If you’ve been following the Meal Planning Series, you know that we have discussed the importance of having a meal plan and how theme nights can help you create that meal plan. We talked about making sure it is affordable for your family and today I wanted to let you see what our current menu looks like!
Our Current Meal Plan
So, back to what our current meal plan is: We eat a fairly clean diet. We have meat a few times a week, most all of our meals are cooked from scratch. We do eat some processed foods, but those are mostly reserved for our rotating school lunches so they are easy grab-and-go meals.
First off, in order to best compile this menu, I refer back to our Family Cookbook. All the recipes that we love are typed and categorized in this binder for an easy and quick reference. When we get bored of having a certain meal, it makes it easy to substitute a meal from the same category in our Family Cookbook.
I try to keep the meals fairly vague to offer variety. I have included the different ways those meals can be mixed up. Otherwise, we rely heavily on side dishes to bring about fun change and take advantage of produce that is in season. If the recipe is from an online source, I have added the link.
Savory Sunday
Roast
Chateau Chicken from Dream Dinners
Pulled Pork (served as a salad, sandwiches, or with rice or potatoes)
Chicken Parmigiana
Meatless Monday
Pasta Primavera or any Pasta with Alfredo Sauce
Lasagna Casserole or Spaghetti
Hawaiian Haystacks
Chinese (stir fry, oriental noodles, etc.)
Taco Tuesday
Cafe Rio Chicken (enchiladas or salad)
Tortilla soup or Chicken Taco Salad
Enchilada Casserole
Taco Soup or Taco Salad
Wait for it Wednesday
Chicken Bake or Chicken Pot Pie
Chili and Baked Potatoes
Italian Chicken with Pasta
Thirsty Thursday
Broccoli Cheese Soup or Grilled Chicken Salad
White Bean Soup or White Chicken Chili
Zuppa Toscana or Grilled Chicken Salad
Ham and Potato Soup or Southwest Chicken Wraps
Fun Friday
Pizza
Breadstick Pizza
Rice and Bean Wraps
Simple Saturday
Omelets
Burgers, Grilled Cheese, or other Sandwiches
Macaroni and Cheese
From this list, everything is homemade. We do get Little Casear’s on Fridays nights if things have been crazy and I just don’t have the brain space to make homemade pizza.
Hopefully this helps jog your brain a bit for meal ideas for your own family. We do reevaluate each month and change it up when necessary. Most of these meals I have cooked often enough though that I don’t need the recipe anymore, and I always have the ingredients on hand.
Instead of being bored by a meal plan, my kids love knowing what to expect, and I love knowing that my kids look forward to nearly every one of these meals!
What’s on your Meal Plan?
