The thought of making a menu plan for the week is somewhat exhausting to me. Constantly, unless we have plans to go out to eat or its a holiday, we have no idea what we are going to have from meal to meal. Due to the fact that my husband and I are both incredibly indecisive this results in a lot of
"I don't know... what do you want."
"I donno... what do you want..."
I donno....
You get the picture.
For most people this results in going out to eat, which is the ultimate reason to have a menu planned out so that you can save money on going out and eat healthier. Good thing for us we don't go out to eat often. I'm extremely picky and trying to find a place that not only sounds appealing, but is also fairly inexpensive usually makes me really anxious.
The ONLY place I can ever think of to eat is Chipotle. It's healthy, its fresh, and you get a ton of food for the money. And its delicious. In fact, we went there yesterday for lunch... yummm....
Thankfully, I love to cook and I am a great cook. So I really don't mind not eating out, but without a plan in place this results in a LOT of last minute pick ups from the grocery store for one or two items. Many times we are running to the store when we should be eating which results in a lot of late and famished meals.
So I have made it a plan to make a weekly meal plan.
It's hard, because my husband works all 3 shifts, morning, noon and night, and his schedule varies week to week so I never know what meal he is going to be home for. My son also stays with his father every other week so sometimes we are a full house and sometimes I am all alone. Thankfully I am a huge fan of salads, which are about the easiest solo meal to make.
Most times I eat them straight out of the giant bowl I toss them in....
Shhh....
But I am going to try this out and I REALLY hope it works out well.
It started out with my running schedule. I have made it a resolution to become a morning runner so I sat down and planned out my running schedule for once I pop this baby out.
The bottom half is the space that I left for my meal planning.
Then I decided that wasn't going to be enough room...
I am a huge magazine lover, and for years I have been getting all these free subscriptions to health and fitness magazines, but at the pleading of my husband, when we moved I downsized by ripping out the recipes and a few key workouts, and tossed the rest.
Why is it so hard to get rid of magazines!
So I skimmed through my pages, tossed what I realized I would never eat, and kept the rest for resources.
I realized I needed a bigger page.
So after a few hours, a lot of scribbles and some serious research, I think I came up with a good idea.
One week at a time menu, Wed-Tues, that way I can plan around the Kroger weekly specials that come out on Monday. Then I'll shop on tuesday when it is my off day from working out and the kid is in school. Since I am going on a "healthy kickstart" after the baby is born, a lot of my breakfasts are a smoothie and my lunches are salads. That way this gives me the luxury of eating it alone if everyone is gone, or making my husband a sand which, which he would be happy with for every lunch ever. (good man)
As far as dinners go, I have made 2 crockpot days, 4 left over days, and 1 big meal (cheat meal) cooking day. This gives me the ability to move those around a little depending on his schedule and I can cook the days he is home and eat leftovers the days he is not.
This is draft one.
I re-wrote it slightly more organized...
This also involved getting my pinterest more organized making categories of "smoothies" "salads and dressings" "dinner ideas" and "desserts and snacks"
And look what happens when I plan! Vegetable lo mien that was fantastic, very similar to a good Chinese restaurant, but healthier and MUCH cheaper.
Do you menu plan? Do you find it has made a difference in your life at all?
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