I love a new month. This means a new dinner plan. Everyone has their own way of doing dinner for their family and I'd love to hear all your tips, but this is what we do in our house.
The first Sunday of the month we (kids included) plan out 2 weeks of dinners. Each day has a different theme, so Monday is a Comfort Food dinner, Tuesday – Italian, Wednesday – Mexican, etc. I even do a breakfast for dinner night once a week just because I love breakfast so much and who really has time to have a sit-down-as-a-family breakfast in the morning. Not us! Themes are just a nice way to keep my head organized while I'm going through all the recipes.
Below are my go-to recipe books. These are NOT gourmet recipes. They are simple, quick, but yummy recipes.
- Favorite Family Recipes
- Food Nanny (this book is the one that started me on theme nights)
- Our Best Bites
Now here's my Ah-Ha moment that took me waaay to long to get... Once you have your two weeks planned you're done; just start over and do it again. Ta-da! You just created 4 weeks of dinners. Easy-peasy. You'll have the same dinner twice in a month, but most people do that anyway without even realizing it.
So, when you are planning your shopping list, just double everything you are buying and you are good to go.
If I'm super ambitious, I even double my dinner recipe and freeze the other half, so by the time the second half of the month comes I can just pull out freezer meals. This, my friend, will make you feel like a freaking rock-star!
I should also mention that I'm not super strict on what night is what. I move our dinner schedule around a lot, depending on our families schedule that day. I just try not to do any repeats the first two weeks so no two meals are too close together.
Now, if you are in need of a meal plan click here and you can download mine.
Happy Planning!