Oct 15 | Menu Planning
DIY Vanilla Sugar
I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! We enjoyed lots of family time and a delicious turkey dinner that my Dad made! The weather was also beautiful so we took a couple of nice walks. Although we’re finishing today, we took the opportunity to start fixing our drafty front door. I’m hoping this will help keep the heat more consistent (and give us a cheaper bill)!
Here’s what I have in mind this week:
Chicken Pot Pie
Tortellini with garlic & herb cream cheese sauce, steamed carrots, salad
Sloppy Joe Calzones (I make pizza dough for the wrapper instead)
Breakfast for Dinner (French Toast, bacon, smoothies)
Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
What will you have cooking at your home this week?
Oct 7 | Menu Planning
How to Stock your Pantry on a Budget
Here we are, back to a normal week. No family visiting anymore, just back to normal. Not sure if I’m glad or not! Turns out I love shaking things up from our normal routine. And of course, catching up with family we don’t see very often.
Here’s what I have in mind for the week:
I’ve been realizing that it’s important that I include leftovers as one of our dinners or else some food gets thrown out. And that is not good for the grocery budget!
What’s on your menu this week?
Oct 1 | Household Tips, Menu Planning
Menu Planning Tips and Tricks
As much as I sing the praises of menu planning, there are still times when I’m having a tough time putting together a good selection of meals. Either I’m tired of planning meals or inspiration just doesn’t want to strike, even though there’s an endless amount of recipes to choose from out there. Or maybe it’s the fact that I have to execute my plan by actually cooking and buying the groceries I need!
Regardless, I still have to make a menu plan to make my grocery dollars stretch. But on days when I get stuck, here are the menu planning tricks I use to complete my plan:
Copy an old menu
I have notebooks full of old menu plans and blog posts dating back to 2009 with our menus. So when I’m in a pinch, I just copy one of those. Just goes to show, it never hurts to have a notebook especially for menu plans!
I also have a recipe binder full of favorite recipes or recipes I want to try. Whenever I flip through my binder, I often find ideas that sound perfect!
Take inspiration from someone else’s menu
There are a ton of websites out there that offer free weekly menu plans. I quite often browse a few, then use a couple of recipes off of each one to create my plan for the week. Here are some sites I enjoy checking:
Head to Pinterest
Pinterest makes everything seem so deliciously appealing. So when nothing is sounding good to me, I head to Pinterest to drool, I mean choose a few recipes to try.
Use theme Nights
List five different themes then plug in meals to fit the themes. Here’s an example:
- Mexican night
- Pasta night
- Sandwich night
- Soup night
- Chicken/beef night
- Meatless Monday
Walk away
When all else fails, I walk away for a while. When I come back, the ideas usually start flowing again!
Do you ever struggle with planning? What are your menu planning tricks?
While it’s not free, I have also used $5 Meal Plan in the past. For just $5 a month, they will send you a delicious meal plan where every meal will cost about $2 per person, and in most cases less. You can even try it for free for 14 days!
Sep 30 | Menu Planning
Easy French Toast
Just as I suspected, with family in town, only a couple of meals were made last week. So there are some repeats on this week’s menu!
So far we’ve had a busy and fun week visiting. It’s been fairly non-stop, but it’s been nice since I’m mostly at home! We even managed to hit up an indoor playground on a rainy day and my husband decided I had more fun than Sienna! What can I say, the slides were fun!
Anyways, here’s what’s on our menu this week:
What’s on your menu? Any new recipes?
Sep 23 | Menu Planning
Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
This week, family from Winnipeg will be visiting, so I’ve planned some meals that should stretch. As usual, when family is visiting, I’m not expecting to follow the menu exactly, but I like to be prepared in case we’re feeding everyone all week long.
Since we’re feeding extras this week, I thought we might all enjoy the Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes pictured above for dessert one night.
Here’s what I’ve got in mind for the week:
What’s on your menu this week and what do you like to feed company?
Sep 16 | Menu Planning
Delicious Banana Bread Recipe
Another week, another menu! Our weather is supposed to go a bit downhill this week, so I’m starting to incorporate some comfort meals. Do you plan your meals based on the weather? Or are you more the type to plan based on your mood? I definitely plan by the weather. 🙂 And my mood.
Here’s what we will be eating this week:
Hearty Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash and Quinoa
Slow Cooker Meatballs, rice, steamed veggies
Peanutty Asian Wraps, salad
Pizza
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup (recipe coming)
Leftovers
I will also be making this Caprese Garlic Bread for lunch one day, because it looks so darn delicious!
What sounds delicious enough to you this week to make it onto your menu?
