The Menu

I have been working on this post for the past four days!  I don't know how others blog regularly with kids at home?  It takes time that I can't always give to the computer screen.  Not to mention two snow days with all the kiddos at home.  This post I thought may never get done!  Happy reading.

 

 

We've completed the Eating Well part, which is important to take us into our next part.  I think the quote says it all. Here's a quick overview of the past few weeks:

EATING WELL

• Balance--add variety and color to your food (not food coloring!)
• Portion your foods--for life long living, it's not what you eat but how much
• Habits-- Why am I eating this?  What are the benefits?  Break the bad habits and start some new ones

Now that we have covered the basic of how to eat better, we can do the fun part...

THE MENU

Warning:  this is the hardest part.  It takes time, not couponing time, but time.  It gets easier as you keep doing it monthly but at the beginning plan to put in some effort.  I've been doing it for over 10 years now and it takes a good 2-4 hours to make my menu.  This is the most vital part.  The menu will save you time on those busy days that you think you have to eat out because you don't have time AND it will save you money.

At the beginning of this series, I suggested grabbing a calendar or making one and writing out a week's worth of meals.  The first purpose was to see what variety and color we had with our meals. This time, do it again, or pull out that old one and look at your week's menu. 
What did you fill out?
Did you just put dinner items down?
Did you only list the main course for dinner?

When I did this class, almost every person ONLY wrote down DINNER.  Yet, oddly enough we eat all day!  At least 3x's a day!  Dinner is important but if you don't plan for the other meals you start buying more and eating not so hot.  Often the "snack drawer" becomes the main source of food throughout the day.

Let's get started!

For your first time doing a menu, expect to take a few hours (as mentioned before) or even a day or two.  My suggestion, don't start your menu the day you need to go to the grocery store and your family is down to just food storage beans and wheat. :)

1. Get a calendar.  You can print one off from Word or the internet.  Calendars are not hard to get.  Just make sure it has squares large enough for you to write in your food for the day.  When you are starting have a calendar JUST FOR YOUR MENU.  Don't add this to your daily schedule.  TIP:  On the back of your calendar write your grocery list. 
2. Get a second calendar/planner.  This calendar is for your schedule for the family.  Coordinating your meals with your schedule will take A LOT of stress from you.  You always want to look and see what you have going on for the month.  Do you have kids' practices, church meetings, company, going out of town, etc.  This helps you narrow down what days you actually need a quick meal.  (Eventually, you will be able to put this all on one calendar, but for now start from the beginning.)
3. Try to make meals for about 28 days** (this is not always easy).  Remember you want to apply the things we've learned in EATING WELL.  You want to include all your meals not just dinner.  Not everyone eats or loves breakfast.  If you don't eat breakfast SHAME ON YOU!  If you don't like a big breakfast, that's fine but this meal is your fuel for the start of your day.  Running on an empty tank is good for no one!  Plan for something.  Lunch is often overlooked and can be hard to plan but also the easiest to plan.  Rarely do we sit down for lunch as our main meal.  It's on the go or a quick break.  Often lunch can be leftover's or a sandwich.  However, if you don't plan for lunch too (especially if you pack it for your kids for school), it's easy to buy too much, not enough, or just go for instant things.  Remember, I want to help you eat well and save money. 



This is what my menu starts out looking like.  Remember I've been doing this for a while, so my menu is less detailed.  Notice on the 10th and 17th I made a little note (SL) that means Southern Living.  I know to go there for the recipe. 



• Random food for thought:  My husband was telling me recently that he had read that people rarely buy cake or brownie mixes anymore (he loves to bake). I assumed it's because it's "processed."  Yes, more people are buying more things fresh, but the main reason why sales had gone down was because it TOOK TOO MUCH TIME to make.  Say wha!!!???  People prefer just to buy it already made.  I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this.  So, people aren't being health conscious and trying not to eat desserts.  They aren't going back to scratch method of baking.  No, they are spending more money to get an instant dessert.  It takes 10 minutes max to make a cake mix from a box!  I guarantee they spent more time at the store.  Crazy!
• Here is an example of a week's worth of meals:

Sunday:  cereal/cheese slices*, grilled cheese/grapes, King Ranch Chicken/salsa and salad
Monday: oatmeal, leftovers/applesauce, Shrimp and grits/salad, dessert for Family night
Tuesday: pancakes/bacon, ham sandwich/chips, sloppy joes/pickles and grapes
Wednesday: cereal/hard boiled egg, PB and J/baby carrots, crockpot Teriyaki chicken/rice and broccoli
Thursday:  parfait/scrambled eggs, leftovers, baked chicken/sweet potato, green salad, rolls
Friday: cobbler/sausage, chicken salad sandwich, pizza
Saturday: whole-wheat pancakes/applebutter and eggs, leftovers, lemon-pepper chicken salad/honey-wheat bread or rolls

*cheese slices--I buy the cheese by the block (normally 8oz blocks).  A slice for us is slicing off the block, so fours slices may only be about 1/2oz. of cheese.

1.  (This should be 4) Make a detailed grocery list from your menu.  This part will get easier and less detailed as you get the hang of it.  Imagine you are sick and need someone else to get your groceries.  They don't' know all those basics that you always buy...write it down.  I know this from experience!  I sent my husband after having a baby once.  I gave him my list and he spent only half of what I normally would only because he bought exactly what was on my list!  He didn't know to buy the bread and flour that I ALWAYS buy every shopping trip (and other things).  Lesson learned.  At first, you will see you have several repeat items.  I sometimes just make a little mark by that item every time I have a repeat.  For example, canned green beans.  I would put a mark beside that grocery item each time I had written it down for a side dish.  Say I marked it 5 times.  I know I will need at least 5 cans of green beans or just write the number.

   

   Here is the grocery list.  The picture isn't great, I know, but hopefully it gets you an idea.  Notice on the other page I have a breakfast, lunch and snack list.  I don't make something different every day for breakfast, I rotate those breakfast items.  Congrats if you can read my handwriting!

2. (5) Check your recipe prep times.   This sounds a little crazy, but there is nothing worse than allotting 1 hour for dinner only to find out that the recipe needed to simmer or rest for an hour in the fridge requiring 2+ hours for meal prep.  We are talking some serious short-cutting on a meal, turning out not so hot, or finding a quick substitute for the night.  Not fun.  Read those recipes because they often will say 2 cups of cooked chicken, chopped.  The recipe prep time will not account for cooking that chicken and chopping it first.  Don't let this deter you from a recipe because it takes prep work.  I'll give hints about that later in the series.

This was a lot of information, so I'll give you a moment/days/week to let this all sink in.  This process of menu making takes time.  Time we all feel we don't have, but time we need to make.  You can do this while you watch TV, browse Pinterest, or on a quiet Sunday afternoon. 
I am amazed at all the people I have met they never make a grocery list when they go shopping.  As my friend reminded me just the other day, "Helping save money" and I'll add eating well, "is a major contribution to the family."  It's important.

**When you make a menu for the month, you don't have to eat those things on those days.  You may have tacos written down for a Monday but feel like stir-fry.  If it's on the menu then you know you have the ingredients so change it out.  I do this all the time!