Monthly Meal Planning Menu #1

We began weekly meal planning a year or two ago and found it really helped us eat a variety of foods, cut back on take out, and save time when grocery shopping.

This year I thought I'd give monthly meal planning a try.  I really liked the idea of only tackling this job every 30 or so days and it was pretty easy once I got going.

We eat a lot of warm, comfort foods in winter so I tried to make sure we had a different soup, casserole, and hot sandwich meal each week.  I also tried to make sure we were eating a variety of meats and side dishes and that we had a meal each of the boys would eat at least a few times each week. (They're all picky in their own ways so I made sure that I rotated through meals they each liked).  

I wanted to wait until the end of the month to post this to see how well we did with sticking to the menu and to see if my plan really worked. Other than two or 3 last minute decisions to get take out or just not eat dinner at all we stuck to the menu really well! 

Here's what we've been eating this month (if I have ever shared the recipe I made sure to link it up!):

1st-- Pot roast with mashed potatoes, roasted squash and broccoli

2nd-- Chicken pesto soup with homemade challah bread. 

3rd-- Ham and pea mac and cheese

4th-- Weight Watchers lasagna with salad

 5th. -- Leftover night (we had lots of soup, mac & cheese, and lasagna left)

6th-- Grilled chicken breasts, rice pilaf (from a box), and steamed broccoli

7th-- BLT sandwiches with French fries (butternut squash fries for my husband and I) and salad. 

8th-- Fish casserole (though I used zucchini and yellow squash in place of the broccoli), baked up some chicken tenderloins for the younger boys that I just sprinkled with Italian dressing since they don't eat fish, roasted potatoes and cooked up some steamed broccoli (for all three boys).

9th-- Grilled rib eye steaks, baked potatoes, roasted asparagus and mushrooms with salad. 

10th-- Spiral ham, Weight Watcher's smashed potatoes, and roasted acorn squash.

11th-- Chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole.

12th-- Weight Watchers Unsloppy joes with roasted potatoes (for the boys) & butternut squash fries (for my husband and I) with salad. 

13th-- Weight Watchers American chop suey with salad. 

14th-- Shake and Bake pork chops with egg noodles (for the boys), green beans, corn and salad. 

15th-- At the last minute we ended up getting take out from the Black Dog. 

16th-- Sausage and Tortellini soup in the crock pot with homemade bread.

17th-- We had a little birthday party for Alec with his grandparents and ended up getting take out pizza since the whole turkey we had planned to cook up was still frozen solid. Alec did cook up some delicious white chocolate/ raspberry blondies. 

18th-- Shrimp stir fry with riced cauliflower for my husband and I with chicken tenderloins and rice for the boys.  Served with lots of mixed veggies and salad. 

19th-- Roasted turkey with steamed broccoli & rice pilaf (the meal we had planned to serve at Alec's party!) since the turkey was finally thawed. 

20th-- Last minute take out since my husband and two of the boys had haircuts right at 5:00.  They brought home grinders from D' Angelos. 

21st-- Chicken parm. casserole with pasta and sauce for the boys (zoodles for me) and salad for all. 

22nd--   Italian herb marinated chicken with squash casserole, broccoli and salad.

23rd-- We had an unplanned "fend for yourself night" since no one was hungry after a very late lunch. 

24th- Cranberry marinated pork tenderloin (recipe coming soon!) with roasted potatoes and green beans.

25th-- Tacos/ taco salad night. 

26th-- Shaved Steak grinders with salad

27th-- Baked potato and ham chowder 

28th-- Homemade Weight Watcher pizzas with salad.

29th-- Parmesan crusted haddock (this recipe from Penny with haddock in place of Salmon) with baked potato, broccoli and salad.  (with chicken tenderloins for the boys).

30th-- Sundried tomato chicken & Orzo that I found on Tanya's blog. 

31st. -- Weight Watcher's Turkey Pot Pie.

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