Happy Monday! How was your weekend? They go so fast, don’t they?
I just realized that this is Menu Monday post #53. Which means last week was the end of a whole year of Menu Mondays. Crazy!! Here’s to another year. Thanks to forcing myself to plan and post a weekly menu, I’ve been much less stressed about the whole “what will we eat?” problem, and our grocery bill is steady. No random purchases of food we don’t need and end up wasting. Hooray!
Now, here’s an ironic twist for you – somehow, 2 of the meals we planned to eat last week didn’t get eaten…. I’m not sure how that happened, because I feel like we stuck to the plan last week… so, because two meals didn’t get eaten, we have two meals of ingredients ready to be used! So you’ll see a few repeats.
And this menu is short! I’m headed out of town this weekend to Michigan to visit with my family. Elizabeth is coming with me too. So this week’s menu also has a few items here to help use up what we have left in the fridge. Don’t want to come home to moldy cheese!
I’m also trying out a new menu tradition this week. We go to church on Saturdays, which means the usual “Sunday dinner” scenario happens then. BUT after a long morning wrestling a toddler at church, the last thing I want to do when we come home is to whip up a big feast.
So we thought why not have the big feast Friday night! That way we have some leftovers to look forward to, and it’s more a special meal than eating a bowl of cereal (which is all my energy level on Saturdays can handle). So we’re trying it out this week!
Anywho, that’s that! What are you eating this week?
As always, for more information on how I menu plan, look at this.
Monday:
Vegetarian Stir Fried Thai Noodles (Pad See Ew)
Tuesday:
Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Pasta with Roasted Summer Vegetables
Wednesday:
Spicy Black Bean burgers with pepper jack cheese, carmelized onions and guacamole
Thursday:
Hot Dogs and some sort of side…
Friday:
Vegetarian Meatballs with roasted potatoes, salad, and green beans
Saturday:
Leftovers
Need more ideas for dinner?
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Linking up at Menu Monday with Org Junkie
Congrats on a whole year of menu planning! Not only that, but now you have quite the database of menu ideas. I love your plan for Friday night supper. We attend church at 11 on Sunday mornings, but then Paul works from 1-6 Sunday afternoon. So I moved our big meal back to 6:30 – that way I’m not rushed to get a meal on in 15 minutes, and I have plenty of time to work on it during the afternoon. You gotta do what works for you! 🙂
exactly! Whatever works, right? And now that I’m pretending it’s Fall (crazy, right?) a big dinner with potatoes just sounds yummy! ☺️
An entire YEAR of menu planning? Go you. That’s so awesome.
I love that you do weekly menus.
I was meal planning for a while and then I just stopped. You know, life happened.
Have any tips for following through with it? I find that when I menu plan, we sometimes don’t feel like eating what’s on the agenda. 🙁
Oh man!!! I don’t make what’s on the menu ALL THE TIME! Either the day was much busier than normal and what I planned would be too much work, or I just am craving pasta instead of the menu plan. But I allow myself wiggle room. I do try to keep a few random favs on hand (like spaghetti/sauce, frozen pizzas or other meals) to keep me from being tempted to go out to eat (which is why I started menu planning to begin with, before a kiddo!). But I tell myself it’s ok if we don’t stick with the plan all the time, like last week.
Congratulations on meal planning for one year! I don’t really meal plan…though we only eat out maybe once a week. I begin with certain ingredient staples and go from there!
Thank you! And that’s a really great approach too! I think I would stick to that plan if I was up for grocery shopping a few times a week. It would be really flexible but you can still stick to seasonal items.
OOoooh those spicy black bean burgers sound AMAZING 😀
They are!! I get a large box of these at Costco, but tons of other grocery stores carry them too!
I’ve tried to do a better job of meal-planning in the last few months and it really does make stress levels go down!
Oh I’m so glad! There are definitely days where I don’t feel like cooking what’s on the menu… but that’s life 🙂
Hot dogs and random side is more my style ha! But Friday’s feast looks super yummy. Sometimes I a feast is just what you need.
We were all feeling a big feast this week. It will hit the spot!!