Know Your Style
Every cook has her own style. Some of us need to follow recipes. Some of us hate them. Some of us want to know exactly what’s for dinner, lunch and breakfast 7 days a week, others like a little more flexibility. That’s ok. Your style of meal plan doesn’t have to look like mine.

Whether you’re super organized or more flexible and fly by the seat of your pants, meal planning can work for you. A more flexible cook could still benefit by making a looser plan. Instead of deciding on an actual recipe, she could have themed nights: Asian, Mexican, Fish, Pasta, Sandwich, etc.

Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
Sometimes we moms make things harder on ourselves than they need to be. What does your family enjoy? Sit them down and ask them what their favorite dishes are. Or think about meals that everyone enjoyed in the past. Write those down and see if you can come up with 25 or 30 meals that can be rotated through the month.

Keep your family’s schedule in mind as you plan. If Mondays are when everyone has extracurricular activities and you’re coming home late, that might be the night for a slow cooker meal you prep in the morning.

Use Evernote and Pinterest
If the idea of paging through your cookbooks trying to come up with good recipes for your meal plan sounds like a boring chore, then skip it. As you browse the web and come across good looking food, clip those pages to an Evernote account or your Pinterest boards.

Personally, I love Evernote because I can search it by ingredient and my account is synced across all my computers and phone. When something’s on sale at the store or I have an ingredient on hand I need to use up, I can easily find a recipe featuring that item, saving me money and avoiding waste. Most of us use only a few of the recipes in each cookbook we own. Why not scan those and get rid of the actual cookbook?

Use a Meal Planning Service
And finally, if you’re just too busy for meal planning or keep putting it off but know it would make your life easier, let someone else do the heavy lifting. Throw a little money at the problem and try one of the meal planners available online. There are several that come to mind: BuildAMenu, EMeals, MenuPlanningCentral, and PlanToEat.

They each have different features, so you’ll have to do a little initial investigating to find which one is right for you. However, once you are familiar with how the websites work, you’ll be printing off great recipes and meal plans in minutes a week.

Carrie is a homeschooling mom of 6 who finds that her day goes much more smoothly if she plans her family’s meals. Find healthy, whole foods recipes and meal planner reviews at her site http://www.NaturalMomsRecipes.com

And if you’re wondering about the variety of foods that are offered, I’ll be sharing some of the recipes that I’ve collected from them over my months of patronage. This is a sample recipe that I got when I picked up my order last month:

Ingredients:

• 1 large watermelon
• 1 cantaloupe, halved and seeded
• 1 honeydew melon, halved and seeded
• 2 (15 ounce) cans mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 pineapple cut into 1/2″ chunks
• 2 cups halved fresh strawberries
• 2 cups seedless grapes
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh orange peel
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Instructions:

1. With a large, sharp knife, remove the top 1/4 section of the watermelon.
2. With a melon baller, scoop flesh from inside o watermelon, removing as many seeds as posible.
3. Leave 1/2 inch of flesh inside the shell of teh watrmelon.
4. Scoop cantaloupe and honeyew in teh same manner, removin as much flesh as possible, and discarding the inds.
5. Refrigerate fruits separately until read to assemble.
6. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring water and sgar to a boil.
7. Remove from heat, and continue stirring until sugar has completely dissolved.
8. Add lemon zest, and set aside to cool.
9. To serve place watermelon balls, cantaloupe, honeydew, oranges, pineapple, strawberries and grapes in a large mixing bowl.
10. Pour syrup over and toss thoroughly.
11. Transfer mixture to watermelon bowl and serve.
12. Set aside any fruit mixture that will not fit. There will be enough fruit to refill the bowl.

Please note: All ingredients in bold were a part of the vegetable/fruit box that is distributed by Angel Food Ministries.

photo credit: rox sm

Today we’re going to join up with Menu Plan Monday from Organizing Junkie!  Like so many other memes, I’m posting a menu plan here, and linking to the post at OJ’s.

OJ’s post includes the links where you can find all the participating MPM posts – and there are already over 130 participants as of this post. It is NOT necessary to click each participating link, but feel free to join in!  Maybe by visiting a few of the participants you’ll find some inspiration to help spark your own menu planning!

