Monthly Meal Planning (October)

Since many of my friends on facebook wanted info on my monthly meal plan I figured it was easier to post it here.

First of all, I am by no means a pro at this, this is only my third month with it but I will gladly share what I do.

I tried couponing but frankly I ended up buying more of things that I don't think we really need (5 boxes of granola bars are great at 50 cents apiece but we aren't going to eat them very quickly so in the long run I don't know that it saved me any thing). Also, for me it was time consuming and I didn't like going to 3 different stores and being in Atlanta, we don’t have the same types of deals I know some of you can get (doubling up to a dollar, case sales, or canned goods for like 30 cents for example).
Since couponing wasn't really working, and I hated spending at least an hour each week planning the menu (if I spent less time we only had meals that were easy/cheap such as hotdogs/sloppy joes/tacos/spaghetti- all of which are fine but not every week!) So since I wanted to try different, healthier, more exciting meals I decided to try planning for the month. This way I spend an hour or just over that to plan the menu, then each week I only have to go through the recipes, make the list of ingredients and off I go.

Now some notes:
First of all I recommend finding a monthly healthy cooking magazine that you like and getting a subscription- here's why:
they will do all the work of planning based on what will be in season and it will be healthy stuff!! For example, I got my Oct magazine last week, that meant all I had to do was go through and pull the recipes I wanted to try and plug them in to my calendar- saving me a lot of work, you can plug those in then fill around them with your favorites. I feel the subscription cost is well worth getting healthy timely recipes.

also, I am trying to make 1-2 meals per week vegetarian/ using beans and lentils. I am also trying to use a lot more green veggies... which i need help with- we eat broccoli and green beans but I need more ideas for things such as brussel sprouts/cabbage/kale so if you have some good recipes please share them with me.
You will see lots of repeated broc/brussel sprouts on this menu b/c I put them in now and then each week I am going to Google for a few fresh side dishes, I just haven't had time this week to do that.

When planning, make a quick list of your families favorites/easy/quick recipes. For example- I have a recipe called "Greek pizza" that I love and its pretty easy and cheap, same for things like pancakes/tacos/quiche that I can plug in after putting in my more exciting options.
The great thing about a monthly menu is you can try lots of new recipes- for example I think about 85 percent of this month is new recipes for me.

Monthly planning also helps me to roll over ingredients easier- so if I am buying parsnips for a side dish, then a couple days later I can use it in soup. Also this way I know to plan to use all my fresh veggies/fruit early in the week then I can do leftovers/breakfast for dinner/quiche toward the end of the week (I do my shopping on Thursdays so I can plan that by Tuesday/Wednesday I will be on the tail end of keeping things fresh).

Each week I can also then try new desserts as well, each week I pick one/two desserts to add in which I can then make whenever I want.

also for us, I don't actually like to cook much on the weekend (I know most people, especially those of you that work need to do most of your cooking then but since I don't actually love cooking I try to take the weekend off, plus we never know what we are going to be up to) so you will see things like hotdogs/sandwiches/mac and cheese as my lunch options b/c that way if we aren't home it doesn't really matter.

I just made a table in word with 7 columns,and 6 rows- put your days of the week in the top row then space out the next 5 rows and save that as a template, i don't put the numbers of the days in b/c that way each month i just put the first of the week in and it saves me time since i don't really care about the specific date anyway (as a SAHM they all come and go...lol)
You can choose to type in your recipes but I am old fashioned and prefer to write mine out which is why I don’t have a copy right on the computer to show you. if you choose to type it out you can also type the ingredients in as well but i find that took too long. I just pull the recipes I want and keep them in a binder-

so next topic: how i manage the recipes:
I have a three fold system- as i come across recipes i like, either from my monthly magazine, online or whatever I cut it out or write it on a note card. These then get put into a accordion file folder in categories such as main dishes/pasta/soups/baked goods/desserts/appetizers. Then when I am making my monthly menu I can look through those to find recipes I want to try. Once I try a recipe and we like it and I know I want to make it again I move it to a different binder- one that I put plastic sheet protectors in- I use the kind made for holding pics (find it in the office supply section, not the plain full sheets but ones divided, but not the baseball card kind b/c they aren't big enough to adequately display the names of the recipes) Some recipes you will have to fold up but that way you can use 6 recipes per page (front and back). This way you can keep the recipes you know are tried and true separated from the ones you want to to try (b/c most of us tend to have tons of recipes we want to try but wont get to for a while!)

OK I think that about covers the tips/basic info I wanted to share, now here is my October plan:
(remember most of these recipes I have pulled from a magazine and have in a pile to keep out, or they are the ones I do by memory- if you see a recipe you are very interested in let me know and I will email it to you although I may not have tried it myself yet- the point of this was not to share every recipe with you but just to show you how I do the monthly plan)

October 1: mini meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli
(Saturday) 2: roasted cauliflower pasta, salad- dinner, lunch- grilled cheese
(Sunday) 3: lunch- leftover pasta, dinner- Bulgar Greek salad
4: maple glazed salmon with sauteed brussel sprouts and rice
5: Tuscan baked chicken and beans
6: Greek pizza
7: fish with herbed couscous pilaf and carrots
8: Parmesan pork cutlets, sweet potato, salad
9: lunch: hotdogs, dinner: apple parsnip soup, biscuits, broccoli
10: lunch: sandwiches, dinner: veg lasagna (with added lentils)
11: chicken with lemon and leek linguine, salad
12: creamy root veg stew and goat cheese crostini
13: leftovers/quiche
14: Mexican lentils and rice
15: crispy onion chicken, brussel sprouts and sweet potato
16: lunch: mac and cheese, Dinner: chicken stuffed with spinach, feta and pine nuts
17: lunch- grilled cheese, dinner: savory bean and spinach soup (slowcooker) and carrots
18: spaghetti, broccoli, breadsticks
19: pancakes
20: tacos
21: Mexican bean and barley chili, salad
22: fettuccine Alfredo, green beans, carrots
23: lunch- hotdogs, dinner: shrimp tabbouleh
24: lunch- leftover tabbouleh in a pita sandwiches, dinner: loaded potato soup/ and broccoli
25: toasted clubs, carrots, cauliflower
26: sauteed Worcestershire chicken, sweet potato, broccoli
27: pasta e fagolie soup, breadsticks
28: rotisserie chicken, brussel sprouts, sauteed peppers
29: pork roast with carrots and potatoes
30: lunch: sandwiches, dinner: white chicken chili, carrots
31: lunch: leftover chili, dinner: (use leftover pork roast)- make into: bbq, tater fries, green salad
November 1 (since mine goes Thursday to Thursday): stir fry
2: pancakes
3: quesidillas