Chicken
June 16th – Chicken Bacon Penne Pasta (from Pinterest)
Source: plainchicken.com via Jennifer on Pinterest
June 17th – BBQ Ribs
June 18th – Leftovers (I’ll be out of town this week so David and the kids will eat leftovers or whatever they can find for themselves.)
June 19th – Out of town
June 20th – Out of town
June 21st – Out of town
June 22nd – Tacos
June 23rd – Baked Potato Soup with Sandwiches
June 24th – Roast
June 25th – Beans (in crock pot)
June 26th – Chicken Spaghetti (This is also a Cooking Light recipe that is super easy. I’ll share it later.)
June 27th – Breakfast for Dinner
June 28th – Leftovers
June 29th – Lake trip (We’re going to the lake with my mom and my brother’s family.)
June 30th – Lake trip
During the month I should only have to go to the store for milk, fresh produce and miscellaneous odds and ends (like lunch meat which I did not buy enough of). This is a work in process, but I’m hoping it will not only help us eat out less, but will also save money by cutting down on waste and by using what we have in our pantry and freezer.
Have you ever done a monthly menu plan? I’m also putting together a list of “easy” meals. What are some of your family’s favorites?
Wow! I do the weekly menu planning but never a whole month. I will be interested to see how this goes for you and then maybe try it myself.
So far it feels awesome, but it hasn’t even been a week yet.
I will try this, but for me I need to start with baby steps. So, I am going to try to plan for the next 2 weeks.
Baby steps are good. For me I had to go all or nothing.
I’ve never planned for a whole month. I’ve had seasons where I did really well with weekly planning. My problem is I get bored with the plan really easily. And I just love eating out.
I totally get that. You could try planning “eat out” days into your plan.
I think a month is too long of a commitment for me – ha! But I think it’s a good idea for you, since you work out of the home, etc. And some of those means sound dang good!
Oh yes. If I can make tis work it will save me a ton of time and stress.
While this sounds like a great idea to me, we often run into the “Not in the mood for X, would really like to eat Y” which a well planned out menu doesn’t allow that. I try to tell myself that’s just an excuse, but certain nights I’m just not in the mood to eat certain foods. Are you like that, too, or no?
I totally get that. I think you could make it as flexible as you want. If you decide not to go with a planned meal you just move it to the next month or trade it out with another night’s meal.
I always struggle with the dinner thing. Luckily we live so far out of the loop that it isn’t really easy to “eat out” beyond McDonald’s, Pizza, and Subway so i don’t have a huge temptation.
Dinner is so incredibly frustrating though. I have menu planned out two weeks, but never a whole month. I guess if I did this I would have to kind of think of it like a diet and allow myself cheat days. You know? Because I find that once I fall off the menu plan wagon I tend to throw my hands up and be like oh well.
I can’t wait to hear how you do? And saving money on groceries I totally need that!
The blog I got this from suggested planning “eat out” nights. I just didn’t do that because I know that we will be grabbing something during the recital and I’m sure David will do that when I’m out of town. One of the main reasons I’m doing it is to save money. Eating out doesn’t really help with that.
Oooh. I have a similar post brewing. Have to plan something or I come to cooking time and I’m like, “Uh. How long since we had spaghetti? More than 5 days? Okay. Spaghetti, it is!”
My family’s all time favorite is a recipe called Taco Twist Bake. It is a little tedious to make in one night because it assumed you’d have the taco meat in the freezer. I’ve never shared it.
I need the Taco Twist Bake recipe!
I used to do menu planning for the whole month when we lived in Utah and I had a large pantry. It worked out GREAT!
Looking forward to some of your recipes.
I have a REALLY large pantry. You should see it right now. I cleaned it all out and organized everything. It looks fab!
I really suck at meal time planning. Maybe I will try it after I see how you do for a month. If you can pull it off with the busy schedule you have, maybe I can too. If not, we’ll just knock on your door now and then when the dinner on your calendar strikes our fancy!
Good Luck!!
I’ve always sucked at it too, but it feels so good to know what is going to happen every day. I just hope I can stick with it.
Wowsa, woman! That’s so super organized! Love!
It is for now. Let’s see how long it lasts.
I’ve planned a week’s worth of menus and it was terrific to have it all organized and know what I was making each night. Really made things run more smoothly around here. My problem is sticking with it.
When I did it for a week I had a harder time sticking with it than I do for the month. I’m not sure why that is.
I fall into the “I get bored easily/don’t feel like eating that” camp. I usually manage to plan a week at a time but there are still times we don’t “feel” like eating whatever was planned.
Do you have a leftover night?
I do a leftovers or pizza night. Sometimes even when I think we are going to have leftovers we don’t, and then sometimes we don’t want them.