Lunch Choices

  • PB and Jelly or PB and banana sandwich
  • Tuna sandwich, carrots
  • Egg Salad sandwich
  • Tuna cakes, veggies
  • Leftovers
  • Bean burritos
  • PB on toast, milk
  • Bev's Healthier Nachos
  • Soup, crackers
  • Baked potato, toppings

Breakfast Choices

  • Homemade WW pancakes, syrup, eggs, berries
  • Homemade WW bagels, cream cheese, tomato
  • Scrambled eggs, veggies, toast
  • Scone, homemade jam, cheese or egg
  • Oatmeal or Oat Bran, almonds or flaxseed, berries
  • Shakes
  • French Toast, syrup, berries

Meal Planning 101; Step #5

You have prayed, with a stocked pantry, have all your inventories and you have created a calendar for your month of meals.  Now you will:

Make lists of meals

Take some paper and label with each meal of the day.  I use one side of the paper per each meal of the day: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks and Desserts.  Now that you have it labeled you will start with Breakfast.  It is here you will make a list of the choices you will have for Breakfast.  Continue on with each meal, listing choices for each.

I scour recipes online, in books and use ideas I have up in my noggin for things that would be "frugal" to make.  In the next few posts, I will be listing my meal choices for each section, so you can get a better idea of what we eat and have to choose from each day.

Meal Planning 101; Step #4

You prayed, have a stocked pantry and also did your pantry/fridge/freezer inventories and you know what you have in your house!  It's on paper!  So the next step is to start the actual meal planning.  You will:

Make a calendar for your meals

You can print out monthly calendars online for free but why waste printer ink when doing it with an ink pen is much cheaper! :)  I take paper and simply do a calendar that contains the 2nd Tuesday of the month till the next 2nd Tuesday of the month.  Usually it is about 30 days or around there. 

This will give you a layout (which you will in later steps put meals) and it will also help you know how many meals you need for the month.

This step is just making the calendar.......I told you all I was taking this very slow so everyone understands how I do this.

Meal Planning 101; Step #3

You've prayed, you have a pantry with basics stocked and now its time for Step #3:

Make Inventories

I make inventories of my pantry, freezer and refrigerator EVERY time I start my monthly meal planning.  This gives you a hard copy of what you have in your kitchen so you don't have to run to the cupboard or the freezer searching for an item.  It will also help you realize things that you need to use up within a week or within the month.  Which is the reason why I also make a separate list for things that "need to be used up" and keep it in my meal planning section of my homemaker's journal.

You can do what I do and just use a blank piece of notebook paper to write down your inventories.