Meals for a Month

I’ve definitely joined the camp praising the benefits of meal planning. A little preparation makes for a lot of ease. But I’ll be the first to admit to you: I dislike meal planning, too. 

It takes time and precious brain cells (from my dwindling supply) to pull together a meal plan.

Some women plan completely from scratch. Others have a 2, 4 or even 6-week rotation of family favorites.

I fall into the first group. For a while now I’ve dedicated a portion of my Saturday mornings to planning our menu for the following week. Armed with the weekly ads, my menu planning cards and my links to favored recipe sites, I’ve taken 20-30 minutes to do my thing... until recently I switched things up again.

One of my highly-esteemed blogger friends finds time to menu plan on a larger scale. And so, for the month of April, I took the plunge and decided to plan out my entire menu... for the whole month. While I’m on a roll, why not? And you know what, we have a winner!

It certainly works for me.

Here’s some noted differences, however:

- Additional flexibility. I don’t have as much control over my month’s schedule as I do for the current week. Solution? I made sure to plan out meals for every single day of the month. Then as issues arose, I swapped days.

- Planning around unknown sales. Obviously you’ll never know the ad from one week to another. Solution? Enter freezer cooking and good ol’ fashion guesswork. I’ve been attempting freezer cooking for some time now, and in planning for the month, it’s really been a lifesaver. When things are on sale, I stock up in hopes to utilize the items the following month. Additionally grocery chains rotate their sales every 4-6 weeks, for the most part. So it helps to keep a mental tab on what sales might be coming up.

- More rotation. I’ve never been a big fan of meal rotation. However, I have found that planning for the month required a little more structure than normal. Solution: Taco Tuesdays Sundays and Friday night pizza.

That said, here’s what our April plans looked like:

1. Spaghetti, Salad
2. Pizza, Fruit
3. EASTER
4. EASTER
5. Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Biscuits, Salad
6. BRC Quiche, 3 Bean Salad
7. Hamburgers, Fruit
8. Rotisserie Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Bread
9. Pizza, Green Smoothies
10. Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, Broccoli
11. Tacos|Burritos, Fruit
12. Sweet/Sour Turkey Meatballs, Veggies
13. Crab Legs, Roasted Potatoes, Veggies
14. Vegetarian Lasagna, Bread
15. Jamaican Salmon, Rice, Carrots
16. Pizza, Fruit
17. Cilantro Chicken w/ Avocado Salsa, Rice
18. Tacos|Burritos, Fruit
19. Rotisserie Chicken, Veggies, Corn Muffins
20. Vegetarian Curry, Rice, Fruit
21. Asian Chicken Orzo Salad, Fruit
22. BRC Quiche, Salad
23. Pizza, Fruit
24. BLT Pasta, Salad or Fruit
25. Tacos|Burritos, Fruit
26. Soy Salmon, Baked Potatoes, Veggies
27. Crepes, Sausage, Fruit
28. Spaghetti, Veggies, Bread
29. Rotisserie chicken salad sandwiches w/ yogurt
30. Pizza, Fruit
31. Lettuce Wraps, Fruit

BON APETIT!

Menu Cards