Meal Planning

Meal Planning

Prepping and Planning
¨ A deep freezer is a HUGE investment that will end up saving you so much time and money in the short and long run- start pricing them now!
¨ Plan ahead. We are all busy but if you spend even a half hour planning for the whole week, or even two weeks at a time ( as one of our members does), you will feel so much better, be in better control, feed your family healthier, spend less, and have a happy family.
¨ Write down your menu for the week and POST on the fridge so everyone knows what is being served
¨ When planning, look at the advertisements for that week’s grocery store and base your menu on what you already have in your kitchen and what’s on sale.
¨ Cross program your meal planning. Think of each dinner as two meals- either lunch the next day or dinner later in the week. Chicken and veggies one night turns into Chicken Quesadillas. Pork Chop one night turns into Stir-fry. Tacos one night, taco salad the next lunch or make meatballs or a meat sauce with extra ground beef or turkey.
¨ Buy your meat in bulk when the price is right.
¨ Buy 4 pounds of ground beef or turkey. When you get home, separate into four, season (taco, Italian, etc), cook, put into four zip lock bags, label, and freeze. When you need something, simply defrost and use.
¨ Cook up entire bags of frozen chicken (try marinating in Italian dressing). Leave fresh in your fridge for the whole week for lunches or to put on salads or add to things or freeze a few at a time in zip locks. Pull out a bag of cooked chicken, defrost, and use for anything.
¨ Buy a big pork loin and have your butcher cut it into smaller chops or roasts, etc.
¨ www.Menus4moms.com
¨ Make spaghetti sauce in bulk at once, freeze- use all season
¨ Encourage your kids to try one bite of everything-just one bite!
¨ Grocery shopping without the kids is a dream come true but if your kids are with you, use them. Older kids can price check or go on a “hunt” for items (“Find County Market Ketchup in aisle 2, on sale for 79cents”). Tell them why you are buying what you do and make it a learning experience.
¨ Buy a 3 ring binder and protective plastic sheet covers. Each time you find a recipe you like in a magazine or get a recipe from a friend, tear just the one page out or put the paper in the binder, not a recipe box. Also great if you are printing recipes from the internet. The pictures are great, you have everything in one place, it’s cleaner, and easier to look at and refer back to.
¨ Buy a side of beef or a pig from a meat producer and freeze! Saves tons of money. Share a cow or a side of cow with a friend! J
¨ Kraft.com has tons of ideas for meals, snacks, etc. and has a menu generator when you type in a few staples you have in your fridge and they help you make it a meal.
¨ Have your kids help you with washing and prepping earlier in the day so it’s easier to do it later in the afternoon
¨ Use your Crockpot
¨ When making a freezer friendly meal, make two. Eat one now and freeze one for another week.
¨ Find a few friends to do supper swap with. Find a day once a month to make a few of the same meal. Deliver to your best friends. Have them do the same. You might be able to get a few free meals each month with no cooking!!!!
¨ If your dinners usually only last you one meal and you don’t have leftovers, make a casserole or some sort of larger meal on Sunday that can just be in the fridge and available to eat on for lunches all week long.

Menu Ideas and Recipes
¨ Cereal Chicken. Take your defrosted chicken breasts, dip in melted butter, then into cereals you have crushed and mixed with a few tablespoons of flour and salt and pepper. Captain Crunch, Corn Flakes, and Rice Crispy’s are big favorites. Bake at 350 till chicken is cooked through. Be sure to have kids crunch the cereal for you in zip locks.
¨ Leftovers
¨ Have once a week on the menu to avoid wasting food ( planovers as Janet Lamb calls it)
¨ Get creative…if you don’t want to just put out the regular leftovers, make a snack meal with it. Get out all the little portions you have of foods from the week, mix with some fresh fruit and veggies with dip and some cheese and stick toothpicks in everything. Cut the meat up into little pieces and tell everyone to use their toothpicks instead of forks.
¨ Buy a Boboli pizza crust, put down your sauce, add your leftovers from the week, cover with cheese and voila- LEFTOVER PIZZA!
¨ Put all the leftovers in a casserole dish with a can of cream of mush soup, a bag of veggies, and cheese- LEFTOVER Casserole!
¨ Buy a Rotisserie Chicken to feed your family instead of takeout or drive-thru. Use that same rotisserie to feed your family over and over. You can use every last part of the chicken. Piece it out and add to soups, make pulled chicken, chicken salad, etc.
¨ Don’t just think if casseroles as chicken- use fish (you can buy a box of 40 Tilapia at Sams for $13), ground turkey, pork, and more.
¨ Quick Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

INGREDIENTS
· 1 (7 ounce) package elbow macaroni
· 1/4 cup butter or margarine
· 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 pinch pepper
· 2 cups milk
· 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
DIRECTIONS
Cook macaroni according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour, salt and pepper; cook until bubbly. Gradually add milk; cook and stir until thickened. Stir in cheese until melted. Drain macaroni; add to cheese sauce and stir to coat.

¨ Here is the recipe for the "Cream of _________ Soup" Substitute to be used in place of cream of mushroom, chicken or celery soups in recipes.
This can be varied by adding sautéed celery, onions, or little bits of leftover chicken. You can also omit the mushrooms altogether if the main purpose of the soup is to thicken it and not really flavor it.

