2015 starts this week! What better time to be intentional about menu planning? Try this MONTHLY menu plan! I’ve put together a plan for this month based upon common meals that we have at my house. This month I’ve focused on more frugal meals in case your wallet wants an extra break after the holidays.
What if I don’t cook every night?
Awesome! I don’t either – we often have leftovers 2-3 night/week. Just take this basic plan, cut out some meals and make leftovers part of your plan!
What if I don’t want a particular meal on a specific night?
Awesome! Just take this basic plan and swap meals around.
What if I want to see the Excel version?
Awesome! You can download it here.
What if I don’t eat beef? Or chicken? Or pork?
Awesome! Just take this basic plan, remove the foods you won’t eat and put in foods you will eat.
What if I don’t know how to make that meal?
Awesome! Here are the links for the recipe that I usually use.
What if we always have pizza on Friday nights?
Awesome! (Can I come over?) Just remove my Friday meals and put in pizza.
What if I want to plan for more than just dinner?
Awesome! Feel free to print this out, write out breakfast & lunch meals. Or you can edit it in Excel and make it your own!
What if I don’t like your recipe?
Awesome! Use which ever recipe you normally use and just use this basic plan as a suggestion.
What if I have my own monthly menu plan?
Awesome! Care to share it? Share it down below in the comments so that we all can see it and be inspired!
What’s cool about this menu plan?
I tried to have a variety of meals each week – some beef, some chicken, some pasta, some soups. That way you won’t get too bored. But there are also plenty of ways to save time when using this menu plan. Examples: 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. It makes it super quick to pull meals together!
Recipes in this menu plan:
French Bread Pizza
Hot Ham & Cheese
Homemade Hamburger Helper
Oven Drumsticks
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Tacos
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Saucy Chicken Broccoli Bake
Pizza
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Sweet Garlic Chicken
Glazed Pork Chops
Vegetable Soup
Marinaded Chicken Breasts
Baked Potato Bar
Hamburger & Veggie Soup
Chicken Tacos
Skillet Nachos
Sausage Lasagna Rolls
Taco Soup
Beefy Mac & Cheese
Taco Salad
Chicken Noodle Soup
Bean & Cheese Enchiladas
Cheesy Ground Beef Casserole
Pepperoni Roll
Chicken Pot Pie
Slow Cooker Creamy Spaghetti
Baked Potato Soup
Tortilla Pizza
Crock Pot Smothered Pork Chops
Jayme is a wife to 1 and, so far, a mother to two little boys. She coupons, but isn’t super extreme about it. She price matches and loves it! 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.
I need to be better about meal planning. Right now my husband does 1/2 the meals, and I do the other 1/2. It would be great if we were on the same page.
Nicole you are simply amazing! I am so unorganized when it to meal planning….I need to get better at this, thanks for providing the help 🙂
Thank you Cynthia! But, I can’t take the credit. Jayme wrote this and did an awesome job. Check out her website at http://noregretsliving.wordpress.com/
Meal planning is a lifesaver for me. It helps me save money at the grocery store and prevents me from wasting food. I hate wasting!
I appreciate your share! Monthly planning is a little challenging for me as my schedule changes frequently and I try to shop in response to the weekly ad for my local grocery store, but I love the variety that you have shared and am looking forward to trying some new dinners!
One tip I do to make planning easier is that while the actual items are different, each week follows the same schedule … Mondays – breakfast for dinner (I’m not home so dad does this night); Tuesdays – soup & sandwiches (great leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week); Wednesdays – slow cooker; Thursdays – something in a skillet (often redone leftovers from slow cooker night); Fridays – Pizza, leftovers or eat out; Weekends depend a lot on our schedule, but I try to make something requiring a little more thought and prep. During the winter, if I can run the oven for a few hours, all the better. In the summer, Tuesdays and Thursdays become grill nights and Wednesdays are salads.
Love theme night idea! Thanks for sharing!
I have tried several times to meal plan. My family doesn’t help much in making the decisions of what to have. We end up eating the same things all the time. In December I ran across this meal plan for January. I checked it out. I loved that the food was normal everyday food. Not weird ingredients that I may never find at the the store or that they would cost too much to purchase. I went through printed the calendar and then printed the recipes that I needed. Put them all in a 3 ring binder. My husband gets paid weekly so I shop weekly. I have to say almost all the meals my family had enjoyed. I did change a couple that I wasn’t sure we would like. (but less then 5) I have stayed on budget and now actually enjoy cooking again. There is no thought process or struggle to what we are going to eat. It is on the calendar so the kids don’t even ask anymore. There is no rushing to get things on the table before an event because I am not waiting til the last minute or until my husband gets home to plan supper. Thank you for this. I am looking forward to Feb. meals!!! God’s blessing to you!!
That is wonderful!!!! I’m so glad your family loves the meal plan! 🙂
Yay! I’m glad that they worked!
I do the same thing with my recipes – the “keepers”/”will make again” get into a 3-ring binder. I use the plastic protective sheets to protect them from splatters and make them easy to re-arrange.
My family isn’t much help yet on the menu plan either – when I put together my plan, I usually ask “What do you feel like eating?” or “what haven’t we had in a while?” He doesn’t usually care! So, in absence of an opinion, we eat what I feel like cooking or what we have the ingredients on hand for!