We’ve begun a new year, but one thing that won’t be changing for us is how I plan our menus. I do hope to make some changes to what our menus contain (I’d like to include a wider variety of vegetables, for example), so we’ll see how that goes.
At the start of each month I plan out our dinners for the coming weeks (you can see past menus here). I prefer meal planning once a month instead of once a week because it saves me time. It also saves us a bit of money because I am able to make bulk purchases of items we’ll use several times. I only include dinner on our menus because we eat simple things for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, we often have homemade muffins, oatmeal, or yogurt with granola and fruit. For lunch we often have homemade macaroni and cheese, almond butter sandwiches, or avocado egg salad.
Here are the yummy dinners we’ll be eating during January 2021.
Days 1-7
- Taco salad
- Chicken sandwiches, vegetables sticks
- Creamy ground turkey and noodle casserole, green beans
- Burrito bowls
- Smoked sausage, seasoned rice, green beans
- Chicken cordon bleu soup (with hidden cauliflower), rolls
- Easy chicken enchilada casserole, carrots
Days 8-14
- Salad, Texas toast
- Cheeseburger quesadillas, vegetable sticks
- Chicken Alfredo, green beans
- Soft tacos, corn with red and green bell pepper
- Ranch chicken and veggies sheet pan dinner
- Chicken and noodles, rolls
- Mexican rice bake, tortilla chips
Days 15-21
- Pizza salad, breadsticks
- Chicken wraps, vegetable sticks
- Spaghetti and meat sauce, green beans
- Nachos, corn with red and green bell pepper
- Parmesan crusted tilapia, seasoned rice, green beans
- Cheesy ham chowder, rolls
- Four cheese macaroni and cheese, carrots
Days 22-31
- Taco salad
- Philly cheese quesadillas, vegetable sticks
- Spinach tortellini in Alfredo sauce, green beans
- Burritos, corn with red and green bell pepper
- Chicken lettuce wraps
- Slow cooker creamy veggie tortellini soup
- Roast chicken, seasoned rice, green beans
- Breakfast for dinner
- Easy cheesy stroganoff, broccoli
- Chicken tortilla macaroni and cheese casserole, carrots
What dinners do you hope to eat this month?
Shared at the following:
Over the Moon, Encouraging Hearts and Home, Busy Monday, and Homestead Blog Hop.
I love seeing what you guys have on your menu! It looks so yummy. Do you guys like eggplant? If you want to incorporate more veggies, I recommend eggplant-sometimes we’ll just roast a bunch to eat with our chicken or pork, other times I’ll make eggplant “meatballs,” or I’ll make an eggplant dip that is similar to baba ghanoush.
I haven’t really done any kind of meal planning yet, but I just made a batch of bierocks and I think I’ll probably put those in our regular rotation-I used to make them all the time, but then we took a break from them. They are pretty inexpensive to make, yummy, and you can make a bunch at once and they are really convenient to eat! (bierocks basically look like big dinner rolls, filled with a mixture of onions, cabbage, and ground beef-they are also called runza)
I don’t mind eggplant, but my husband won’t eat it. It’s been some time since I offered it to the girls. Perhaps I’ll make some again on a day Preston is at work so I can see if they will eat it.
I’ve heard of runza (but I’d not heard them called bierocks). I make empanadas on occasion and everyone eats these, so they might go for the bierocks. I’ll have to try!
I am working on getting organized, hope to work up monthly menus, home maintenance notebook, disaster preparedness notebook, and a project notebook (crafts etc. I want to eventually do) as part of my organizing!!
THANKS!!
Carol
I know that different approaches work for different families, so I don’t think monthly menus are the “right” way to meal plan or anything like that. However, it certainly works for us!
Good luck with all the organizing!
We made our first ever monthly menu this month and I am loving it! So much better to brainstorm one huge list than to try and come up with ideas each week. I see a few ideas on here I’m jotting down for next month’s menu. Pinned.
It’s definitely easier for us, but I know it’s not for everyone.
Coming up with so many ideas at once can be difficult. One thing I find useful is to always keep copies of my old menus (this is easy because they are here on the blog). Reviewing old menus can help spark ideas.
Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared. Have a lovely week. I hope to see you at next week’s party too! Please stay safe and healthy. Come party with us at Over The Moon! Catapult your content Over The Moon! @marilyn_lesniak @EclecticRedBarn
Thanks, Marilyn!