Menu Planning

I saw a post out there in blogland today about menu planning -- they gave a lot of good ideas. (I'll share some of the links below.) Made me wonder how everyone else does their menu planning.

• Are you a "standing in front of the fridge at 4:30pm" kind of person? (been there, done that)
• Do you have yours all worked out meticulously for set period of time?
• Do you freeze meals ahead of time?
• Do you ever repeat menus to save time and effort?
• Do you have set nights of the week for certain meals?

Here's what I do: I plan our menus for 2 weeks at a time. Why? It matches pay periods, perishable foods usually last in that time period, and I find menu planning pretty tedious and I can't bear to plan it out longer than fortnightly! LOL

With our new Weight Watchin' kick, I find if I plan more what we're going to eat, then that double-cheese-baconburger doesn't find my behind, 'cause we're not hungry and desperate to find something to eat at a drive-through. With our current job loss, it's become really important to make meals that match our budget, and keeps us from making miscellaneous trips to the grocery store. Don't you just love that $27 can of cream of mushroom soup? :-)

To help me, I made a menu planning sheet; a table on one sheet of paper. It shows my 2 weeks and the days of the week. It also has spaces for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually only plan the dinners. During the week, breakfasts are do it yourself. Lunches are either leftovers or a quick sandwich or eaten at school. I do plan brekkies and lunches (a little) on the weekends. If you want a copy of my menu planning sheet, leave a comment and I'll send you one.

Some of my resources are:

• Healthy Cooking magazine (used to be Light and Tasty)
• Katie's favorites
• old family recipes, the "tried and trues"
• some old Weight Watchers mini cookbooks (the 5 ingredient ones are the best!)
• a couple of really useful old cookbooks
• the internet

Here are some links to some really good ideas on menu planning. Please share yours! What's cooking with your menu planning?

http://simplemom.net/how-to-menu-plan/

http://simplemom.net/menu-planning-resources/

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/03/meal-planning-guest-post.html

http://www.flylady.net/ Search for menu planning.