Meal Planning

I've been doing a study on the Proverbs 31 woman and today I read verse 14: "She is like the ships of a merchant; she brings her food from afar." And the other verse for the study today was Proverbs 9:1-2 "Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table." Basically, the message for today was about using wisdom in shopping for your family especially in regards to the food you purchase and prepare. There is one little thing I use that has enabled me to be very effective in this and I would like to share it with you: A monthly meal plan. And I keep it right where I will be able to see it every day- on my refrigerator.

As far as meal prep goes, I have found that a little planning in advance can be so helpful. Having the menu there on the fridge enables me to easily check the pantry and refrigerator to see what ingredients I need to put on my grocery list. Using a meal plan also gives me the chance to plan making new recipes (I usually try a new meal or two every month). It also helps me remember what meat I need to move from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw for the next day's meal. And it helps me plan ahead for meals that would be perfect with a loaf of homemade bread. In fact, just having a plan has saved me from the whole "What on earth am I going to make for dinner?" problem that I dealt with constantly in the first two years of our marriage.

I originally got the idea from my dad of all people (he is the cook in my family). He started to use the whiteboard calendar mom put on the refrigerator to keep track of everyone's plans to make his grocery list. It is something so simple that has really made my life easier. Every month I sit down at my computer with my meal spreadsheets and calendar white board and plan out what we will eat for the month. Sometimes we don't go by the menu. Sometimes I mix up the meals for a week if I see a certain ingredient should be used before it expires, or sometimes I'm just feeling lazy and convince Jeff into ordering out pizza (the convincing usually goes like this: "Here's the deal, I think we should order pizza for dinner" and then Jeff immediately grabs his phone to order it.) But usually I stick to the general menu.

Here is how the process works: I have made a spreadsheet on GoogleDocs that lists every meal I make that I can think of and beside it I have the total amount the meal costs to make. I have them organized into separate columns by category such as casseroles, soups, ethnic, breakfast etc.  The categories simplify planning for me. Some months I'll do casseroles on Mondays, pasta on Tuesdays, soup/stew on Wednesdays, chicken/beef on Thursdays, breakfast food on Fridays, and then hodgepodge on Saturday. (Sundays we eat at church). I just pick 4 different meals from each category on my list and write them out on my whiteboard calendar. Sometimes I have to tweak a bit to fit my budget so I also keep a monthly meal spreadsheet that lists all the meals with the cost beside it and have the total cost at the bottom.

So, that is one little tool that makes it easier to serve my family (and myself). I hope it has given you some ideas on how to make figuring out "what's for dinner" a little easier.