For the love! School goes back this month. I’ll have a 1st grader and a Pre-Ker and a Preschooler and one home full-time. I am starting to get a glimpse of what life could be like in just a few years when I’ll have them all in school. What a difference that will be! I am anxious for those days, while I know that I’ll miss key moments from these days. I’m sure every parent can relate to that feeling.
I feel like I’m just getting into a good rhythm of summer and boom! I’ll have to adjust to the new rhythm of fall. We’ll manage. Some days will be hard. Some days will be really hard. Some will be not so hard. But just about all days will be made easier when I’ve planned out my menu. Specifically for me, when I know what’s for dinner.
And that’s what a menu plan is all about – planning what you’ll eat. So that you can prepare accordingly. So that you can shop accordingly. So that you can plan accordingly. Love that.
Please plan your meals! Use this one as a starting point. Or use your own. Check out Nicole’s new meal planning book ‘The Extraordinary Art of Meal Planning‘ for tips on how to meal plan. But just do it!
Available Formats:
- The easy-to-print version as a .PDF.
- The pre-filled file in Excel.
- An empty file in Excel. Make your own menu plan!
Recipes in this menu plan:
Oven Drumsticks
Pizza Casserole
Hawaiian Chicken
Chicken Stir Fry
Crock Pot Pork Chops
Sweet Garlic Chicken
BLTs
Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl
Fajitas
Chicken Alfredo Bake
Smoked Sausage & Potato Hash
Cheeseburgers
Slow Cooker Creamy Spaghetti
BBQ Chicken Foil Pack
Easy Skillet Nachos
Chicken Tacos
Crockpot Stuffed Peppers
Sheet Pan Cashew Chicken
Marinated Chicken Breasts
Slow Cooker Barbeque Beef Sandwiches
Grilled Sausage & Veggie Packets
Beef Stroganoff
Slow Cooker Lasagna
Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches
Taco Ranch Chicken
Bratwurst
Sweet Asian Chicken
Quiche
Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes
Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
Pizza
It’s okay if you don’t like these recipes or these ideas – make your own! Just open the Excel version, delete what you don’t want and keep what you do want! I have a menu plan that works for my family – you should have one that works for yours!
How can I make this even easier?
To make things easier, when prepping chicken at the beginning of the month, make enough for the other recipes and freeze it for future use. When making ground beef, brown 2-3 times the normal amount and freeze that. Check out these easy crockpot instructions for bulk cooking chicken and bulk cooking ground beef. It makes it super quick to pull meals together!
Jayme is a wife to 1 and a mother to four little boys. She tries to coupon, builds a smart stockpile, and always meal plans. While she likes to cook, she’s in the stage of life where simple is usually better – she never knows how many hands she’ll have free at dinner time! You can find her at No Regrets Living.
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