Menu Plan 5/18-5/24

Monday:  Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Greener Selections Salad, and Angel Food Cake

Tuesday: Impossibly Easy Ham and Cheddar Pie and Bisquick Biscuits

Wednesday: “Fish & Chips” (Baked Cod & French Fries), Cole Slaw, Steamed Corn

Thursday:  Tuna Melts, Steamed Peas, Sliced Pears

Friday:  Homemade Hamburger Pizza, Parmesan Garlic Toast, Salad

Saturday:  Pancakes, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs

Sunday:  Taco Chicken (recipe below), Steamed Broccoli w/Cheese

After reading this, you can probably see why Betty Crocker (and Sandra Lee) are MY friends!

Taco Chicken

This is a recipe my mom got when I was in High School.  It was one of our family favorites, and we begged for it often.  As easy as it is, I’m making it one of our regular menu items, too.

Boil 1 chicken – Remove meat and bone – Save broth  (I’ve used 4 chicken breasts before)
1 stick margarine
1 chopped onion (I use 1 Tbsp minced onion)
1 can rotel-style tomatoes with green chiles, drained & mashed
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use 2 cans cream of chicken – we don’t like mushroom)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 bag taco-flavored chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 9×13 pan with non-fat cooking spray.

Melt butter and saute onion until softened.  Add tomatoes, soups, and 1 cup reserved chicken broth.  Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly.  Lightly crush tortilla chips in bag.  Layer enough chips in bottom of 9×13 pan to cover.  Top with chicken, followed by soup mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining chips and 1 cup cheese.

Bake uncovered 30 minutes.

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If you’re ever trying to locate a meme, check out this post at Profitable Mommy Blogging!  That’s where I was able to find this Menu Plan Monday meme!

Starting next Monday, I will post my family’s meal plans for the week and some of the recipes I rely on.  Today, I’ll share my philosophy of Meal Planning and what I’ve learned as I’ve incorporated Meal Planning at home.

When I was a full-time working mom, commuting and spending at least 10 hours away from my family every day – and sometimes more – menu planning was far from my mind.  My favorite dinner was anything I could grab on my way home and serve on paper plates.

While that was more convenient, it was very expensive (even though we could afford it then).  We spent as much – if not more – money eating at restaurants 4-5 nights a week than two weeks worth of groceries that would provide numerous meals for our family.

When I became a full-time Stay-at-Home-Mom, meal planning was not something that came to me naturally.  As a matter of fact we maintained our take-out and ordering-in for awhile.  I was a bit intimidated by the full responsibility of taking care of our house, home, and our two girls.  As much as I looked forward to it for the years I worked after becoming a mom.

Meal planning takes practice.

But it doesn’t have to be difficult, and it has so many benefits, including:

1. Cost Savings.  Knowing what you’re going to make for dinner tonight can prevent the impromptu (and repeated) ordering of pizza or chinese food.  Maybe you can afford to order dinner several times a week like we did at one time, but in today’s economy, it’s one of those “luxiries” people are learning to do without.
2. Peace of Mind.  No worrying about what to make on the drive home, or while kids are getting home from school needing your attention.  Frozen meat has time to thaw and time consuming tasks can be managed within your already busy schedule.  No last minute rush – especially when plans get changed – and they often do.
3. Efficiency & Organization.  This is where meal planning has paid off for me the most.  The other two are bonuses!  Because I take time to plan meals, ingredients don’t get lost in my pantry or fridge, we have MUCH less food waste, and I feel like the kitchen really IS my domain.

What’s Your Style?

After lots of practice, trying different methods and formats, I came to the realization that there is no One-Size-Fits-All to planning meals.  Buying groceries, couponing, cooking styles – all of it is very personal to each mom, family, and home.  What works for me may not be a perfect fit for you.

But it might be the inspiration you need to FIND the perfect fit!

Having an idea of what your family likes is one of your best tools.  If you KNOW they won’t eat spinach, there’s no need to incorporate it into meals on a regular basis.  HOWEVER, Meal Planning also lends itself to incorporating that recipe you’ve been dying to try to see if your family even notices it has spinach.

And Meal Planning is not even about cooking every single meal from scratch!  If you cook from a box – Meal Planning can be just as useful to you as the mom who cooks from scratch meals using whole foods and organic ingredients.

For families like mine – who tend to eat “on-the-fly” or according to our moods – meal planning can be so very flexible and friendly.

Meal Planning does NOT have to fit within a specified box.  It just needs to work for you.

And it can!

So join me next Monday as I share my first Meal Plan for a week and some of our family favorite recipes!

Photo credits:   photo credit: smi23le