Ingredients:
· 1 tbsp. butter
· 3 tbsp. flour
· 1/2 cup any broth
· 1/2 cup milk
· mushrooms, chopped and sautéed (how ever much you desire)
· salt and pepper to taste
Directions

Melt butter in a saucepan over Med-Low heat.
Stir in flour a little at a time until smooth, and then remove from heat.
Add broth and milk a little at a time, stirring to keep mixture smooth. Then, stir in mushrooms.
Return to heat and bring sauce to a gentle boil; stir constantly until sauce thickens.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

¨ Cheesy Crockpot Chicken

1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup or 1 recipe of Cream of ______ Soup Substitute
A splash of milk
4-6 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
A couple of handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese

Put the soup, milk and chicken in the Crockpot. Cook for a few hours. About an hour before serving add the cheese and continue to cook until the cheese has melted and the sauce has come together. Serve over mashed potatoes, noodles, or rice

¨ Side dish, lentils, bouillon, and veggies mixed together
¨ Belly Button Soup (made with cheese tortellini and could be adapted lots of different ways). Brown garlic, add can of diced tomatoes and juice with fresh or frozen spinach, 2 cans of chicken broth and frozen cheese tortellini.
¨ Tablespoon of Mayo, and Brown mustard on chicken and then dipped in chopped walnuts or pecans.
¨ Breakfast for dinner….old favorites like eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast, pancakes, waffles. Get creative with quiche, muffins, casseroles, parfaits, breakfast sandwiches, etc
¨ If your family has favorites that they could eat week after week, DO IT! Call it Taco Tuesday or Salad Sunday or Mac and Cheese Monday. Don’t do that for everyday of the week but knowing week to week that you will have one less meal to think of is great!
¨ Build your own baked potato. Provide the potato and then let your family add the rest on a lazy Susan or on a buffet line in the kitchen. Don’t just think butter and sour cream. Diced ham, veggies, cheese, beans, tomatoes, olives, etc.
¨ Personal pizzas.
¨ Pulled chicken or pork from frozen ziplocks. Add bbq sauce or make into chicken, pork salad.
Lunch Box Additions
¨ Snack packs- tuna or chicken salad on crackers- make your own
¨ Homemade lunchables…use a cookie cutter and small plastic containers found in the baby aisle to pack crackers, cheese, meat, and anything else into a sandwich without the bread.
¨ Put sandwich meat in a sack without the bread
¨ Make trail mix together…dried fruit, raisins, nuts, small crackers, even chocolate chips or mini m&m’s.
¨ Make a sandwich and use a shaped cookie cutter to make it extra special
¨ Use dinner rolls or sweet Hawaiian bread instead of regular bread for mini sandwiches
¨ Don’t always think sandwich- yogurt, fruit, some trail mix and a drink can be a great lunch.
¨ Keep your kids hydrated! Mini water bottles they can use over and over, low sugar juice boxes such as Apple and Eve or Honest Kids
¨ Use leftover holiday, b-day or theme napkins to put in your kids lunchboxes
¨ Write a note on the napkin
¨ Surprise the kid every once in awhile with a special dessert, piece of candy or note of promise to get DQ after school.
¨ Make your own fortune cookies with special notes just to your child for their lunchbox. Simply Google “homemade fortune cookies”
¨ Fruit, Meat, Veggie or Cheese Kabobs
¨ Pitas with regular sandwich makings in or fruit, yogurt, etc
¨ Leftovers- buy a 5 hour small thermos made just for those things and share with your child the importance of not letting food go bad!
¨
Family Traditions/Meal Time Fun
¨ Theme dinners
¨ Colors (all foods have to be the same color. Use colored napkins or ask family members to dress in the color too). Great when you are trying to get your kids to eat green veggies or orange carrots or yellow squash
¨ Holidays- green food for St. Patrick’s Day, Heart shaped pancakes on V-Day, etc.
¨ Indoor Picnic- just move your meal to the floor for a special treat
¨ On the family member’s b-day, they get to pick whatever they want to have made for them. No matter what it is. The rest of the family can chip in and help make it.
¨ Buy one set of plates that is only used when someone in the family has something to celebrate (you may need to buy one for each child for some occasions as they may apply to more than one member of your family). One TMG member just bought one plate, bowl, and glass in red plastic from the dollar store. Use for events such as birthdays, first day and last day of school, potty training, lost tooth, etc.
¨ Pray together. Not just a standard Grace but let the kids pray for whatever they want before dinner
¨ Top Three’s! Each person at the table share their top three moments of the day
¨ High and Low- share your low moment of the day and your high moment of the day
¨ What made you happy today?
¨ Use seasonal plates and napkins every once in awhile instead of regular plates
¨ Game: Guess what I’m thinking? Ask questions like Is it an animal? Is it God made or man made? Is it living or nonliving? Etc/ Teaching so many wonderful skills!
¨ Add onto a story. Once person starts the story and you go around the table adding onto it.
¨ Dinner Box. Type up lots of different conversation topics to discuss at the tables, things to do or activities to do after dinner and place in a box. Each night or when time allows, draw one slip and read aloud!