What's for Dinner?

For some reason I have had this conversation with my friends lately and decided to do a blog post on an easy tip that has taken guess work out of dinner planning for us our entire marriage. There is no questioning what we are having or not knowing what needs to be thawed because we've done it the same for almost 13 years. Hopefully this will be helpful to people who have asked and be another memory for the kids to have written down.

Growing up we had pasta every Wednesday night..and didn't eat meat on Fridays. Mom doesn't remember the Wednesday night pasta, but I do...and the meat, well that was a Catholic thing. When we got married I thought it would be neat to carry on the tradition of having pasta on Wednesday night and when I first sat down to make our monthly menu I found it so much easier to designate a day for each 'type' of meat/meal.

Sometimes there are things going on during the week and meals have to be switched around...or sometimes we aren't here but it pretty much stays the same. The only thing that has been switched up occasionally through the years is Sunday night because of activities. I usually meal plan a month in advance. Sometimes I do freezer cooking sometimes I don't. Lately I've been using the crockpot much more than I used to.

Our SO SIMPLE Meal Plan:
Monday: beef
Tuesday: chicken/turkey/pork
Wednesday: pasta
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: pizza
Saturday: breakfast
Sunday: random (crockpot meal/seafood, etc.)

It's not boring and we don't eat the same thing every week/month but it's a nice schedule that helps us save money (on meat, etc.) and makes planning so simple!

This week for example looked like this: (just listing the main dishes..not sides)

Monday: tacos
Tuesday: honey sesame crockpot chicken
Wednesday: baked stuffed shells
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Calzones
Saturday: waffles/eggs/bacon
Sunday: shrimp and linguini

For years and years before the kids had activities on Sunday nights we ALWAYS had breakfast that night of the week. I miss it then because it was 'our thing'. But since they are gone from 4:40-7:50 it's just to hard to sit down for dinner together...so it's usually a bigger lunch. Summers mean breakfast Sundays:) One day we'll get back to Sunday breakfast every week though:)...can you see I'm a little attached to my schedule??

Last Week's Menu:

Monday: Roast beef
Tuesday: Shoyu chicken
Wednesday: spaghetti
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: pizza roll ups
Saturday: breakfast casserole
Sunday: Big lunch out with friends (dinner was sandwiches).

Here are a few of our other favorites that I just plug into my monthly menu:

Beef: mac beef, burgers, beef kabobs, london broil, korean beef

White meat: bbq pork chops, chicken pot pie, garlicky chicken, crescent chicken, kabobs, stir fry chicken, bourbon street chicken, grilled chicken(marinated), turkey pot pie, turkey, pork tenderloin, chicken parmesan

Pasta: baked ziti, spaghetti pie, plain jane pasta (very common:)..basically some kind of noodles and sauce, baked macaroni and cheese, lasagna, ravioli

Pizza night: (we make our own dough, etc.) bbq chicken pizza..or other kinds, calzones, pizza roll ups, pizza muffins, monkey bread pizza

Breakfast: waffles, pancakes, TONS of breakfast casseroles, bacon/egg/cheese biscuits

Hopefully this will be helpful for anyone having trouble with meal planning or dreading going grocery shopping. Just this week THREE people have asked me about how I do dinner..which is what prompted this post:). If nothing else it'll be a sweet memory for the kiddos of their favorite meals and crazy scheduled mama when they are grown.