I love sitting down every week to plan out our menu. It helps us eat well, try new things, waste less food, and even save money at the store. Now that we have a new baby in the mix, menu planning has become a necessity for my sanity (and theirs). Otherwise, I’m pretty sure we’d be eating cereal for dinner every night. Or out.
In attempt to keep myself organized and accountable, I thought it would be fun to keep track of our weekly menu’s. Below you will find what we eat each week. I might even throw in a downloadable menu + shopping list to help make getting food in the house and dinner on the table a snap for us both.
Some basics about how we eat.
I plan for 5 (five) home cooked meals with 2 (two) days for leftovers and/or freezer finds. We don’t always get through all five recipes, but I like to have them planned anyway. I also keep a fairly well-stocked pantry and sometimes swap out a meal when the mood strikes. (Usually happens when soup is on the menu because my husband isn’t always a fan.)
While there are 4 people in our family, only two eat what I’m cooking at any given time. The baby isn’t eating solids yet and Anna (my 5 year old) is super picky and eats maybe 4 things total. I always encourage Miss Anna to try what we are eating and she usually obliges. Doesn’t mean she likes it, but she tries it. And I’m okay with that.
I have a few dietary restrictions and overall food preferences to work around. My husband is currently gluten-free. I’m dairy-free. Together we really only overlap on vegetarian and vegan meals, beef, and turkey. It can be challenging to find new things to eat and keep our menu interesting, but I like the challenge. (Most days.)
Finally, we tend to eat the same things for breakfast and lunch each day so I don’t bother planning for those. I mean, it’s written on my menu planner but only because there’s space for it. I never erase it though. I should probably switch to a different planner so that I have more room to write out our dinner menu.
The (menu) plans, Stan.
UPDATE (4/24/2022): As you can see, I made it through a month’s worth of menu planning before having to stop. Between a pandemic and a newborn, I definitely took on more than I could handle. Now that we are out of the newborn phase (the baby is almost 3!!), I have more time and space to focus on this again. So stay tuned!
