Planning the monthly menu

(Sitting around the table, ready to fill in the monthly menu)

Yesterday the kids and I sat down at the table to plan the menu for the month of February. We got our main courses for dinner all planned out for the whole month. I'm going back through and adding in some sides and additions to the menu now.

Planning our menu by the month has several benefits:

1) the kids complain less about what is being served for breakfast, lunch or dinner if they are involved in picking out the meals.
2) I can save money at the grocery store by arranging our menu around whatever is on sale when I do my big monthly shopping trip.
3) I can plan ahead for those days that are busy with activities and have some easy meals already lined up.
4) I save even more money at the store by preparing my shopping list based on the menu and sticking to only those items I need to feed us for the month (minus the stuff I have to buy weekly like milk and eggs and cheese).

My menu planning, plan?

Take out my brand new handy household notebook (part of my "get organized" routine of late). I have a whole section devoted to menus and meal planning. In that section I have my lists of meals for which I have recipes. I used to have the lists in a spiral notebook but took the weekend to type up all the lists (and everything is listed in alphabetical order too now).

 

(My lists of menu ideas, I also have lists for breakfast, lunch, and snacks)

Next I take out a pencil and a blank monthly menu page as my kids sit around the table.

(My daughter thinks she is a princess so she is always wearing her tiara, even when we are filling in the menu)

Next, I get ideas from the kids as to what they would like to see on the menu for the month. I write those out on a separate page and then add them to the menu... it's starting to fill up.

(I always add the kids ideas first, trying to spread them out through the month)

I also try to space out what we are having based on ingredients. I try not to have chicken or beef more than two days in a row.

 

(My oldest looks like he's about to fall sleep... LOL)

Once the kids' ideas are added, I start going through the lists of other ideas for main courses to fill in all the days for the month. I usually add the side dishes in after our family meeting, taking into account what the main dish is and some of the kids' favorite side dishes.

 

(Main dishes are all added to the menu)

At the end of the meeting, I should have all the blanks for the month filled in. I'm working with a new menu blank as well, which needs a little tweaking... I need to add a line for the month.

Next I will type in all the main dishes and side dishes and post the menu on the refrigerator so everyone knows what is coming up for dinner.

I've also started making a menu plan for breakfast and lunch and snacks as well, to help even more with my large monthly shopping trip (coming up on Wednesday!) as well as to give the kids some added responsibility in planning for our meals.

We usually spend a lot of time laughing around the table when making out the menu as my boys also like to goof around and list ideas like frogs legs or snails to the menu. That is SO not happening.