10 reasons why menu-planning is a good idea and a sample menu.

I never used to plan my menus and when we were on a tight, tight budget sometimes we had some interesting combos near the end of the month (we were AF and paid once a month). I had it in my head though that it might work for others but not me because what if I didn’t feel like eating baked chicken that night or whatever.

Nowadays I am of a whole different mindset. My menus are not set in stone, but I have a loose we’ll eat these meals this week plan and we have benefited in so many ways.

1. I can plan our meals around our activities and toss something in the crock pot or plan a super-easy meal on the days we are busy. It makes it much less tempting to order a pizza or grab take-out if I know there is something delicious waiting for me at home.


2. We save money because if I have planned what we will eat that week we don’t let things go bad- that broccoli won’t rot in the back of the crisper.


3. We can plan our meals around what is on sale and which produce is in season.


4. With a menu plan we can either plan to use the leftovers for other meals or lunches and make sure they don’t get wasted.


5. I can make sure we’re getting a pretty good balance of nutritious foods and if we are lacking in something one night make it up on another.


6. You can have your foods prepared early in the week ie: cube up chicken you will need for the stir fry or marinate the fajita meat before freezing.


7. If I am running late someone else can get the meal started if they know what we are having.


8. You save money by only buying the things you need when you are at the market. No tossing things in willy-nilly then hoping you can use them before they expire.


9. I don’t end up with a big hunk of meat and no clue what sides to make with it.


10. It helps with our overall goal of being more organized and my mind is not cluttered up with what do I want for dinner? I dunno what do you want? Then we usually end up getting takeout because we didn’t bother to defrost anything in time.

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Our sample dinner menu for this week: You can find more of our menu plans here.

• Slow cooker pulled pork BBQ on buns w/coleslaw, watermelon


• Turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (Kyra is in the mood for a mini- Thanksgiving.)


• Hot dogs on buns w/ whatever fixings anyone wants, baked chips, watermelon


• Turkey tetrazzini w/ lots of vegs, salad


• Hard & soft tacos w/ all the fixings


• Breakfast for dinner- overnight French toast, berries


• Roasted veg & cheese Panini’s with homemade turkey noodle soup

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If you don’t already plan your menus I hope this inspires you to give it a try. It really is worth it and once you do it a few times it is a very quick and easy project.

Sherry


Posted by Sherry of Loon-atics In The Kitchen

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