Me and My Menu

I am going to try something new this week at the Johnson household.  I sat down yesterday morning and planned the menu for dinners for the next week.  Now, I know that might sound simple.  Let me tell ya, it is definitely not an easy task.  Complications especially arise when I have to plan around having two more tiny individuals here this weekend and a son that come home asking for certain foods.  However, I think that I have done a pretty good job.

You might be asking yourself "How does one begin planning a week's worth of menus, Sissy?"  Well, my first step was finding an easy to use menu planning guide.  This is why I LOVE Google!  You can find anything on Google including pages to print out so you can menu plan.  I found this menu planning page, through my search, that works very well with my family.  Now, it has a section for breakfast and lunch; however, I am not using that section.  I am actually writing what might be occurring that day in this area.  That way I can plan my meals accordingly.  I also like this page because it has grocery list section.  No extra lists to make is a wonderful time saver in my opinion!

My second step was to go scouring my pantry and see what I had on hand.  In my opinion, this lets me know what I have and I don't have to make several trips back and forth to see if I have the ingredient.  Third step was going to my cookbook collection.  As you read in a previous post, I love my cookbooks (check out Cookbooks...My Addiction!! under my July blog archive)!  Therefore, I have great resources already at my finger tips. 

The fourth step was sitting down and just planning.  For my first time out, I don't think I did too bad.  I had to go back and re-work it three times (especially after JJ came home with his special request).  However, it was quite painless.  My final step was then going through my coupons to see if I had any coupons for ingredients on my grocery list.  Now, I have read in numerous articles/books, that avid couponers will plan their meals mainly around their coupons.  Don't get me wrong, I love coupons and couponing.  However, with our busy schedule, that would be quite impossible.  So, I am doing it backwards -- LOL!!

I did purchase this neat eight pocket ringed binder.



I love the fact I can plan up to eight weeks.  I also like I have a pocket for the menu page and a seperate smaller pocket for my coupons.  That way, everything is together!!

I am planning on sharing my weekly menus, on my blog, in the near future.  I thought this would a great way to share menu ideas especially with busy mom like myself.

Have a great evening everyone!