What's for Dinner?

For the past several months, I have been in a pretty good routine of planning out what we have to eat each week. My general goal is to make a plan for what we're eating for either the next week or two, then create a grocery list based on that and go shopping. 

This has really helped me because I no longer scramble at dinnertime trying to figure out what I'm making and if I have everything I need to make it. As a result of this, we eat out less often. I can plan to use my crockpot during the day so meat is ready at night. I can switch up the meals I've planned for the week if I want to. I have a list of the meals we like so I can refer to it and not have to remember all of them each time I'm planning a menu.

This is what's cooking this week... I know you are so curious.

Breakfasts- Blueberry muffins, homemade banana bread

Sunday- Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce, Fresh Green Beans

Monday- leftovers

Tuesday- cooking day: Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, Ritzy Chicken Casserole (I'll freeze some of this to use for future weeks)

Wednesday- Joe has duty, I'm off the hook!

Thursday- leftovers from Tuesday

Friday- simple dinner- like frozen pizza or something microwaveable

Saturday- Grilled pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Another idea I may start implementing soon is to have a theme for each day of the week, like pasta on one day, stir fry on the next, soup/salad etc.

What works for you when you are preparing meals for your family?

If you're interested in Menu Planning, check out this post on Simple Mom, which inspired my post here today.