Here is another thing I think goes hand in hand with your couponing/shopping and also budgeting! And also, just your sanity in general! I have ALWAYS been really good about making a weekly menu, if you don't I challenge you to do one for next week, you will be hooked! It is so win/win! You can use what you have on hand, using up things in your fridge before they go to wast, it saves you the headache of planning every morning or night what to do, your meals will be on the table faster cause you will know what you are making so you can take your meat out in the morning, you can even do prep work in the morning or the night before, you will find you are no longer eating out just cause it was quicker, you can combine prep work (like if you are having 2 recipes this week with ground beef, brown it all at once), my husband always knows "the plan" so if he gets in the house first he can get things started, I am sure you get my point by now, I just can't say enough about menu planning! You can make this fun too, my sisters and I get together and plan menus, share recipes, maybe have a few drinks while we do so, and probably get at least 2 weeks or a month of menus out of the way at once, however, I can do a weekly menu in about 10 minutes! Once you get into the swig of things you will be lost without it! As you get better you will find yourself doubling things to freeze one, or even just doing a little extra prep and throwing it in the freezer for later! Here again, it can be as simple as a week jotted down on a piece of paper, you can use a calendar, you can use a "weekly" memo pad that you can put right on your fridge, my sister keeps hers all organized in a binder, you can find several templates that you can print off on-line, you can buy software, the possibilities are really endless! I just recommend you keep things organized, so you can use your old menus for future reference! You really will love this, you will find you aren't making the same thing over and over again, if you plan 2 weeks at a time, you won't be eating the same thing more than once in 2 weeks, that's not bad! So sit down with Sunday night (or whenever you have time) with some of our cookbooks and make a plan! To help you get started, I am going to post my menu for this past week, ending with tonight:
Monday: Tuna Casserole (I make mine with cream cheese and velveeta instead of cream of mushroom) ;)
Tuesday: Grilled Ham and Cheese and baked French Fries
Wednesday: Sausage and Fried Potatoes (pure health food I know, you are going to realize I am not the healthiest cook! Last week I made brownies in my waffle iron!)
Thursday: Breakfast food! We had left over sausage and waffles, then I make lots of extra waffles to freeze for breakfasts! Another one of my favorites (just ask my sisters) on this night is an idea I got from my friend Kristi! She makes breakfast burritos, with sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and cheese (I use the salsa con queso a lot) and make PLENTY extra, just wrap the extra individually in saran wrap and freeze them, super handy for Wade to grab for breakfast or just about anytime of the day really! Pop it in the microwave and they are SO good!
Friday: Homemade bacon cheeseburger pizza
So there, nothing fancy, this was a SUPER easy week cause I was busy at the office, but really, I never make anything that takes very long to prepare! I will try to post a menu every week and if you need the recipes just comment!
