Monthly Meal Planner

Like many people, we struggle with evening meals. What to make, what do we have ingredients for or what do we have time for. I've seen posts about making a months worth of meals in a day and placing them in the freezer. Seems like a good idea, but one that isn't practical for my family. With things about to get crazy with me going back to school, two parents with full time jobs and a crazy 3 year old, I figured if I could make things simpler, now would be the time.

I compiled a calendar with 31 days and each day is a different meal. On Sunday we look at the meals for the week to determine what we need from the store, that way there are no last minute trips for something we need. This is not something set in stone. Obviously if we go out to eat or want to try something new, we can simply slide it into place. I also put additional meal options into an 'extra' category if we want to mix things up. I plan to use this every month, and we can adjust as needed. The purpose of the calendar was to cut down on the "I don't knows" whenever we are trying to decide on dinner, we just look at the corresponding date and there you have it. Many times we forget to take things out of the freezer to thaw before dinner time, so hoping this will help us become more prepared and proactive to dinner.

My 3 year old is pickier than I would like her to be when it comes to food, so keeping our dinner options with her in mind. (Yes grilled cheese and tomato soup!) I tried to keep things simple, yet mix them up. Who really has time to make a 5 coarse dinner every night? Not this working Mom!

It took some time, but I also attached recipes for the dinners that we don't know by heart. This will save time in the long run, especially when we're short on time because it will cut down on time searching online or through cookbooks.

Below is a sample of my calendar, maybe you can find it useful in your daily routine! Enjoy!



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