Monthly Meal Plan

In the midst of the craziness that is my life, I have found that I MUST plan for meals ahead of time so my family is saved from my go to frozen pizza or mac and cheese meals every single night. I started out using this meal planning organization which I love from Bold Turquoise. She has organized an entire binder of months and shopping lists and recipe sheets with tabs and labels and everything (so right up my ally!). I even gave my a copy of my monthly plan and recipes to a friend one time. I still love the idea, but I don't have the time at this point to find recipes, create large shopping lists, write down my recipes, and plan meals for every single day. When I have more time I'd like to re-vamp her ideas to make them more workable for my family. I'd even love to plan a year long recipe binder like she does. If I do a year at a time, I wouldn't have to change too much. AND, if I take good care of it, I could just reuse it year after year. That'd be nice!

But, for my now, I found this great monthly meal plan on Pinterest that already has the meals included from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Bonus for me... no sea food. :) This one is for the month of August, but I figured I'd just start at the beginning and work my way through no matter what day it really is. She also has other months for you to choose from. I will only be using the dinners as I am rushed for time in the mornings-so cereal and fruit here we come.

The downloadable calendar includes links to some of her recipes. To save time each day for me, I copied and pasted those recipes into one document. The recipes are in order of when they will be used. I included a link for those who would like it: Recipe List. Please remember that these are not my recipes, and I give full credit to Confessions of a Homeschooler. Again, I only have the dinners in this list.

Lastly, I wanted to make shopping as easy as possible so I created a weekly Shopping List to go with the monthly plan. Many items are staples that I try to keep on hand so I didn't include those in the shopping lists. If you utilize these, be sure to double check that you have all the items needed before trying to make something. Remember: dinner ingredients only are on these lists.

For those who are thinking that if you start this you have to stick with the plan-you don't. When I started mine from Bold Turquoise I was pretty lenient on when I cooked each meal. Some nights you really won't feel like cooking and that's okay. This is just a way to prepare ahead of time for something to eat. When I get home from school, I have about an hour or two before it is supper time. The last thing I want to do when I get home is try to figure out what to make and try to see if we have all the ingredients only to find that we don't. These meal plans help me know what is coming so I know that we have the ingredients needed, and I don't have to feed my kids junk all the time. Besides, if you don't like something, it is so easy to add in your own family favorite recipes.

Happy Eating!