January Menu Plan!

For the past few months, I've decided to tackle a whole month of menu planning at once.  Some times I go through and organize my ingredients to buy into several lists: I'll compile everything that's non-perishable and/or can last all month into one list and do one massive shopping trip at the beginning of the month.  I'll buy all my meats, canned goods, boxed pastas, etc, plus whatever fresh veg will last (like a bag of onions or potatoes will keep in the pantry for the full month) AND whatever fresh ingredients are needed for the current week.  Then I create several more weekly lists with the fresh ingredients that are needed each week that I can't buy ahead and also fill it with my weekly staples (milk, coffee creamer, snacks for the kids, lunch items, breakfast things, etc) and do weekly smaller trips until the next month.  While I'm excited our new house actually has a pantry, it's a pretty small one so doing the big monthly trip makes things tight in there at first.  Usually I just shop week to week.  If the apocalypse ever hit on a Saturday afternoon, we'd be fairly well screwed as my shopping day is Monday...

To make things easier for myself, I have theme days.  These change sometimes but mostly they are:
Meatless Monday - whatever I make that day is vegetarian-like
Taco Tuesday - Mexican inspired meals this day
Whatever Wednesday - Asian and Italian usually rule this day
Sandwich Thursday - like the name implies, our dinners on Thursday are some sort of sandwich (this used to be Thrifty Thursday and we'd eat leftovers)
Pizza Friday - we do a family movie night every Friday and order a pizza.  Starting January, we'll be making our pizza's as I've challenged the fam to NO EATING OUT (as best we can) for the month of January
Slow Cooker Saturday - whatever can be made in the crock pot or Instant Pot wins this day
Leftover Sunday - if there's leftovers, we'll eat them this day.  It seems like there's always a day a week we miss making dinner, so we'll make it on Sunday instead.  If nothing else, this is a forage the fridge/freezer day and see what we can make.

I used a couple of tools to menu plan.  The biggest one I use is Cozi.  This app (desktop and mobile) is free (although I have the premium version) and contains my life.  It has all my recipes, my menu plan, my shopping lists, my calendar, my to do lists, etc.  I love it because my husband uses the same log in and has access to everything as well.  If either of us add an appointment, the other gets a notification that it's on there.  Along with that, I like to write things out so I use a page from my Happy Planner to list out the month of food (above).  Then I can tack this on the fridge and have a quick glance at it in the morning when I'm getting the fam ready for the day.  I also try to plan out my sides (some times I do this for the month, sometimes I do it the week I go shopping for those foods).  I usually try to have 3 things on the plate (I have NO idea why, I just do): the main dish, some sort of vegetable side, and something else (a fruit, another veggie, a carby/starchy thing).

Without further ado, here is the proposed January Menu (linked where applicable):
M, Dec 31: Black Bean Quesadillas, salad, Mexican rice
T, Jan 1: Beef & Bean Burritos, salad, corn
W, Jan 2: Chicken & Wine Sauce, salad
T, Jan 3: Hawaiian Teriyaki Burgers, salad, baked beans
F, Jan 4: pizza
S, Jan 5: Beef & Barley soup, biscuits
S, Jan 6th: Leftovers

M, Jan 7th: Cheesy Broccoli Casserole, salad
T, Jan 8th: Tortilla Soup, corn muffins
W, Jan 9th: Slow Roasted Filet of Beef, brussels sprouts, salad
T, Jan 10th: Southern Style Pulled Pork, corn, salad
F, Jan 11th: pizza
S, Jan 12th:
S, Jan 13th: Leftovers

M, Jan 14th: Ravioli, french bread, Cesar salad kit
T, Jan 15th: Fajitas, salad, refried beans or Mexican rice
W, Jan 16th: Honey Glazed Chicken Stir Fry, rice, steamed broccoli
T, Jan 17th: Hoagies, chips, salad
F, Jan 18th: Camping - menu TBD
S, Jan 19th: Camping - menu TBD
S, Jan 20th: Camping - menu TBD

M, Jan 21st: Black Bean Soup, corn muffins
T, Jan 22nd: Taco Soup, fruit salad
W, Jan 23rd: Fettuccine Alfredo, steamed broccoli, bread
T, Jan 24th: Grilled Cheeses, tomato soup
F, Jan 25th: Pizza
S, Jan 26th: Crock Pot Chicken Teriyaki, rice, steamed broccoli/carrots
S, Jan 27th: Leftovers

M, Jan 28th: Stuffed Shells, french bread, Cesar salad
T, Jan 29th: Enchilada Roll Ups, salad, refried beans
W, Jan 30th: Asian Edamame Fried Rice, potstickers, steamed broccoli
T, Jan 31st: Kalua Pork (on a bun), coleslaw, salad
F, Feb 1: Pizza
S, Feb 2: Santa Fe Rice & Beans, rice, fruit salad
S, Feb 3: Leftovers

How do you menu plan?  Do you menu plan?  Let me know what you're cooking this week (or month!).  :)

xoxo,
Sarah

Hello Again!

Well hello since 2014!  I was a little surprised that
1) I remembered my blog address
2) it's been FOUR YEARS since I last blogged!

Most of you who will bother to read this know what my life has been up to since then.  For my own sense of posterity (and because I like the sounds of my fingers clacking on the keys), here's a sum up.  In 2014, I stepped up and took over my local mom's group.  We were a group of 6-800 (I think?) women from all backgrounds, in all stages of life.  It was an exciting and tiring journey.  I ran the group with a core of really amazing women for 2 years before passing on the reins.

Ben started kindergarten in 2015 (holy cow) and I became very involved in the PTO at school.  I came off of running the mommy group and into the PTO board at his school.  Through a series of very wild and bizarre circumstances, I ended up taking over leadership of the group when he started 1st grade.  Again, what an exciting and tiring journey that was!  I had a lot of fun learning more about his school, becoming friendly with the staff, and growing myself as I navigated a good sized non-profit.  Matthew started kinder in 2017 with Ben's kinder teacher (which was so much fun!).

Goodness, 4 years is most of Matthew's life.  A lot has changed!  The biggest over all change is we no longer live in Idaho.  In March of 2018 we came down to Florida for a family vacation, doing our second Disney Cruise.  Watching the cousins play so amazingly and wanting to give our kiddos a taste of that family, we decided we'd just move here.  Nick's job is so flexible, he can work anywhere there's access to internet and the airport.  I don't work and had finished my term on the PTO so I didn't really have any obligations tying me to Idaho (other than my own family).  We felt the boys were young enough that a move would be fairly easy at this age to adjust to.  Quick bam boom, we had our house listed and sold by mid July and were in a new house in Florida just before the new school year started.

We said goodbye to our pets: Sadie passed, then Frenchie, and then Kitty got out and got lost and we never found him again.  In the midst of all that, we added Goldie the Goldfish to our family and then adopted Jett the cat from the Humane Society.  Shortly after we arrived in Florida, we accidentally killed the fish (he was the BEST traveler in our 4 day trip across the country!) when we filled his tank with nasty Florida water.  We bought a new fish, Phasma the Goldfish and just recently adopted a puppy!  Max the yellow lab / German shepard mix.  Puppies are hard y'all.

Photo Credit: Emily Sparks Photography

Well, that's a thumbnail into the last 4 years.  Maybe I'll keep this little blog of mine a little more current!