My Meal Plan for July 19th

     I was thinking this morning about my meal plan for next week and realized that I have never shared a full meal plan with you, or the template that I made to help you start meal planning.              Meal planning for me has to be a quick process since I generally don't have a lot of time to devote to it.  I sit down with my binder and my family calendar and away I go.  Next week is a pretty quiet week, we only have soccer 2 nights, so I won't have to worry about a lot about cooking ahead because I will be home to make dinner.  Next weekend we are going camping, so I will have to plan for that...but that shouldn't be difficult since we cook very simple meals when we are camping.

      The first thing that I do is print out the meal plan template.  My friend Maura has it posted on her blog and the link is http://happydealhappyday.com/5-tips-feed-family-7-75-week.  I wrote an article for her and she graciously shared the template with everyone.  You can print it right from there (then take a look around, she has an awesome blog and she can help you save $$ too!)
     The second thing that I do is check my freezer, pantry and fridge to see what I have on hand to start with.  This week I have three packs of hamburger, two packs of chicken and some breakfast sausage for meat.  What do I mean by packs?  When I purchase meat, I usually buy a family pack which I break-up into smaller "packs" that I use for multiple meals.  Ground beef is usually packed in approximately 1 pound packages, and I have chicken thighs that I usually pack in pairs.  So that translates to 3 pounds of ground beef and six chicken thighs.  I know that I am going to need more meat than that for the week.  I may be interested in searching for something like a steak or pork steaks for the grill.  I don't have very much in my refrigerator right now, but I have two gallons of milk, a pound of butter, a pound of american cheese, and about a half a pound of shredded cheddar.  I also have some celery, baby carrots, and potatoes; all of which will need to be used up so that nothing goes to waste.  In my pantry, I have some spaghetti sauce, rice, couscous, egg noodles, and cream of chicken soup.  I don't need to purchase any cereal or oatmeal this week so I am pretty much set for breakfast, aside from needing some eggs.
     Now that I know what is in my house, I am going to sit down and start my menu for next week.  I was going to make a chicken pot pie this week, and ended up making baked chicken instead, so I still have all of the ingredients for the pie.  I know that will be on my menu for next week.  I will make that on a day that I have extra time to prepare it, probably on Sunday.  Monday and Wednesday are soccer nights so I will need something really quick and easy.  Monday night is going to be goulash and Wednesday night is going to be chicken salad sandwiches, salad, and fruit.  Tuesday night is my dads birthday, so I will probably make the steak that night, he likes baked potatoes and if I can find it, corn on the cob.  Thursday night I would like to make a tator-tot casserole (my kids have never had that before) and Friday night we will be camping so I think it will be hot dogs and macaroni salad.  Saturday night we will have Italian sausage and a garden salad.      
     Next I think about breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  For breakfast I will have cereal, oatmeal, and eggs on hand.  Those items are very versatile, so I can make things like baked oatmeal, pancakes, omelets, and french toast.  For lunches, I always have peanut butter & jelly, grilled cheese, hot dogs, deli ham and whatever leftovers that I have in the fridge from the previous nights dinner.   Thankfully I still have tons of snacks left from our vacation so I have not needed to purchase anything for snacks since June.  

So there it is, my meal plan for the week.  What is on your menu this week?