For a few years now, I have planned out my menus a month at a time. I started doing it when Eric became a salaried employee, and thus only got paid once a month. Now I’m in the habit of doing it, so it’s hard to move to planning a week at a time or whatnot. (I had tried to just reserve the cash needed and then plan and shop each week, but apparently this bigger planning is what I like now.) I end up doing one MAJOR shopping trip per month, and then each week, I stop by the store for things that need to be picked up more regularly like bread, milk, produce, diapers, eggs, and the like.
I sat down to do my planning (which, I will admit, I have not been good about for the past several months, and it means that we have been eating a lot of junk), and I came up with 35 separate dinners. Now, I do sometimes get asked, “What about the leftovers?” Well…Eric usually takes them to work or I’ll eat some for lunch the next day. But, I did make a concerted effort to use some of them in the menu planning (especially after we’re going to make a ham one night — it is one of the two hams that Eric got from work for Christmas). If something is on the list more than once, it means that we plan to have it more than once in the month.
This list is not in any particular order yet (although I will put it all onto a calendar that I will post inside one of our cabinets):
1. Roast with potatoes and carrots
2. Roast with potatoes and carrots
3. Pancakes
4. Pancakes
5. French Toast
6. Scrambled French Toast
7. Lasagna
8. Spaghetti wth Meatballs
9. Spaghetti with Meatballs
10. Chicken Pot Pie (from Market Day)
11. Popcorn Shrimp
12. Chicken and Biscuits with Gravy
13. Steak Fajitas and Spanish Rice
14. Tuna Helper
15. Asian-style chicken and broccoli
16. Teriyaki Chicken and Vegetable Fried Rice
17. Cobb Salad
18. Ham with Mashed Potatoes, etc.
19. Fried mashed potatoes with ham (fry it all up in the skillet — yummy leftovers!)
20. Laded baked potatoes (with ham cubes and cheese — some more yummy leftovers of our ham)
21. Beef and Broccoli with Rice
22. Oriental Chicken and Noodles
23. Meatloaf
24. Roasted Chicken
25. Cheddar Chicken and Rice Skillet
26. Oven-Fried Chicken Fingers and Fries
27. Pizza Sticks
28. Ham and Cheese Stuff ‘n Puff
29. Beef Enchiladas
30. Creamy Rice, Chicken, and Spinach
31. Layered Fiesta Casserole
32. Crockpot Chicken Rice Casserole
33. Spaghetti Casserole
34. Beans and Cornbread
35. Hot Dogs (with the hot dog rotiserre thingee that we got for Christmas from Erin & Alex)
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