JenPenM

August 20, 2009

Menu Planning 101: Assignment 1

Filed under: budget, food — Tags: — Jen @ 8:00 am

Last week, The Happy Housewife challenged her readers to an assignment. She’s starting a series on how to menu plan and this first assignment was for each reader to come up with a list of 15 meals that their family wanted to eat.

Now, I’ve been menu-planning for just about a year now and have really enjoyed it (even though I have often forgotten to post our menus online). I do a week-by-week, Monday through Sunday plan. Depending on our available funds when I’m planning out the week, sometimes I make a list and shop for everything I need to make the meals I chose, and sometimes (when we’re broke) I plan meals around what’s already in our pantry/freezer/fridge. So far, my “fly by the seat of my pants” menu-planning method has been working for us, but since we just recently switched from two incomes to one, and from a 3-person household to a 5-person (and by next spring, 6-person), what I hope to get from Toni’s Menu Planning 101 series is to go from a weekly menu plan to a monthly plan and learn how to make our planning more frugal by stretching our meat with more vegetables and meatless meals.

After a week of thinking and polling my household, here are my family’s 15 favorite meals:

  1. Chicken Noodle Soup
  2. Chicken Pot Pie
  3. Beef Stew
  4. Enchiladas (most of us prefer plain cheese variety)
  5. Tacos
  6. Pot Roast
  7. Grilled Italian Chicken
  8. Pasta with Red Sauce (doesn’t matter what shape of pasta or what meat in the sauce)
  9. Grilled Hamburgers
  10. Pizza
  11. Smothered Chicken
  12. Shake & Bake Pork Chops
  13. Baked Ziti
  14. Pork Roast
  15. Monterey Chicken with Bacon and Cheese topping

Now what Toni?

8 Comments »

  1. Hey Jen!
    Here is a new blog I am following thought you might enjoy it too! Hugs Mom

    http://newlifeonahomestead.com/?p=2100

    [Reply]

    Jen Reply:

    Thanks Jill! I’ve been following her for a few months now. I love her posts. It’s neat that I know someone else who reads her too!

    [Reply]

    Comment by Jill — August 20, 2009 @ 11:43 am

  2. disregard the page that load’s and go to her articles like “Shop only twice a year” or other stories…

    [Reply]

    Comment by Jill — August 20, 2009 @ 11:44 am

  3. Just reading your list has made me hungry.

    [Reply]

    Jen Reply:

    Aww, thanks! I try to make some yummy things. Usually they’re hits, but I’ve had my fair share of misses as well.

    [Reply]

    Comment by the Provident Woman — August 20, 2009 @ 12:17 pm

  4. What is Monterey Chicken with Bacon and Cheese topping??? That sounds sooo good. Chicken, cheese, bacon? Have you posted the recipe?
    Thanks for linking up!
    Toni

    [Reply]

    Comment by The Happy Housewife — August 27, 2009 @ 8:23 am

  5. @Toni, I haven’t posted the recipe before, but I should! It’s super simple and can be done either in a big skillet or the crock pot! I’ll get right on that post today, after I link up with your next part of Menu Planning 101 of course.

    [Reply]

    Comment by Jen — August 27, 2009 @ 8:32 am

  6. [...] week we came up with 15 of our family’s favorite meals. This week’s challenge from The Happy Housewife was to add another 5 meals and list our [...]

    Pingback by Menu Planning 101: Assignment 2 « JenPenM — August 27, 2009 @ 9:22 am

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