My Attempt at Meal Planning

I have sucked at blogging lately (I guess a few days really isn't that bad and you guys probably get sick of reading my posts but I feel like its been a while haha). This is exactly what I was afraid would happen if I started a blog... I didn't want to start strong and then forget to post for months on end. Since I started working full time again it has been a lot harder to post but I guess I need to make it a priority. I think my other problem is that or life is relatively boring now that we're into the summer work routine and so thinking of topics to blog about is difficult to say the least. I apologize in advance if this post is terribly boring.

Today I wanted to share my attempt at meal planning. Lately I really began to dislike dinner time at our house. Don't get me wrong, I love food and I even enjoy making it but.. I HATE coming home from work and then having to think about what to make for dinner. Admittedly I sucked at being a loving wife who had dinner home waiting for my husband every night when school got really busy at the end of the semester. Matt didn't to let me know (I like to think he was joking around but we all know there's truth behind every 'joke'). Not that he complained a lot but I did start to feel bad. I think it was my own fault because I began our marriage as the 'house wife extrordinaire'. I always made dinner and other treats to have around the house so Matt grew accustomed to that lifestyle.

One benefit to not making dinner every night is that Matt has definitely stepped up. I guess he go fed up with waiting for his food and so sometimes he takes it upon himself to make dinner. This week alone he make grilled chicken sandwiches with fries on monday, and beef stroganoff on tuesday. What a great guy!

When I decided to start meal planning I didn't want to discourage Matt's willingness to make dinner so each week I try to plan at least one meal that Matt knows how to make so that if I don't want to cook or am busy with other things, he can step up (haha 'sneaky mom').

I also made a template for our meal plan. I got my idea off of Pinterest but I didn't love any of the colour schemes so I just made one on my own. I put a big version in a sheet protector on the fridge and then printed smaller versions. The big one is where I put the finished meal plan and grocery list for the current week. I used a dry erase marker so that it was easy to change each week. The smaller ones were great to use as working copies to plan out each week and to take to the store because they had my grocery list.

You can download a copy of but the regular and the small version here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ptvd38dkgkw7ykg/AADQP6nHrBL06UKrV0bCGxLfa

After I plan out each week I always keep the meal plan so that I can recycle it in the future. Matt likes to have variety in his meals throughout a particular week. For example be couldn't have to pasta dishes on two consecutive nights, or we couldn't have tacos and then greek wraps back to back because they are too similar. Sometimes I laugh when he brings this up but it's true... 'variety is the spice of life', so I try to put some thought into my meal plans which means it makes even more sense to reuse the ones we like.

I have found that when meal planning it is easy to rely on your go to meals. Often those are the meals I have ingredients on hand for and so its easy to get stuck in a rut making the same things all the time... BORING!!  I decided another rule for my weekly meal plan was that each week I would try a new recipe. I hope that this will expand my repertoire of 'go-to' meals that I have on hand and can make easily.

I have decided that I am going to start 'FOOD FRIDAY' on my blog. First because it will save me from having to think of something to write; and second so that I can share some of my failures and successes in the kitchen.

Till next time! Cheers.