Meal Planning II- Two Weeks at a time

Hey there.  I've been busy wrangling my kids, walking my pooch, and cleaning my house (And doing laundry.  There's always so much laundry...)   but I wanted to share the new way I do meal planning.  Well it's not so much new as perfected from last fall.

With the spring soccer season in full swing and my daughters both in rehearsals for local theater productions I've opted to simplify as much as I can.  Planning two weeks at a time just makes more sense.   I'm making basic meals, many without recipes.  (So no vintage creations for a while longer.)  I organize my grocery shopping so that I buy everything in one or two big trips.  My master grocery list is on a spreadsheet.  Hubby just about cracked up when I asked him to help me set it up.  This is just so not me.  I like short shopping lists on cute family stationery with my kids' names under their stick figures.    Now I whiz thru the store with the spreadsheet clipped to a clipboard and a pen clenched between my teeth.  I must say I look like a boss in my black yoga pants and mom bun.  Unfortunately this look rarely makes it to a yoga class.

Here's a pic of our meal plan for April 26 thru May 8th.  It goes with my hubby's pay periods so it's not exactly in the beginning or middle of the month.  I only plan dinners.  Breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are simple- leftovers or whatever one likes.

I still use the binder I showed in my meal planning video but there haven't been any new recipe additions in a long time.  Luckily I've built it up enough that everyone is relatively happy with our meals.  (And if not I remind them that I'm not a short order cook.  I'm a boss.  With a bun...)

Here's the accompanying  master grocery list.  I do one big trip the first week and another the second. I still may run in to buy a little unanticipated something (or a sale item) but for the most part this is it.

The prices are to help me stay on budget and the highlight colors tell me what to buy at which store.  I started crossing things off but stopped when I thought about doing this post so you could actually read it.  The best thing I ever did was to list the items according to categories.  Helps me whiz faster thru the store and there's less room for error.

How do you meal plan?  Does it change with the seasons or the school year?

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying spring.  It finally feels like it here in the midwest.  :)

Sarah

Meal Planning!

Clearly I talk was too much because when I made my meal planning video I thought it was a quick one and it was over 5 minutes!  So off to You Tube I went with my little editor/technology consultant (aka Very Dear son!) in tow to help me post it.

Here you go!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeEladf7Q2Y

Let me know if and how you meal plan in the comments below or under the video.  I'm always looking for inspiration and love learning from friends, cyber and in real life.

Have a great weekend!

Sarah

My Menu Plan for the week of June 23

I usually don't make a formal menu plan, opting to wing it when I go to the grocery store (which works surprisingly well), but after posting about Mrs. Greene's menu planning I've had a hankering to put something on paper.  Also my kids are out of school (YAY!!) and I need to make real lunches as well as real dinners.  Hopefully my menu plans will add more variety to our meals.

So here's my week:

Monday:
Lunch- Chicken salad sandwiches (Made from Thursday night's chicken.) , cut carrots, peppers, and celery
Dinner- Leftover steak (From Sunday nights steak.)'s green salad, fruit

Tuesday:
Lunch- Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, cut veggies
Dinner- Beef and Noodle Medley, green salad or cooked carrots

Wednesday:
Lunch- Chicken noodle soup (Homemade today, Monday, from Thursday's chicken bones.), cut veggies
Dinner- Breakfast burritos, fruit salad

Thursday:
Lunch- Leftovers or PB&J, hopefully watermelon (It's a little too early and I haven't gotten a good one yet this summer!  The produce guy at my store said they'd get some by Thursday.)
Dinner- Make your own pizza (I'll start the dough in my bread machine in the afternoon.)

Friday:
Lunch-Leftover pizza
Dinner- Chicken Marengo, rice, green salad

Saturday:
Lunch- sandwiches or leftovers
Dinner- Go out

Sunday:
Lunch- We usually eat a late breakfast and just have fruit, yogurt, or cheese and crackers on Sundays
Dinner- Looking for a recipe to try for the blog!

What are you making this week?  Feel free to share in the comments!

Sarah

Upadte:  A reader from Facebook, Stacy, jokingly asked what are the "joys"of menu planning, as in the Facebook description of this post.

For me the biggest joy is not having to think about what to make for dinner or lunch for an entire week.  Second is when one of my family members whines, "What's for dinner…" I point them to the calendar.  There is sometimes more whining but I pretend I don't hear it.  I'm too busy cooking.  ;)  Another benefit of menu planning is getting the grocery shopping done in one fell swoop.  Once I write out the menu I make a shopping list and I'm good to go.  I also feel that our meals are more nutritionally balanced when I plan them ahead of time.  It's easy to see when we're eating too much of one thing when it's all on paper.

