Always wondering what you’ll be doing for dinner? A simple weekly menu can help answer the never ending question and save your sanity! By planning your menus ahead of time you’ll save yourself time, money and stress! To start give your self about thirty minutes- have a pad and pen handy to write out your menu and grocery list, a favorite cook book for ideas, your family’s calendar, and any coupons you want to use.

First look at your family’s schedule and figure out how many meals you are planning for. Be realistic- if you know that there are days that are so busy you will likely eat out- don’t plan a meal, you’ll end up spending money on groceries that you won’t use! Think about how much time you’ll have to prepare dinner- if you are going to be running errands, coming home from work late, etc. it may be a good idea to plan a quick easy meal, or one that you can use your crock pot.

Now that you know how many meals you are planning for and have an idea of the time you’ll have to fix each meal it’s time to decide what to fix. If you need ideas flip through cook books, or you can visit sites like epicurious.com, foodnetwork.com, or kraftfoods.com. Write our your menus, then head to your pantry to make out your grocery list- while your making your list write down any other items you might need from the store- then you have your list ready to go. Now instead of making multiple trips to the store- you’ll have everything you need for the entire week after just one trip. Keep a copy of your menu- make sure to cross off any dinners that didn’t work out; after a few weeks you can start repeating your menus. Post your menu where your family can see it- this will let everyone know what your having so they can avoid eating the same thing for lunch! Planning your dinners for a week takes a little time up front- but is worth the effort! Here’s What I’m having for dinner this week!

Monday: Crock-pot Roast w/ new potatoes, onions and carrots

Tuesday: Chicken Piccata w/ angel hair pasta, oven roasted carrots, steamed asparagus

Wednesday: Grilled pork-chops w/ sauteed potatoes, green beans, applesauce

Thursday: Baked Spaghetti w/ salad and garlic cheese bread

Friday: Vegetarian Tacos w/ rice, fiesta corn, chips and salsa

Saturday: Eat Out!

Sunday: Chicken and Rice w/ salad, squash, and rolls

Questions? Email me- joy@doctorswife.net

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Recipes & Meals, Good to Know, A day in the life of being a Mommy!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.