Planned Monthly Menu

[GretasLittleFriends]

we have lunch at 11:30 and I think about it at 11am ::

This is me with lunch and dinner most days!!

I make a monthly menu and put it on my website. I do it more for myself to plan my dinners for the month. I think it saves a ton of planning time. Every Friday I make a list for the next week's groceries and I do one grocery shopping trip on Saturdays for the entire week. It's somewhat a pain at the beginning of the month to make a new menu, but it really helps us budget accordingly. I do not rotate menus because my family and I like a lot of variety.

I desire to be more like this and will be taking inventory of my freezer shortly to determine what the rest of the week's meals will be. Tonight is left over Chicken ChowMein from scratch. Made a HUGE pot of it yesterday thinking I could have two dinners.

I just joined the Food program for Indiana and if it wasn't for the fact that they reimburse us for 3 meals per child I wouldn't do it. It's very strict and after a week I don't like it! We have to follow our meals to the T, which honestly I didn't do this week. Like one day I planned spaghetti but then realized I didn't have any ground beef so I switched that day with the day I planned hot dogs. But I think once I start using Minute Menu I can't switch, which ****s, esp since I don't know what kids like and don't like until I have them and every day varies. The part that I HATE the worst is that we have to eat within the time we have on our schedule or else we don't get paid. Breakfast has to be done no later than 9am. Well this morning a boy came in and went to sleep because he had a long night. I had to wake him up at 8:50 in order for him to get breakfast in time and get paid for it. Some days we run late and forget about snack, but if I give it to them before 3:00 or after 3:30 then it can't count.

IMHO the only good thing about planning your menu weekly or monthly is that it gives you a grocery list, other than that I think if you want to switch Tuesday's AM snack with Thursday's PM snack then you should be able to.

I use Minute Menu with my Food Program and do NOT have to plan meals. I am NOT required to let my parents know in advanced either, I just have to make sure it meets requirements.

[MarinaVanessa]

I typically plan a month ahead...although I currently have 12 months worth of menus planned.

I follow all the food program rules, but do not want to be on the food program.

My menu being a month in advance allows for supply purchase and prep in advance. I cook and freeze in bulk so that I don't have to cook during the work week. I have a large deep freezer, plus two regular refrigerator/freezers. I store food in tin catering dishes for easy reheating/serving with no extra dishes to wash.

Wow, I think that's awesome. If I had the space I'd like to have a deep freezer too. Mind sharing your meal plans?

[jen2651]

Wow, I think that's awesome. If I had the space I'd like to have a deep freezer too. Mind sharing your meal plans?

I would love to see your calendar with meals as well! I have a hard time not falling back on the easy peasy zucchini casserole. The kids love it and lord knows I have the ingredients right now, but still...I love to try new food and try to do one or two new recipes a month.

[Cat Herder]

MMK does not have a way to easily copy and paste, email or link. I never realized that until today.

I will type them into a word document that I can drag over here to post.

It will take me until Friday I think.

It will benefit me, too since if I ever leave MMK I will loose all my work... Not to mention the way MMK does it is by the ingredients so it will be hard to tell what I am talking about.

I have many others as well, just all free hand in spiral notebooks. Like I said, this is my first ever computer.

[jen2651]

I hate to create more work for you but it would be much appreciated...and no rush!