We also ate very well during the holidays. I was able to whip up healthful meals at a moment's notice as I'm becoming a skilled cook and tend to have a well stocked pantry. I guess all this practice cooking-from-scratch for the last 2 years is starting to pay off :)
One of my goals for the New Year is to become better organinzed. To start, I spent Sunday planning our meals for the month of January. Although it took me most of the day, it was worth every minute.
I began by selecting all the recipes I needed for the month and put them together in one folder. I even scanned and printed those cookbook recipes I was using so I'd have them ready in the same folder.
When I purchased our groceries for the month, it only took 45 minutes to shop and totalled only $177.00. Not bad at all!
Below is our January Meal Plan. I couldn't find any meal plan templates that I liked online, so I created my own in Microsoft Word. I didn't include many breakfast options as we tend to eat oatmeal in the mornings or plain yogurt with homemade granola. For lunch, we eat leftovers or sandwhiches.
Spicy Vegetable Chili
Vegetable Pork Soup
Sweet & Sour Chicken Wings
Freezer Meals
Lasagna (back of the box recipe)
Tarragon Chicken
Savoury Chicken Pot Pies with Cream Cheese Pastry Dough
Pumpkin Waffles
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Whole Wheat Individual Pizza Dough
Soups
Curried Sweet Potatoe Soup
Pumpkin Barley & Sage Soup
Split Pea Soup with Barley
Chicken
Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
Tuna
Lemon-Dill Tuna Salad
Pork
Pistachio Crusted Pork Chops
Turkey
Turkey-Thyme Meatloaf Patties
Shrimp
Shrimp Curry
Side Dishes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Steel-Cut Oats “Polenta”
Baking
Anytime Oatmeal Cookies
Fresh Apple Cake
Buttermilk Pudding
Banana Blueberry Muffins
Happily submitted to:
Menu Plan Monday over at the OrgJunkieWorks for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family
The Pantry Challenge over at Life As Mom
Enjoy!
from "The Golden Book of Little Verses"
by Miriam Clark Potter
Pictures by Mary Blair
1953, Golden Press Inc.
This was my husband's book when he was a boy.
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WOWOWOWOW!!! Are you ever set up and organized for the NEW YEAR! You should see my chicken scratch. I love cooking, but Vanja is such a picky and simple eater he takes a little bang from my planning! I make things anyhow...and TRY to find a way for him to love it. He is such a great sport!
ReplyDeleteI will be following your month!
:)
valerie
Oh, I really need to do something like this. For me, dinners need to be simple, easy and fast. I work and it is really hard to come home and change my focus to more work. I love how organized you are and how you got everything together. Great job!
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment on my blog! i practically learned how to cook from watching rachael ray's show!
ReplyDeletei also plan my menu one month at a time!!! it's neat to find others who do the same things. i had too much difficulty keeping up with it just one week at a time, & planning by month has helped me be more consistent.
Nice job Sarah! Meal planning is something I need to work on this year as well. Let's just say I haven't gotten as far as you have just yet. ;)
ReplyDeleteI felt a bit crazed by Christmas this year as well. I just couldn't get organized and then it was over just like that. Needless to say I'm ready to put it away for another year.
I loove the layout of your meal plan! These look great, I have placed some recipe on my list of things to try!
ReplyDeleteYou inspire me. I have completely fallen off of menu planning. And my meals are showing it. I NEED to just take the time and start planning again.
ReplyDeleteGina