Meal Planning!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the emails, posts, comments and everything from my article in the newspaper today! Wow, I didn't expect such a response! My email was full.

The biggest question everyone wanted to know is HOW do I plan menus?? So here is a basic (subject to change due to store sales) menu for my family. I don't plan each individual day. I plan 28 breakfasts, 28 lunches and 28 dinners. The number NEXT to the food is how many times in the 4 weeks we will eat that meal. The reason I don't assign an actual day is it depends on the sales, when I shop, how much I have in stockpile, or whatever. Also, if we are tired from a long day, it may be a soup and warm bread day and not a make a BIG MEAL day. So, it depends! Another thing to remember, we have two kids so these may not be meals fit for a king, but they are fit for a 6 year old and an 8 year old.

Also, during the school year, my kids qualify for lunches at school, so that cuts out my menu too!

Breakfasts
8 cold cereals (basically twice a week)
6 pancakes and fruit (or pigs in a blanket if we have sausage)
6 eggs or crepes (we use left over meats from dinner to add to the scrambled eggs)
2 waffles
3 oatmeal
2 yougart and granola
2 bagels and cream cheese, fruit and cottage cheese
Total: 29 meals

Lunch:
6 soups
8 cold sandwich or grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly
4 hot dogs (my kids love hot dogs so we have them at least once a week, for those who think that is unhealthy, we don't eat fast food, so this is their fast food!)
2 speghettios
4 mac and cheese
1 salad lunch (this is again left over veggie from my garden, left over cheese or whatever to make salads. Left over ham from the dinner the night before)
1 scallop potatoes and ham
2 sloppy joes ( again use ground turkey because it's cheaper and healthier)
I typically add fruit to lunch meals
Total: 28 meals


Dinner
4 Taco Dinners
6 Speghetti Meals
2 Hamburger Helper Meals (I use ground turkey to cut down on the sodium and fat)
2 Salisbury Steak Patties
2 Chicken Parmasean Meal
1 Chicken Dinner
2 turkey or ham meals ( depending on my stockpile)
4 leafover nights (once a week! We clean out the refrig! The kids love it!)
2 Crock pot meat stew
1 Corn on the Cob Meal
1 crock pot Chili ( with corn bread!)
2 Frozen Pizza
Total: 29 meals

Sides for dinner:
Veggies ( from the garden or frozen)
Bread
Rice a roni or some type of rice dish
Pasta Roni or some type of Pasta dish

Drinks:
Milk (buy bagged because it's cheaper, it freezes well)
Kool Aid (we make it with 3/4 cup sugar, my kids are used to that taste. Some people can't do that)
Fitness Water (we got a box full of FREE fitness waters, so this isn't a staple, but it's what we have for now)
Juice (we buy the cheap frozen Aldi's concentrate)
Water
Tea (we drink a lot of TEA!)
Chai
Hot Coco
Coffee

Snacks:
Whatever we have in the stockpile. My kids are known to have cold cereal (a small amount put in a bag) for a treat. We eat fruit, cookies, cheese and crackers, etc. for snacks!

I hope that gives you a typical menu for our family for a month. Please feel free to comment.