Stacy, and others who were wondering, this is why I like to plan menus.  It takes work but it's so worth it!  I hope this encourages you to try it if you haven't already.  :)


Post shared on Meal Planning Mondays at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Meal Planning and interesting ads from Family Circle, June 1950

I love this color-filled cover probably because I had a tri-colored collie growing up.  This pooch actually looks a bit like my beloved dog Howard.  The model looks relaxed, like she was just out with her dog picking flowers.  (Who wouldn't want to live that fantasy?  Ok, well maybe those who are dog- averse would prefer to go on a solo flower picking walk but everyone else...)   The pictures and articles inside are just as delightful.

On page 58 is an article about Mrs. Greene's meal planning advice to her daughter, Anne.  It doesn't say Anne's age but she appears to be in her last years of high school or her early 20's.  (Teens and young adults always look older in vintage pictures.  They're so well put together with their coiffed hair and lipstick.  Much nicer than an over made-up girl in low-cut yoga pants and a sheer t-shirt making fish lips at her iPhone camera.)  The idea is to teach young would-be brides home management.  (Something I doubt fish lips wouldn't care to learn.   Oops, I'm being b*tchy, aren't I?)  I just love articles like these.  The domestic arts, including home management, has been lost thru the years.  You could argue that home management isn't really an "art" but art is in the eye of the beholder, right?  And when a home isn't managed it sure isn't pretty!  

Here's a peek at the article.  Click the image to make it larger.

I love that Mrs. Greene starts with a "basic menu plan", which is a list of the foods needed for complete nutritional health, according to science of 1950 when this article was published.  It looks to be based on the Basic 7 which was developed during WWII to standardize Americans' nutritional needs during food rationing.  The Basic 7 was later condensed to the Basic 4 in the mid 50's.  When I menu plan I start with what is on sale and what my family likes.  Not a bad way to choose meals but probably not as nutritionally solid as Mrs. Greene's menus.  I also like how she incorporates her basic menu plan into only three meals- no snacks.  Seems like we Americans graze all day and the snacks we choose are more often treats and junk food than real food.  Just last week my high school sophomore was asked to bring snacks in for two of her classes.  One class requested Goldfish crackers and the other Smartpop popcorn.  Neither is horrible but the nutritional value is pretty low compared to what one would eat at the table.  I also have to ask why 16-17 year olds need a snack.  I understand it's the end of the school year and it's fun to celebrate but why is food necessary?  And in the case of the Goldfish why preschool food?  I don't think Mrs. Greene is giving her daughter Anne Goldfish in little single serve packages!

As you can see in the spread Mrs. Greene plans breakfast and lunch in addition to dinner.  I prefer to keep my meal planning flexible and serve leftovers for lunch but I kind of want to try planning breakfast menus.  We tend to get in a rut.  I make my two older daughters' breakfast when I'm just out of bed and half asleep so they get something simple- cereal, toast, or a pb and j with fruit.  I sometimes prepare these quick breakfasts only to find that one (or both!) of my girls isn't in the mood for it.  I make something else under duress not wanting to send the finicky eater(s) to school on an empty stomach.  My son gets up at 8am with quite a manly appetite often requesting leftover dinner for breakfast or eggs and toast.  So you may be thinking, "Poor Sarah sounds like a short order cook!"  That's what I'm thinking too.  I bet Mrs. Greene never felt like that.

Another page that caught my eye in this issue of Family Circle was the Libby's ad for fruit cocktail with a recipe for Creme Brûlée.  I love Creme Brûlée.  And I love fruit cocktail- in a nostalgic way.  But together it sounds like inedible.

A "cinch for any bride"!  Lol.

And on the back cover...SPAM!!  How 50's is that??  Did I ever tell you about the time my hubby had a craving for Spam at Costco?  (Do you know how many cans of Spam are in the warehouse size Spam package?!?)

In other news we have two new pets.  A mosquito fish named Kristen that my son's class used for their ecosystem project and her friend Monsieur Snail who serves as her maid.  (Son's word- not mine.)  I'm hoping to try out a recipe to post this week but with the end of school on Friday I may not make it.

I hope everyone is having a nice beginning to summer!

Sarah