Menu Plan Monday

I started menu planning back when my girls were about a year old. My cousin introduced me to her sister-in-law's method. She would cook several meals on Saturday that could be frozen and eaten over the next two weeks. This worked for a little while when I just had Hubby and I as the primary meal eaters in the family, and also when there was a lot less to do as far as family activities and commitments because this took an entire Saturday.

Another method of menu planning I used was Once-a-Month cooking. I only did this a couple of times. This took an entire Saturday and I found that there was too much tweaking to make meals that my family would eat. Again, my children were small and didn't eat much at the time.

The method I've used for the longest time and still use with the greatest success is to plan meals weekly or for two weeks at a time. It just kind of depends on my mood when I sit down to figure them out how long I plan for. Sometimes I will plan out lunches in detail but I don't do it very often. I always wish I had because it always works better when I do.

So that said, here is my menu plan for this week:

Lunches (not planned by day):
Spinach Ravioli
Cheese Quesadillas
Macaroni & Cheese
Pizza
Taco Salad (with leftover taco meat)
Loaded Baked Potatoes

Dinners:
Monday ~ Breakfast for dinner...Pancakes/Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Tuesday ~ Chicken Pot Pie...this is a regular menu item for us
Wednesday ~ Tacos with homemade Taco Seasoning...see note below
Thursday ~ Lemon Chicken
Friday ~ Friend's house for a family birthday party
Saturday ~ Spaghetti
Sunday ~ Crock Pot Roast with Homemade Gourmet's Grandmother's Sunday Roast Seasoning

I'm making the Taco Seasoning for the first time. My family loves my tacos, and I happened to look at the package of taco seasoning last time I made them. It has MSG! I'm not going to tell them I'm doing it differently and just see if they notice. We have tacos at least twice a month, so this is something they have a taste for. If the taco seasoning is good, I'll post the recipe next week. I got it a year or so ago on another homeschool mom's website. The Lemon Chicken is also a new recipe, so if it's good, I'll post that recipe too.

Check out tons of recipes with Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.