I’m entering June with renewed enthusiasm for menu planning, because I’ve learned through trial and error this past year that following a menu plan is critical both to staying on budget and spending less time cooking. What makes menu planning difficult for me is that initial investment of time where I have to consider which meals to plan for which day, and what ingredients I need for each meal. Since I don’t have a lot of extra time (who does?), I’m sitting here at 6:40am in the morning creating June’s menu plan. But I know that the investment of time is worthwhile, because it beats the 5pm panic of not knowing what to cook for your family. I like to plan dinners a month ahead, because it seems to take less time overall than sitting down once a week to figure out dinners. But, I’ll stick to giving you weekly menu plans as that’s a little less overwhelming to read about. And I should mention that this week I’m going to include lunches and breakfasts in the plan, too.
Dinner Plan
Monday: Pasta with turkey, tomatoes and olives, with salad on the side. This is a delicious recipe from the fantastic Joy of Cooking
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday! I’ll make the tacos with pork carnitas (from Costco).
Wednesday: Grilled salmon with white rice (made fresh) and swiss chard sauteed with butter and soy sauce (from a batch that I froze).
Thursday: Beach Night! I’ll heat frozen burritos, then wrap them in foil so that they stay warm while we drive to the beach. I’ll also make a green salad and pack it in individual stainless steel “bento box” containers. I really recommend beach nights as a weekly tradition- we’ve been doing this almost every week and it’s been so fun. If you don’t live near a beach, find another scenic spot, like a cliff, lake, river, or even a rooftop.
Friday: Pizza night, with salad on the side. Made with this easy homemade dough recipe. But this time, I’m going to try making individual pizza pockets and freezing the extras for later use.
Saturday: Burger Night. I’ll use ground beef (from Costco) for the burgers, and serve them with a side of sauteed carrots and parsnips (from a batch I made a two months ago and froze). I’ll also include a green salad.
Sunday: International Night. Doing South American this week- I’ll make chicken mole (recipe again from the Joy of Cooking
Lunches
I don’t have days of the week assigned for lunches, but here’s what we’ll pick from:
- Turkey & cheese sandwiches (turkey and cheese bought in bulk from Costco)
- Burritos from the freezer
- Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
- Homemade pizza pockets from the freezer
- Quesadillas
We do eat fruit with every lunch- I usually buy Fuji apples, tangerines, and now that it’s summer, melons
Breakfasts
Here are our breakfast options this week:
- Instant Oatmeal
, fruit and slice of cheese on the side
- Homemade cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, fruit
- Pumpkin Flax Granola
, fruit, slice of cheese
- Bagel and homemade goat cream cheese (4x protein and half the fat of cow’s milk cream cheese- I take goat chevre and mix it with cinnamon and agave nectar), tangerine, hard boiled egg
- Cheerios
- Challah bread with butter (I bought a big loaf on clearance, cut it into chunks, and froze it), fruit, hard boiled egg
What’s YOUR menu plan this week?
Hi there….your frozen burritos,you make those or purchase (like Trader Joe’s?) Also, do you have a nifty way/tool in which you’re managing your monthly meal calendar (and weekly shopping list?) Love this feature of your blog. I so need it! I spend too much for last minute cooking.
I used to purchase the burritos pre-made, either at the grocery store ($2.50 each) or at Costco ($1 each). Then I realized it would be super easy, and much cheaper, to make my own. I buy a big package of flour tortillas at Costco (preferably whole grain, when they’re in stock), a case of refried beans, a block of Cheddar cheese, a big jar of salsa, and ground turkey. I cook the ground turkey with taco seasonings, but vegetarians can just skip this step. Each flour tortilla gets 1-2 tablespoons of beans, turkey, cheese, and salsa. Then I roll each tortilla up and stick 4-5 burritos into a Ziploc gallon-sized freezer bag and freeze them. I make about 10 at a time. To reheat in a microwave, wrap each burrito in a damp paper towel and heat individually on high for 1-2 minutes.
I use Google calendar for the dinner planning- I created a separate “meals” calendar, and I make an entry at 5:30 for each day’s dinner. For breakfasts and lunches, I just keep a list of meal options in a Word document and have it available to refer to. For shopping lists, I use the iPhone app Grocery IQ. It’s free, and very feature-rich- you can make lists for different stores, categorize by aisle, mark items as favorites so that you can quickly add items to future lists, list the prices of items so that you know what you’re going to pay when you get to the register… but I’d be interested to hear of other shopping list apps. I tried the Cozy app- it was pretty good, but didn’t have as many features as Grocery IQ.