Meal Plan Monday

I have thought about joining the meal plan monday crowd but hadn't ever gotten around to actually posting them, especially since I rarely start my menu on a Monday but Bridge's asking was finally enough to prompt me.

This is my first attempt at a two week menu, I think it will make it easier to coordinate leftovers, especially with my bean meals. After I made the menu, I made up two grocery lists. My big list, which I used when shopping yesterday, and a short list of perishables that I need to pick up next week.

At first meal planning was hard, it took me a long time to come up with 7 whole meals! But I started assigning themes to certain days: Sunday I try to do a simple pot meal or a crockpot meal so I have sunday free to nap and hang out with Craig. Monday is our super busy night, we don't get home until 8:30 so it is breakfast for dinner/leftovers. I have something simple planned that uses things I already have so if we end up having leftovers available, it's not a big deal to skip. Wednesday is another ballet day for me so we do spagetti since it is quick. And Thursday is fish night. That means I really only have to come up with a few meals for each completely from scratch.

I only plan dinners but I have started including prep work in my menu as well as planning snacks. Craig is a big snacker and he was always complaining that I was trying to starve him until I realized that I was very good at sticking to my list at the store but I was making a list considering we were only eating meals. Now that I am planning snacks, based mostly on sales and what I make over the weekend, he is a much happier camper.

This menu does not contain a lot of meat. We have been reducing our meat consumption but this is low even for us, mostly because we had people over for dinner twice already this month and used up meat then so this is to compensate.

Snacks:
Yogurt
Grapes
Wheat Thins
Popcorn

Sunday:
Lentils and Rice
Salad
Pumpkin Pie (save half of crust dough and batter for later)

Monday:
Apple Omelettes
Oranges/Grapes

Tuesday:
Lentil Gyros (lentil patties made from leftover lentil/rice mixture with spices from the gryos recipe we like) serve in Homemade Pita (from freezer) with lettuce and cucumber yogurt sauce (same recipe as above)
Carrots

Wednesday:
Spaghetti
Salad
Corn
Make Black beans for tomorrow and tuesday

Thursday:
Baked Salmon with Pesto
Quinoa and Black Bean Salad
Broccolli

Friday:
Lentil and Rice Soup (last of the lentil/rice mix in broth with carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, brocolli stems and herbs)
Wheat Rolls
Pumpkin Pie

Saturday:
Mom's Macaroni and Cheese
Wheat Rolls
Spinach

Sunday:
Chicken Pesto Pizza
Salad
Prep - Cook extra chicken for chicken packets

Monday:
Eggs and Toast
Oranges

Tuesday:
Baked Black Bean and Cheese Burritos with lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream.
Corn

Wednesday:
Spaghetti
Salad
Peas

Thursday:
Tuna Melts
French Fries
Carrot sticks/Oranges

Friday:
Chicken Packets
Peas or Corn
Salad (if any is left)

Saturday:
White bean apple chili
Irish Soda bread