2 posts in 1 day! oh my! My friend Lisa over at Fatchickfedup has once again inspired me! While I was in St. Louis, she wrote a post about 10 Ways to Save Money on Healthy Groceries. The very first thing she shared was about menu planning, and every Monday she links up her menu plan at orgjunkie.com. I have tried to menu plan in the past, but I always ended up straying from my plan or eating out because no one felt like cooking that night. I then had an Ah-ha moment! I should be doing what Lisa is doing! Menu planning and linking up for accountability! If blogging has kept me accountable in so many aspects of my getting healthy journey, then why not this too?
One of the first things I did when I got home from St Louis was menu plan! I planned out the next 2 weeks and purchased only those groceries that I need for these meals (plus the main staples that you should always have on hand). I spent $120 on groceries, and that’s it! I’m pretty excited about that!
I almost always find my recipes on pinterest and I will be linking up thier original source. Also, my husband cooks on the weekends so I am only planning the weekdays! Most times, he bbq’s on the weekends cuz we have a ton of meat in our deep freeze.
Here is the dinner meal plan for the this week!
Monday: Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake
Tuesday: White Enchiladas
Wednesday: Fish in the Crockpot
Thursday: Shrimp Vodka Pasta
Friday: Chipotle Lime Chicken Tacos
I LOOOOOVE this website I stumbled across called Eat At Home. It has a ton of recipes (you may notice several of my linked recipes are from that site!) and this awesome, awesome menu planner that I am now using. You gotta check it out!
What’s for dinner at your place?!
Hi, stopping by from Sit Girls! I am enjoying reading your blog. I will have to bookmark it for future reads. I am too on a journey to health since I have been diagnosis with a Vasculitis. I love your idea about meal planning and just purchasing what you need in the store and not go on tangents in buying convenient junk food because I am to tired to cook. Another great idea would be to make crock pot meals in order for those days of the week you don't want to cook. I know my crock pot has a timer on it so it can cook at the right moment while I am gone. Thank you so much for the inspiring post.
I LOVE the crockpot! On busy nights, it is my go to for dinners. That is the one thing I always planned ahead of time before I started this whole menu planning thing. We sing in our church choir so every Wednesday I would have a crockpot meal in the works so that when we got home, it was ready! Have you seen the Crockin Girls website? It's fantastic!
http://crockingirls.com/
Hey! Stopping by from SITS. I have (also) started menu planning recently. I haven't stuck a 100% yet, but it has definitely helped with budgeting and being more organized. I don't have a good set up yet, but I'm working on it. I love the color scheme and idea of your blog.
Ps- Totally adding it to my GReader. 🙂
I was pretty impressed that it actually saved me money. I did alot less of “straying from my list” like I normally do. I typically would write down all the groceries that we needed then meal plan at the store. Bad idea! I saved so much money actually planning out the meals before I went to the store! This meal planning thing is genius!
Thanks for stopping by!! =)
Hello…stopping in from the Spring Fling over at thesitsgirls.com. I really like your blog. I have tried the meal planning myself but always stray from it because of my boys' sports that take up most of my week.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have you tried doing crock pot meals on those busy days? They are a life saver for me!
I run hot and cold with menu planning. I go full steam ahead for a few weeks, then forget to plan one week (or feel too tired and not manage to cook anything I planned), then it all gets put aside. I get frustrated with it always being me who has to decide what to eat! Maybe I should start again and try to get my husband more involved.
Stopping by from SITS!
That was me too! I'm trying so hard to turn this whole meal planning thing into a habit though. I told my husband that if he will take the weekends then I will do the weekdays. It works out great cuz I don't feel like its always completely on me like I did in the past! Thanks for stopping by!