Meal planning and following a specific menu has aways been a challenge, what if I do not feel like chicken that night? Or, what if we get home super late because of traffic and the planned dinner takes 2 hours to make. I like to have alternatives available. So, I switched to a more general meal planning method.

Each week I write down the recipes I would like to make, or the food that I have that needs to get used. It is often a combination of the two. I like to have my meal plan start on a Monday as that is the start of the new week in our house, the weekend is over and it is back to work and school (or usually anyways).

I love to come up with ideas for breakfast, lunch and supper so that when I do the grocery order or shopping I have ingredients and items for every meal. I hate having a panic in the morning, when I realize we have no plan for breakfast and every one is staving.

Breakfast

• Oatmeal
• Cereal
• Toast – Homemade sourdough bread
• Pancakes
• Granola and Yogurt

Lunch

• Homemade “lunchables”
• Soup – Taco
• Salad
• Sandwiches
• Left Overs

Supper

• Cross-rib roast with potatoes
• Tacos
• Pizza Night (Friday night)
• Pork chops and Salad
• Sloppy Joes
• Beef Skewers
• Soup

For taco night we will use the tortillas from The Prairie Homestead. I made them for the first time a couple of months ago and the family has vetoed buying them ever again. I use lard to make them and I find it works so well and is amazingly easy to make. I always make a triple batch hoping for left overs to freeze. We sometimes get leftovers for lunch the next day, but I would need to make a lot more to have any stored in the freezer.

I think for the homemade lunchables this week we are going to attempt a new cracker recipe as I would really like to find a good paleo cracker to add to this.

Over all I use my meal plan as a guide, if for some reason I have pulled out the ground beef and we can’t get everything together to have taco’s we might have hamburgers instead using the ground beef that we have thawed. The plan gives me a guide line to follow and allows me to get the groceries that I need for the week as well as a reminder to get things out of the freezer.

There are so many different types of meal plans, what type of meal planner are you? Do you fly by the seat of your pants? Do you write down a very specific plan? So you have a guide that you follow? I would love to hear what you do!