Meal Planning Time!

Last week I made a Meal Plan for the first time in a very, very, very long time. I full expected that I would fall off the wagon, but we did really well sticking to it (or switching a meal here and there). When we were first married, we would make a meal plan for an entire month (I posted about it at least once!) and make one BIG grocery trip if possible, using the best deals available in store and stacking coupons. As we would run out of milk, bread, cheese, or fruit, I would make quick stops to pick up those things. That was great for our budget and incredibly feasible with the schedule we had at the time. I may go back to that style of planning one day, but for now, I'm liking a week at a time. I can plan my grocery pick-ups and farmer's market trips around the meal plan (and when we start to harvest our garden, I'll write the meal plan based on our crops!).

A few things about the way we tend to eat around here....

• We eat a lot of eggs (when our hens aren't being stubborn....).
• When Adam is at the station, meals are super simple because meal prep when all three boys are chasing each other around the kitchen without Dad to distract them gets a little crazy.
• In the summer, there are many days that we stay outside until the sun sets, which can be basically bedtime some nights! For that reason, there are a lot of days when we eat a bigger lunch and then have simple dinners.
• We haven't bought sandwich bread since sometime around Christmas! I used the bread machine that was my grandmother's for several years. She insisted I take it home with me one day because she said I would get more use out of it than she did (She was right!) The machine finally made its last loaf of bread just before Christmas. My birthday is at the end of December, so my in-laws bought me a new bread machine!! I make a new loaf of bread about once or twice a week.

I'm working on finishing up this week's meal plan, but in the meantime, you can download last week's here!  Links to any online recipes are at the bottom of the Meal Plan so that they're easily accessible when viewing online. I printed the Meal Plan and any new recipes and put them in a page protector and kept it in my kitchen to keep everything clean during meal prep!

Hope this helps you decide what you're having for dinner this week!